Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Greetings fellow mini-gamers.

I've played 40k for about 5 years now, on and off, and finally it dawned upon me: I should RLY paint my models... As someone who has absolutely no experience in the area, I was wondering if any of the veteran painters around here could give me some basic tips on how to start.

Looking at painting, the entire process looks daunting. I mean not only the technical part but the financial part also. Citadel paints seems to cost quite a bit and most of my 40k funding are going towards models already.

I suppose I want to boil it all down to these simple questions:
Where to get paint? What kind?
Brushes?
Any simple videos or instructions on first-time painting that you would recommend?
Anything I should know about before I turn my grey models into rainbow ponies (albeit unintentionally)?



I run Grey Knights and am only interested in painting Grey Knights models for now, if that's relevant.



THANK YOU VERY MUCH

Painting does not have to be expensive or daunting.

A really easy way to get your GK table top ready would be to grab some silver primer and a black wash. A red, brown, gold, and khaki and you would be good to go. All under $30 including a few brushes from Hobby Lobby.

May I ask you what "wash" means?

I use Vallejo "Black Wash" it basically darkens the model and pools in the crevices giving it more depth and shadow.

If you look at the GK in my gallery you can see what I'm talking about.

oh... so Wash is a type of paint.

Kinda, its more like an ink or shade, its extremely translucent and darkens the paint underneath.

I like the citadel paints for the miniatures. They are more expensive but work better than the cheaper acrylics for your trim work. For a primer just pick up some testors grey primer of testors flat black spray paint. I have a real good luck with that. Then depending on your color scheme you can find a tetsors paint for your base then pick up on to three colors of the citadel paint for your trim work. plus a wash like they said above. You might also want to get some flat matte spray or dullcote to help seal in the colors and protect the model. You can pick up some good brushes for fairly cheap at a craft store (I use Michaels here in the states) you can pick up a four pack of different sizes four about 4 or 5 bucks. You tube has some good videos on painting and basing cheap. Also for really small areas like eyeslits and harnesess I use toothpicks dipped in the paint and then draw it like a pencil. If you have any question send me a message and I will try and answer as soon as I can.

Zaki,

Where do you live and what is your budget? The absolute bare minimum you'll need in the US is about $20. You can push it down to maybe $15 if you are a patient shopper and have access to the major chain art-supply stores or even a Wal-Mart if it has a decent craft section (most "super" Wal-Marts do).

I would advise against buying $3 or $4 paints (GW, Vallejo, etc.) unless you have a minimum of $30 or $40 to spend. The big advantage of "hobby" paints is that you can color by number, which can be a big help when starting out. And dropper bottles rule all. That's it, all other advantages are at best barely noticeable and at worst are marketing and hype.

It would also help if you could find a "model" GK that you want to try to copy. It is a good idea to figure out a starting palette to match the color scheme you like, rather than just buying a few paints and then getting "stuck" without a shade you actually need. You could just buy black, white, red, yellow, and blue and mix everything you need but that assumes a level of patience and a knowledge of color theory that few people have ;->

Citadel paints are great paints, but yes theyre definatly expensive and come in tiny portions.

That said, you don't actually need a huge amount of paint for painting mini's, what GW do is to give a decent quality product in a less wasteful portion for a premium pricing. Compared to some of the other options.

Their brushes, aren't great, could be worse, but are by far not the best. I strongly suggest looking for an artist supply shop, or website, Your flag is USA? (mine is wrong so gota ask) I believe www.dickblick.com is a popular store over there. Look for water colour, kollinsky sable brushes, in sizes 2/0 upto 1 or 2. Notable brands include Windsor & Newton, Raphael, Rosemary and Co, and a few others. Any Kolinsky Sable brush should perform reasonably well, and with propper care last ages. Propper care of a natrual hair brush involves brush soap, also available at these art supply stores. I reccomend going for a couple of quality brushes instead of cheap ones as they genuinly last tens of times longer. I'd look for mid priced kollinksy sables (Windsor and Newton and Raphael seem to be the top price point, dickblick do their own brand at a lower price point)

As for paints, GW is a fine choice, although can be pricey. You dont need all of those colours though, if you be selective it can be affordable. Alternative paint brands include vallejo, p3, reaper, coat d'arms, army painter, and craft acrylics (loads of brands of these, usualy found in art stores or hobby shops, often come in 60ml bottles with flip caps)

I would also reccomend getting a bottle of Acrylic Matt medium, Acrlyic Flow Improver, And Fluid retarder from the art supply store too.
These arent essential, but are compatible with all acrylics, and are dead useful for making transparent colours, lowering the sheen, thinning paints down to be more model friendly and the likes. Liquitex are my favorite brand of medums. The cheap craft acrylic paints tend to be a bit thick and a bit glossy for our tastes, the medium and flow improver products quickly remedy this and turn some noticably cheap paint into great paint for your mini's.

