I am going to add my voice to the chorus here, but from somebody who paints a lot of 70-75% quality minis (the “Arm’s Length” standard… it looks good from about a meter away but if you get closer you will notice it lacks detail) and who works in a game store and therefore has access to a lot of varied products:
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I almost always recommend starting with GW/Citadel paints, especially their primers. They are the most expensive paint available, but they are also the most beginner friendly. Vallejo makes a superior line of colours, but each bottle will be slightly different in consistency: some too thick, some too thin. When you’re used to it, it’s easy as pie to correct for (which I do), but as a starter it can be super frustrating. One bottle of Citadel “base” colour will be exactly the same consistency as any other Citadel “base” colour.
1.a) Citadel divides their paints into “lines” of similar product. As a starter, the only 3 you are concerned with are the “Base” line, the “Layer” line, and the “Shade” (and honestly, if you are really tight on cash, the only ones that I would say are irreplaceable are the Shades. Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade are often referred to as talent-in-a-bottle, and it’s not unjustified. Save on the paints if you need, but buy the best shade paint you can… and that’s Citadel) -
Black primer. When you get better you can start messing with white and coloured primers, but 99% of your early work should be black (unless you are specifically doing Yellow as a primary colour for your mini… my recommendation there is don’t until you are very experienced. Yellow is the worst. We will return to this). The thing with the human eye is that it is designed to notice mistakes. Things that look wrong. With black primer if you can’t reach an area with your brush (or if you notice it too late and risk ruining other work) it just looks like shadow. If you use White primer, your eye will pick out specifically the areas you missed and ignore all the good you did on the model. Super annoying, but true. The colours (including Gray primer) are harder to work with because Red Paint + Black Primer = dark red area, and Red Paint + White Primer = light red area, but Red Paint + Blue Primer =… ?? It might be purple, it might be brown, it might be red… it’s really hard to know, and as a result you have to use way more paint to get the colour you want, and then it still might not look right (a red plate of armour might have a darker blue shadow which might look good or might look awful). As mentioned above, Citadel makes hands-down the most fool-proof primers (there is always a better fool. No tool is perfect. But Citadel Primer, while often 2x as expensive as Army Painter or Vallejo primers are easier to use, give consistent results, and do their job exceptionally well).
2.a) Do not, under any circumstance, use off-brand or “cheap” primers until you are experienced. Using a $3 can from Canadian Tire seems like great savings until you are painting a mini and all the primer slides off. Or you obliterate the model’s details. You can absolutely use cheap primer eventually when you know what you’re doing and are very careful, but it’s not the way to start.
2.b) Contrast paints are great, but they “need” (are easier to use with) Contrast Primers, specifically Seer Grey and Wraithbone White. Since those aren’t black, I don’t recommend starting with them, and contrast paints do really weird stuff over black primer. A humble suggestion is to leave them aside until you feel ready to start experimenting. -
Okay, this is getting a tiny bit into theory, but I think it’s important. Pick 2-3 colours per model and a skin-tone. That’s it. Think about any superhero you want: Ironman is Red-Yellow-Gold. Batman is Black-Grey-Yellow. Superman is Red-Blue-Yellow. Green Arrow is Green-DarkGreen-Black. Almost every memorable character is one or two colours at most. If you want to be super fancy you can also throw in a metallic colour as part of your model (if you’re painting a legion of platemail, sure), but that’s about it. Less is more. And if you are painting units or armies, you want at least one of those colours to be common across the models (so an army of Space Marines will all use Ultramarine Blue somewhere on the model, even if the rest of the colours are different).
