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I am just getting back into the hobby after taking a break for a long time and I have nothing, made the mistake of giving what I had to a friend. I am looking to really just collect the models that I think are cool and paint them for display. The models really aren't a concern of mine it is the paints, I am looking for a basic set of paints that will not break the bank. Are the starter sets that GW puts out with the paints and the 5 models worth the money or is there another company that puts out a paint starter set that is much more worth the money? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

I'd say a 'bare bones' set of paints runs to about £75. I would not advise trying to 'go cheap' and cut corners in what paints you buy. It's almost always a false economy in terms of effort, wastage, and trying to match colours you mixed later on.

Having the right paints to hand makes many jobs much, much easier, much faster (and more fun).

If starting from scratch I'd run with Vallejo for pretty much everything. They're consistent, which Citadel paints alas seem not to be these days. Generally if you want a particular colour buy 3 paints (1 of the shade you want, 1 lighter, 1 darker).

On top of this, the Vallejo Opaque Game Color set is great value and has some very useful paints in it.

For terrain, use art paints or house emulsion (latex I think you call it over there)! No need for fine blending or flow characteristics if you're drybrushing a table.

For models I used Vallejo, GW, P3, Reaper, Golden Fluid Acrylics, and createx (airbrush). Vallejo is my preference.

For terrain I use Wal-mart apple barrel acrylics.

Alright, I will stick with Vallejo paints, now what colors should be my first purchase, like basics that I will use on almost every model? Also what do you guys think of the GW brush on primer, it is what I might have to stick with because it's cold outside right now and I have nowhere indoors to prime?

Not sure on Vallejo colors for 'basic', and it really depends on the model for what colors you'll need, so can't really help you there.

Vallejo also makes an excellent polyurethane brush on primer that you can get probably cheaper than GW's, though. The white has acted strange for me, but I have a big bottle of white and black and I mix the two to get a nice gray base that works great, and the black has worked great as well.

I was thinking that the basic colors I should buy include black, white, red, blue, yellow, silver, maybe a purple. I think I am going to stick with the Warhammer Fantasy models if that helps.

P.s- I haven't purchased models in a long time, if I pick up a box of Dwarves and look at the back of the box will there be a list of colors that I need to paint those models?

The problem is there's going to be a LOT of mixing going on. If you're doing one-offs like it seems like from your OP, that isn't a huge deal, but replicating results is going to be impossible. Even then, copying a color over from one area to the next will be impossible if your batch dries up, which can create weird irregularities on the same model. I think it might actually make sense for you to pick out what model(s) strike your painting fancy and pick up some colors from there. I've been thinking about what sorts of colors I've used most, though... you're going to need some leathery browns and some bone whites for a lot of fantasy stuff. I use Reaper mostly myself, so not sure what the Vallejo equivalents are off hand.

Also, for metallics, check out Vallejo Liquid Gold range. They're freakin' amazing and not really more expensive for what you get. Pick up a silver and a gold from there and you can wash it to taste for bare bones.

Side note, random plug. TheWarStore carries them and has been fantastic to me. I ordered the entire Liquid Gold line, and they goofed slightly in giving me a duplicate gold and missed the old gold. When I notified them of this, they immediately expedited out an old gold for me, and let me keep the duplicate. Thumbs up from me on that one.

Are there any articles out there that you guys would recommend me reading since I am just starting out again?

 Mr_Grimm wrote:
Are there any articles out there that you guys would recommend me reading since I am just starting out again?

Google's going to be your best friend here. I also really like YouTube videos as I can see what they're doing, not just read about it.

There are some articles here on Dakka (check the article link at the top). YouTube has a LOT of videos and numerous channels dedicated to it. Find one you like best and watch it all.

If you prefer written articles, just go through what's out there. They've not updated in a good long while, but brushthralls.com has a lot of well written articles still.

To add to that, most articles I've seen are focused around a single sort of technique. I don't think I remember finding any 'starting out' ones out there.

Two things you can do with google. One, look at the model in progress, think to yourself "Man, this part looks really bad, what can I do to improve it?" Then google around that.

Two, look at someplace like http://tutofig.com/ and just browse randomly for a while. Check out what's possible, and get some inspiration that way.