Vallejo seems a safe bet, with a slightly lower price than GW, and a bit more paint in the bottle.
I don't see the volume as a massive deal as even with the Citadel's portions you'l probably only need to replace your main colours and washes more than once a year. For my, its the main colour of my space marines, the wash that I use with it, and black wash that run out the most often, other colours I've had 1 pot for years and still not used it all.

I've never painted Grey Knights so may not be the best guy to advise on a selection of colours (palette) for them, But I imagine it wont take more than a handful of carefully chosen colours to get a good result.

Colour primers form Army Painter could save you tonnes of work in laying down a base colour. And are kinda worth the expensive price tag on the can if using an odd colour.
Grey, White and Black primers can be gotten cheaply elsewhere, I beleive lots of USA gamers reccomend wallmart for Krylon cans at a cheap price.

Check lots of youtube videos and guides on how to paint, especially for your models, but any models will have helpful tidbits. Theres a bunch of good ones on youtube from a lot of different people. I'm sure dakka dakka can suggest some of their fav's if you struggle to find some.

Since you are new around here, I'll save you from my usual rant about using Google. Check out these sites for starter tips:

http://handcannononline.com/blog/2011/03/04/tutorial-getting-started-in-miniature-painting/

http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/32 (This is from Reaper's site so naturally they recommend using Reaper Master Series paints, which are quite nice)

http://blog.brushthralls.com/?page_id=1760

These are some good YouTube channels to watch as well:

http://www.youtube.com/user/awesomepaintjob (New stuff is all airbrushing, but most of Les' earlier stuff was done with brushes)

http://www.youtube.com/user/ThePaintingClinic (He recently did a short series on the basics of miniature painting; definitely worth a watch.)

http://www.youtube.com/user/GirlPainting (Again, she uses airbrushes nowadays but all of her early stuff was done by hand)

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrWatchingpaintdry (His videos are good examples of the basics of painting; he purposely does them that way.)

answering everyone's question: Yes, I do live in America.


Thank you everyone for great tips. It will take some time before I can review them all and try them but this is great amount of material to start off with. Once again, my thanks.

Cool,
In which case I'm sure the standard advice is going to be to get to wallmart and get a can of krylon primer, Either that or a can of army painter coloured primer, (Does any anyone know i the metallic sprays from army painter are any good?)

For Grey Knights, the really really nice ones are done in a difficult to do non-metalic-metal grey, Being as your a beginner who doesnt have a huige interest in advanced painting techniques at this stage, I might advise you to go with metallic silver Grey Knights. A spray might be helpful, I know army painter do 'Plate Mail Metal' spray, and plan to release a 'gun metal' one later this year (which is a darker shade). Other than those, there is likely a Krylon metallic silver spray in Wallmart where the primers are? (Don't see much Krylon brand stuff over here so another American might be able to suggest one that you can get)
If you use army painter spray, it might be worth getting the matching bottle of brush on paint to go with it. And looking for a brighter, lighter silver paint to do highlights with.

After sorting out the silver, you'l want some black wash, Citadel 'Shades' are pretty good washes, army painter do 'quick shade', vallejo make washes, all of these should do approximately the same thing with subtle differences.
(Note that 'glaze' and 'ink' is not a 'wash' and behave differently)

They have red gun casings, and lots of gold details, and teal blue eyes and power weapons.

a suitable pallete might be;
Black (GW;abaddon black, Vallejo Game Colour Black,army painter warpaint matt black or some other black acrylic)
White (GW; ceramite white, vallejo game colour skull white, army painter warpaint matt white ...etc)
dark Silver (GW; leadbelcher, Vallejo game colour gun metal, army painter warpaint gun metal... etc)
Light silver (GW; ironbrekaer, vallejo game colour silver, armypainter warpaint platemail metal.... etc)
Black wash (gw; nuln oil, vallejo washes black, army painter dark tone ink....etc)
Red (gw; mephistion red, vallejo game colour bloody red, army painter pure red...etc)
Gold (GW balthasar gold, vallejo game colour polished gold, army painter greedy gold...etc)
Teal (gw; sotek green, vallejo game colour falcon turquoise, army painter dont do teal, would need to mix blue + green a bit....etc)

These colour ideas maybe don't match up on the charts... I'm just guessing a rough palette that should do the grey knight scheme reasonably.
You could find any paints that approximately match these colours and pull it off