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I visited my first Warhammer store in about a decade, and I couldn't belive the prices of paint!

I was trying to figure out how much it would cost take to paint a 2,000 point force.

I need gold and red (basically Iron Man's colors) for the Custodes and Orange (muted) and Black for the AdMech Knights of House Sidus.

And if there are any cheaper paint alternatives available stateside?

If you have a lot of one coloured painting to do, consider getting an airbrush. The savings in paint will be significant in the long run

I've never used an airbrush. I looked online and there are tons of different types and costs.

What so I need, and how much will it cost? (Also, do you need different paints?)

You'd need to paint a lot of armies for an airbrush to be a cost saving! My pretty entry-level airbrush setup was about £200... I'd say a coloured spray-can primer in the main colour of your army might do you more favours on time and cost saving.

Crispy78 wrote:
You'd need to paint a lot of armies for an airbrush to be a cost saving! My pretty entry-level airbrush setup was about £200... I'd say a coloured spray-can primer in the main colour of your army might do you more favours on time and cost saving.

House Sidus are primarily Black Knights with Orange paneling.

While the Custodes are primarily Gold with red accents.

So airbrushing is not the way to go?

If you are strapped for cash, maybe buying a set of basic colours and mixing them when possible could work, but it might lead to some varying results so there’s that.

Lots of "depends" factors at play here.

Is this your first army/miniatures project? i.e. are you starting from scratch? If so, then you're gonna need quite a few things and there's a significant learning curve on separate skill tracks for many of them. Cleaning & assembling parts, basing, spraypainting/basecoating, actual painting (inc. paint consistency, brush control, techniques), proper maintenance to name a few.

Do you know you enjoy the hobby, first of all? An airbrush (and its required compressor) is a great tool but it's on the expensive side for up-front investments. It's also yet another separate skill, admittedly not too difficult if all you want is to basecoat with it. There are some amazing things you can do with one that are very difficult with only brushes, if willing to put in the time and effort. On top of the compressor you also need lung protection (respirator). Safety glasses and a spray booth or some other way of stopping the fumes and overspray from getting everywhere are strongly recommended.

tl:dr: if the cost of basic paint is concerning, don't even bother looking at a proper airbrush setup yet.

Warhammer paint is significantly overpriced. I would never recommend it unless there's a colour in there you cannot live without. There's so many great brands out there today that have better value. Pick up a nice little starter set and a pack of brushes to see if this is the hobby for you before investing any more in it.

Red is one of the more difficult colours to paint, as is orange over black. That's not to say you should change army schemes - just something to be aware of. For reds, you'll want to base in a light colour (tan, white, brown, NOT black) and to get orange accents on black models put down an intermediary ochre or brown layer. Watch some YT videos, there are tons out there on "how to paint X".

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I visited my first Warhammer store in about a decade, and I couldn't belive the prices of paint!

I was trying to figure out how much it would cost take to paint a 2,000 point force.

I need gold and red (basically Iron Man's colors) for the Custodes and Orange (muted) and Black for the AdMech Knights of House Sidus.

And if there are any cheaper paint alternatives available stateside?

Citadel is generally the most expensive line of paint on the market. They have a few good paints but overall there are better paint lines for less money.

On my shelf I have Reaper, Vallejo, Pro Acryl, Scale Color, AK Interactive, Army Painter and Secret Weapon paints/inks/washes. All should be available in the US.

For a beginner I'd say Reaper is a good option because they come pre-thinned so you can mostly use them straight from the bottle, but if you're OK with thinning the Pro Acryl line has a lot of really good paints. Vallejo is probably the easiest to find, then Army Painter. There's never been more options as there is right now.

For a muted orange I use Reaper Orange Brown a lot. Orange is a problem because most of them have crap coverage but this paint has enough brown that it actually can go over in one or two coats. Important if you're doing orange and black. For black I'd say Army Painter Matt Black (some blacks are very shiny).

Gold wise, for Custodes I'd go with Vallejo Game Color Glorious Gold, which works really well with Citadel's Agrax Earthshade wash (there really is no substitute for this one IMO). For the red it really depends on what shade of red you're talking, but most lines have decent reds. I was pleasantly surprised by Army Painter's Pure Red but I don't know how bright a red you want to go for (or dark).

+1 to the above.

It's a fantastic time to be a miniature painter because *every brand* out there is at least good, if not great.

Army Painter, Vallejo and Reaper all have very affordable starter kits from what I remember.

DO NOT:
• Buy 50, 100 or 250 mega paint sets. Seriously, you don't need them.
• Hard commit to a single brand until you've tried a bunch. Acrylic paints mix and match perfectly.
• Try to use cheap children's paint brushes. You'll hate every minute of it.

