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So, I like the game 40k, and I'm finally getting into it with my very own miniatures (I always borrowed other's before), Via black reach ebay castoffs.
Ok, so, my problem is, I have no paint, no paint brushes, no painting experience, and little to no artistic talent.
For someone who wants his minis to look passable, but knows that a higher degree of artistry is a little out of reach just yet, how would you advise me to proceed?
are the little 5 dollar paint thingies that GW advises a good start? are there cheaper but not too gakky, starter options? (not cheaper than 5 dollars, just cheaper than the general sets they have on the GW site)
Thanks all!

Starter options: Pick up a can of Krylon Sandable White Primer. This stuff is the hobbyists' go-to for primer.

Army painter has a really good starter kit that normally retails at 27.50 but you can get it on Amazon for about 22.00. It includes ten dropper bottle paints and a brush. Army painter paints are also 100% matched to their spray primers. The spray primers run about 15.00 a can and are worth every penny. It's the only way I would go if I were doing anything red, yellow or white.

Get an xacto knife. Shell out the extra to get a genuine xacto, not a cheap knock off. The cheap ones usually have a plastic bit that holds the blades that breaks with very little pressure. xactos are all metal.

Thanks! your awesome!

I would say that you should track down a local hobby store and get some advice from them, GW makes some decent paints that are good to get started with but they will cost you a pretty penny. Another brand of paint is Testers - they produce paint for model builders, it takes a little tinkering to get used to it and it is oil based so you won't be able to use water to clean up, however the finish it leaves is really nice and you can get some cool effects, especially at small scales. I personally use brushes from an art store, they tend to work better then GW's versions, you will need a small and very small for most work, vehicles will need a medium sized one unless you hate your eyes and have a lot of time.

Most hardware stores have craft knife sets that have three knife handles and around a dozen blades with everything from chisels to precision blades, a good one will cost you between $30 to $50 but will last as long as you get replacement blades. This is the #1 best tool you will ever have for modeling, and handle everything short of metal sheets and wire (even then I've powered through some very interesting stuff, like metal miniatures, don't do it, I've been at this for ten years and am very silly some days )

This one is from xacto but other brands make good ones too.

The easiest way to make passable looking models is to:

1. Prime them with a tinted primer (like Army Painter)
2. Paint a second color (for instance, green skin on Orks, or metal on bolters)
3. Quickly drybrush with a lighter shade of your primary color
4. Apply a wash to the entire model

The model will appear playable, and if you're somewhat neat with the second basecoat color, it will even look decent-ish. You can also cheat with decals, to spruce up your army.

If you want to spend a bit of time, cleaning up the models properly (removing flash, mold lines, cleaning up injection points where the sprue met the model, filling gaps) makes a big difference in model appearance. If not, try to remove at least the most obvious mold lines, and buy a very sharp pair of diagonal cutters to remove the models from the sprues as cleanly as possible.

Great advice above, and my only follow on would be stick with it! Pratice means improvements, and ask as many questions here or from other experienced players as you want!

Start small. Try to not get overwhelmed, work on a unit at a time. Don't expect award winning results right away and you will improve with each model finished.

Pretty much what everybody else has said. Also, video tutorials can be very helpful, just don't get too hung up on trying to copy other peoples style. Take what works for you and run with it, anything that doesn't dont bother with.

Don't apply your paint straight from the bottle, get an old plate or similar and use that as a pallette, adding a little water to the paint to thin it will give a much better finish.

Finally. Don't get disheartened if your results arent perfect straight away. Practice makes perfect and you will get better quicker than you think. The two minis below were painted about a year apart, hopefully they'll show the difference that practice makes

Get it assembled for you if you don't want to get messy...

Otherwise get sculpting, sniping, and drilling tools. Then get some bluetak and green stuff or other puddies.

Then go with what you feel like... you'll find your way...

If you want suggestion I suggest you get some enemies to play with when your bored (if your into that) like Tyranids or Necrons... then buy yourself an army of your "fav" reading the lore behind things will help you decide but its only when YOU find whats most interesting that you should start buying books and boxes...

Then I suggest getting a primary squad of your Fav and maybe a fiew heroes of the same race...

From there you buy some squads and some transport and soon enough you will learn about weapon combos...

Then you should drawn, sketch and write out a scheme and theme for your armie. Including weapon, vehicle and squad choices in your theme...

Then you buy the colors, shades and hues to paint and voila! your ready for some games.

Great advice above. Scrape off the mold lines, primer black, green skin, metal on the weapons. Add detail from there when you have time/patience.

Army Painter put up an interesting PDF showing how to paint an ork army in 48 hours. Obviously they also hope to sell you products, but I think it's a solid step by step tutorial. Lots of great before/after pictures too. Link:
http://admin.thearmypainter.com/files/downloads/Ork-Army-48h-article.pdf

Here's another great tutorial right here on DakkaDakka that uses Citadel paints:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/570108.page
I think many would consider that an "advanced" tutorial. Lots of detail, and fairly time consuming, but the end result looks great. Maybe one day my Orks will even look that good.

The single best thing you can do to improve your painting is to paint. Don't worry about making mistakes. Just paint.

Because you're wanting your minis to look passable (what I'd call "table ready"), here are a few things to consider:

Modeling Tools -
Opening Note: Because you're not looking to compete in Golden Demon or any other showcase, don't worry about pin vices or frisket or mitre boxes or needle files or anything like that. You want something that's going to be ready to play fairly quick so you're going to be de-spruing, maybe trimming some mold lines and that's about it. You can get more tools as you get further into the hobby but what I explain below are the bare-basics.