3.a) One slightly tricky thing here once you have picked your 2-or-3 colour scheme is picking the correct wash. The short answer is “Always Use Agrax Earthshade,” and it’s good advice if you are okay with a slightly dirty, grungy look to your models (and many people are. No judgment). However, Nuln Oil works better with greys, purples, and silvers, and Agrax Earthshade works better with everything else like reds, browns, greens, golds, skintones, oranges… it’s not a big deal, don’t stress it, and you can always just use both, with the Nuln going on the silver areas and everything else being Agrax, for example). -
Cool. You have your black primer, you have your 5-7 paints (your 3 colour scheme plus a metallic plus skin paint, as necessary, but then also pick up a white and a black). You need a brush. Here again Citadel and their stupid consistency rears its expensive head: Citadel brushes are almost always a perfectly mediocre brush for a more-than-mediocre price, but they are always the same. And as a beginner, that’s important because you are going to destroy some of your brushes. And that’s fine! It happens to all of us. Don’t throw the brushes you wreck away: they’re great for applying texture paints (we’ll get to those) or drybrushing (again, coming soon). But don’t go out and get a super-expensive Winsor and Newton Series 7 Size 2 until you are absolutely positive you won’t wreck it. They cost anywhere from $40-90CAD, and they are ruined if you aren’t super careful.
4.a) When picking brushes, try to stay one size bigger than you think you need, and pick brushes not because they are tiny but because they have a good point. I use a size 2/Medium/Regiment brush for absolutely everything. Eyes, highlights, individual rivets… because that little point will let you get where you need to go. But small, tiny, Size 0000 or whatever will hold paint for at most a few seconds before it dries, and when it dries you are going to try and paint something and it will glob off. Eventually you can use flow improver or thinners to keep that paint wet longer on a small brush, but for now? Skip the tiny ones. -
Right, time to paint! Get the model(s) you are going to paint ready by putting them on a box lid or using blue-tack to stick them on an old hockey stick. Go outside when it’s not super humid or freezing cold (or use a very well ventilated garage with nothing you care about inside it) and start priming. Start just to the left of the model(s), press the nozzle, and then sweep over the model(s) from left to right. If you point the primer directly at the model you can sometimes get big globs of paint that were stuck on/in the nozzle hit the model: frustrating. Avoid the problem by starting away from the models and ending away from the models. Rotate 90 degrees, sweep again. Rotate 90, etc… until the model has a thin but uniform coating. I also blast them once quickly from above and then, after about an hour I will lie them down and hit them from the bottom, but if you use a stick or handle or small box that’s not necessary. Whenever possible rotate the models, not the direction of the can. It’ll make your life a bit easier.
5.a) There is a lot of talk about “zenithal highlights” or “slapchop” or “speed painting” out there. They’re all well and good eventually. For now, stick with the basics. -
You’ve primed your model. Apply paint! Thin coats. The usual advice is your paint should “have the consistency of light cream or milk.” I usually use a 4-to-1 mix of paint-to-water. Dip brush in paint, dip brush on palette. Shit, I forgot to mention palettes…
6.a) Right! Wet palettes are great but can be a little tricky to use (they water your paints on their own, so you have to get used to them). I use a dollar store plastic palette with little divets for the colours but it needs to be cleaned periodically. I have a buddy who uses a bathroom tile he had leftover from a reno. You can absolutely use the plastic blisters many models come in. You just want something not porous at all. The paint will usually stay wet enough to use on a palette for 20-30 minutes, depending on how much you thin your paints and how close/hot your lights are. Shit, I forgot to talk about light…
6.b) Don’t worry about lighting too much if you’re just starting. But you want to paint somewhere with lots of natural light or good, bright indoor lights. Eventually consider getting an Ottlamp or whatever that has brightness settings and a swing arm. -
Right! Now we can paint. Each section of the model gets one colour. Thin your paints, go slowly. You will probably have to do 2 coats: it’s way more important to take your time than it is to get the colour uniform the first time. Lighter colours (whites, grays, light blues) may need 4-5 coats. Don’t sweat it. I like doing 4-5 guys at the same time, and then doing the same colour on each of them. When I finish with the last one, the first one is dry enough that I can move on to the next colour.