I am starting from the ground up, as most things did not survive the great purge.

My previous painting has been dark dirty olive drab tanks, or all black Ravenwing.

(My old Eldar army was inherited, so that doesn't count)

This will be my first time attempting to paint bright colors.

The heresy Custodes of shining gold and bright red should be a challenge.

My AdMech Knights will more difficult as I will have to figure out how to do emblems and faction symbols.

Since you're starting over, there are far more important things to put your hobby dollars towards than an airbrush.
The absolute minimum viable kit is:
• Something to take off mould lines. Hobby knife, sanding stick/paper, scraper, etc.
• Glue appropriate for your model material type. Plus PVA glue or superglue for basing.
• Clippers, preferably flush clippers, but you can get away with the bevelled type and hobby knife down the nubs.
• Some kind of basing material, even if it's just sand/gravel.
• Primer, brush-on or spray.
• Acrylic paints and a pack of middling quality synthetic brushes.
• Paper towel, water jar, waterproof work area, daylight or a daylight spectrum lamp, a palette, comfortable seating.
• Some kind of box to keep all your junk together in.

Once you've gotten the basics secured, take your time acquiring the rest. Many of these you'll either already have at home or can pick up in your local hardware, craft or dollar stores. Hobby store is the shop of last resort; only buy things there that aren't sold anywhere else. Almost every non-model item isn't made by Citadel they're just marking up whitelabel products from some other company and applying a 100%+ tax on top.

Painting the difficult colours really isn't much harder than the easy ones, the only difference is having to resort to an intermediary support colour in between, because the topcoat's pigment isn't opaque enough on its own. Reds, yellows and oranges are notoriously weak, and all benefit from having stronger-but-duller colours beneath them like ochre, tan, brown or even pink. Many foolishly consider applying thicker layers of paint; that way leads to disappointment, do not give in to the temptation. Undercoating is the way.

Look for a painting tutorial they tel you what colors you need. i did mine with duncans one.

Gold with red trims? I'd go with gold spray can, followed by hand painting the red trims (you can use masking tape on the edges if you feel you arent neat enough).

Orange and black - start with orange, then go over it with black (again, use masking for neatness).

For symbols, transfers and transfer setting agent should get you covered.

I know people like to say airbrushing isnt worth it for beginners and all that, but I disagree. I got my first set for 99€, including a small compressor (Iwata NEO), and it would still serve me well even today (hadnt i upgraded to a fancier airbrush - I still use that same compressor!). Although you do need accessories for cleanup, and some, preferably non-residential area (garage etc) for spraying in.

OTOH, if you just want to paint an army and only see the painting as "necessary evil", just buy a couple spray cans and some AK Real Color markers for your spot colours. After that, drown the models in Nuln Oil and you're ready to hit the gaming tables.

Before hitting a model with a rattlecan, make sure to properly clean up your models. Mix some light detergent with water, I use dishwasher soap & water for that (make sure to let the cleaned stuff dry properly before spraying)

Like everyone has already said already, avoid Citadel paints if you want to save money. Stuff like AK EXO paints come in much bigger pots, I'm sure there are others... The only thing I'd consider getting from GW is their mold line remover, its quite good and alternatives arent too easy to find,

Fire_Forever wrote:

• Hard commit to a single brand until you've tried a bunch. Acrylic paints mix and match perfectly.

Even after you've tried a bunch there's still no point committing to a single brand. They all have better and worse paints in their ranges. Using a variety of brands depending on what you're doing is the way to go.

 Scott-S6 wrote:

Fire_Forever wrote:

• Hard commit to a single brand until you've tried a bunch. Acrylic paints mix and match perfectly.

Even after you've tried a bunch there's still no point committing to a single brand. They all have better and worse paints in their ranges. Using a variety of brands depending on what you're doing is the way to go.

True, when I say commit I mean it more like "this paint speaks to me, I like how it behaves and I want to make it my primary range because I'm often reaching for it anyways". Almost everyone has a preference, be that thicker paint, in pots, must come in a dropper bottle, pre-thinned ready to go, minimal pure pigments let me mix my own, give me all the shades I hate mixing, whatever. There's always going to be standouts in specific ranges of course, and that should never stop you from picking and choosing.

Thanks for the tips. As for brand, all I care about is consistency of the color (as I dislike having to mix paints and my army doesnt look coherent) and that it is readily available.

As long as I can find a good Orange for the AdMech, I'll be happy.

All depends on the army and the colors picked. You can do a lot with 5-6 paints.