1. As Peredyne said, buy an all-metal hobby knife (doesn't have to be X-acto but if you want, you can). I stress all-metal because it'll last you much longer than plastic. You really only need #11 blades. I would consider all the other blade types for specialty purposes but not for what you want to accomplish. I woudl suggest NOT buying GWs knife because you'll have to buy a specific type of blade for refills. Get a knife that has a twist-hold action for your blades.

2. I made the mistake early on of just using my knife to de-sprue my figures. The knife would end up marring other parts of the figure as I cut pieces of the sprue or would cut my hands. Save yourself the trouble (and blood) and pick up some flush-cut nippers. Cheap is fine but you just want to make sure that they align well and that they're SHARP. You could try beauty supply places for cuticle nippers (Sephora used to have a really good pair but they don't cary the ones I have anymore), just make sure they're flush-cut as it'll save you time in trimming off the extra stumpy area where it was connected to the sprue.

Final Note: You might think about getting a fine-grit sandpaper if you're needing to smooth out mistakes and edges (600-800 grit), especially flat surfaces for Tau or Eldar tanks. Just a thought

Paints -
1. GW paints are good if you don't want to mix your own colors, don't want to spend a few seconds thinning with paint, or if you're going to be using GW paint instruction books for your chosen army (very prescriptive from my experience). You can also use other mini paints as well, but their pricing is going to be around the same cost and the colors won't be exactly what GW is putting out. My suggestion for just starting out, go by Michaels or your own local craft store and pick up some $2-$3 craft paints. They come in a WIDE VARIETY of colors and they're already pretty thinned out, almost ready for painting. You can buy tube artist paints, but I think for your level and just starting out, the lower price wins out over the amount of paint you'll need.

2. Base-coat color is important because paints are translucent (the colors underneath inlfuence the colors on top - especially true for reds, yellows and oranges). I've used GW spray paints before and didn't have a very good result, but you can try out a few and see what you like. Make sure your basecoat spray comes in a color that matches the majority of your models. For example, if you're playing blood angels, find a base coat in red! It'll save you A LOT of time!

3. If you're okay with mixing your own colors, you only need a few paints - red, yellow, blue, green, black, white, silver and MAYBE gold if your army calls for it. Some folks have difficulty mixing orange and purple, so you can pick those up as well if you want.

A special note on brown: Brown can be hard to mix. I would suggest picking up a range of browns so you have some options and then mix other colors into them to pull out the color you want - (these are traditional names to the colors. If you're going with GW or other mini paints, you'll need to match the colors) Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Burnt Umber

Brushes/Paint Supplies
1. Don't start off buying expensive brushes. Because you're just starting, there are habits that experienced painters have developed over time to keep brushes clean and in good working condition. Unfortunately, I've lost too many brushes to dried paint and poor painting skill to recommend expensive brushes. I would suggest, again, go to Michaels or your own local craft store and pick up a multi-pack of brushes in differing sizes.

2. As far as shapes go, you'll want a medium round, a small round or detail, the smallest detail you can find, a medium flat, a small flat and that's about it. If you're working in acrylics, it won't matter much for you if you're using natural hair or synthetic (the white ones) but if you're going to use oil-based paints, use the natural hair brushes.

3. For a water cup, a coffee mug will do. GW's water cup has the lid that grips your brushes which is good if you tend to forget your brushes in water, giving them a bad hair day , but not necessary.

4. Some folks like to use wet pallets for their paints (paper towel in a tray of water). I prefer mixing on hard surfaces. You have a few options such as plastic trays from craft stores, panes of glass (a little dangerous?), plexiglas, etc. Something I picked up in art school - freezer paper! It comes in a big roll at the grocery store and is similar to butcher paper but has a plastic coating on one side. I cut a small piece off, about 5"x7" and tape it to the table or desk or where ever I'm working. Having a white surface is also good for diluting washes so you know how thin the wash is getting before applying it.

5. When adding water, I like to use a finger-pump spray bottle. The one I have was for a hair spray but I just suggest finding something that has the lightest mist possible so you have good control over the amount of water you're adding.

6. Have a good supply of paper towels for drying your brushes and getting your brushes ready for dry-brushing techniques.

Final thoughts
1. After using your colored basecoat, limit the rest of your colors to the flesh/hair colors (if any are exposed), black and white parts to the model, metal (guns, swords, etc.) Finish with a dark brown wash over the whole model to bring out the details and a drybrush of the main basecoat color tinted with A LITTLE white and that should cover it.

2. For your bases, they all have a little texture and because you're doing 40k, you can get away with a black spray basecoat, drybrush gray over that and then drybrush with a light gray on the textured top and you're done. In the future, you can invest in balast or flocking, but for now, let's get it on the table!

3. Batch-painting may be boring, but the repetative painting process will help you hone your hand skills and help you to get experience under your belt quickly. Start with only a unit (no tanks or anything like that yet) and work up in number and then variety.

4. Take breaks often. Your eyes and hands will get very cramped and tired for your first few sessions. And remember, if you get frustrated, walk away. No sense in cutting yourself because you were rushing and the knife slipped.

Any questions , lemme know

Some great advice here, so I'll avoid repeating it.

I will, however, reinforce the awesome quick results that can be achieved by taking on board some of the tips from that 48 army painter ork army guide.