7.a) Remember how I said early not to use yellow? Yellow for several centuries was achieved by using lead. It’s poisonous, and therefore they no longer use lead… but as a result almost all yellows go on like water. They are extremely tricky to make look good. I suggest avoiding them outright (I mean, I still do avoid them unless abso-freakin’-lutely necessary), but if you must use a yellow, Citadel “Averland Sunset” is the best yellow I’ve ever worked with… but it’s got orange notes.
7.b) Don’t have the same colour on two areas that touch. Like, a brown for a leather tunic is fine and good unless you are going to use the same brown for the boots: I would then use my red or purple or whatever for the tunic and keep the boots brown. It sounds harder than it is: whenever two different materials touch, use a different colour. So you can do all the plate in silver and the feathers and belt and tabbard in blue, just as an example. -
Once you have applied all the colours to your model, go do something for 30-45 minutes (ideally 1-2 hours). Then come back and coat the entire model, head to toe, with your wash. A single thin, uniform coat. If the wash seems to be really pooling somewhere (like, in the fold of a skirt or between armoured plates) just dry your brush on a paper towel and then use it to soak up some of the excess, but honestly, don’t worry about it.
8.a) Totally optional, but after you’ve done your thin single coat of the Shade, you can then use a little of each of your original colour to “highlight” the most raised areas. You can also mix in a tiny amount of white if you want. Totally unnecessary, but it can make the models… ugh, I hate this phrase… sigh… it can make the models “pop” and make them look very good. -
Optional drybrushing: If your models are primarily one colour (Space Marines, par example), you can do a totally optional drybrushing step. First, paint the major colour (blue, let’s say) using all the above advice: thin coats, taking your time. Once that colour is dry and before doing any other colours, add a little white to the colour you are working with at about a 1-to-3 ratio (using “brushfuls” as an approximate measure). Mix well. Then, take a brush you have ruined or don’t mind ruining (or a cheap makeup brush, whatever) and put a little paint on the brush. Drag that across a dry paper towel until almost all the colour stops coming off: you want a hint of the initial paint on the brush. Then quickly brush that across your model, from the top down. It should leave a little lighter colour on all the edges and raised areas. Works really well for things with lots of edges and surfaces (fur, chainmail, cloaks) and usually badly on large, smooth surfaces (tanks, shields without designs on them, etc…). Then do the rest of your colours, painting over the areas that were “accidentally” drybrushed around the areas you wanted drybrushed. Continue with remaining steps.
9.a) You can also “seal” or protect your models. If you are going to touch them a lot, yes, do this. Citadel “Purity Seal” or whatever it’s called now in a rattle can is good. Put your models back on that box you used to prime them, and use exactly the same steps as when you primed them to put on a thin coat of sealer/varnish/whatever it is. Thin. And do not do this step if it is humid out. The result will be foggy looking models, which you can fix but is a pain in the butt and doesn’t always work. -
Boom! Revel in your mastery over painting! Honestly, those steps there have done years of work for me. Your models will look good! They will look great on the table. There’s a billion things you can do to step up your game eventually, but honestly, after learning several hundreds “tricks and tips,” I almost always go back to the basics for 95% of my models. Sure, to paint Sabine I spent 3 weeks and did all sorts of mix-paint-freehand-OSL-bull$#!t, but that was one model. I wouldn’t do that for a unit, much less an army.
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Shit, forgot basing. As a start, just paint the base black (super easy, looks good), but you can also pick up either Vallejo or Citadel textured paint. Vallejo stuff is miles cheaper, and is actually as good-or-better than Citadel, but you have to buy it in huge pots. Citadel, while 5x more expensive, are also in smaller pots which means you can get a broad selection of them. Apply them to the base with a bad/ruined brush (I use dental tools, but I’m nuts and you don’t have to do that), and then after they dry paint the ring around the base black. If you are painting a lot of similar units for the same army (say, 50 Clone Troopers… hypothetically) you can paint the rings for each unit the same colour (or just put a thick line on the front and back in a colour and do the rest black). Optional, but nice if you have time.