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For what precisely? Or just generally?

I think it's a bad idea for a new painter to just go about attempting to buy all the paints for his entire grey collection.

Pick one squad, and buy the paints for only them. Take your sweet time doing them to your standard that won't hurt your enthusiasm, and then once you are finished, grab the paints you need for a second project, then so on. That's how I attacked my enormous collection when I had no paint whatsoever, now I have a huge assortment of colors. This spreads your cost out over long periods of time and lets you focus on individual projects instead of having three or four things going at once, ha ha.

Good luck, friend.

For the models I posted

If I were to spread it out though I can't decide what I want to paint first haha. And I'm guessing a few things will be needed for everything anyway, metallics, black white grey, skin etc, so it's only the main colours that are different anyway?

Get generic needs, like black, white, grey, skin tones, some metallics, then get specific pigments for specific jobs on a specific squad.

Being spoiled for choice on what to paint is a problem not many have the luxury of having, you should be happy

Select the squad that you feel might be the easiest for you, since you're just starting out you have to develop your skills first. Don't just rush in with a ton of paint buys hoping to tackle the crazy detailed stuff and then piss yourself off when your skill level can't make them look how you want. Take it slow, your enthusiasm can hurt or help you at this point depending on how you go about it.

I guess the skorne/cryx will be easiest then, bigger models, less of the crazy fine detail infinity models have?

I tell you this, I grew up painting GW stuff, since I started up again a few years ago, I've focused on painting more prominently than any other hobby aspect. I make no protestations of great talent, but being as objective about my own work as I can, I'm capable of turning out pretty decent stuff on occasion.

I suck at painting Infinity stuff! That slightly smaller scale (28mm proper as opposed to 30mm/heroic scale) really throws me off. So, yes, bigger models will probably help you get better results sooner and stay motivated, but I've found working on that slightly smaller scale to be a whole new skill set to get to grips with.

The first thing I thought when I opened my first infinity model was 'it's tiny. Gon' be fun to paint...'

Think I'm gonna start with the warmahordes to get the hang of techniques on the slightly bigger models I think also, might be doing a journeyman league soonish so will need them first

Big panels of armor and smooth surfacing will let you experiment with weathering from battle and the elements, and let you do some custom artwork if you feel inclined to.

Death counts as ticks, script, perhaps some laaaaadies on the shoulder pad. You'll now begin to get new ideas for this squad. Congrats on selecting your project.

Don't forget pics . . .

Yeah weathering I'd like to try especially with the Cryx. And I'd like to try my hand at blending too...

Gonna order my paints today I think so some pics should be up next week.

Ordered my paintsssss, enough for Skorne and cryx I think. So hopefully have a couple of pictures by next week. Fingers crossed my reaper paints come by then -.-

Hate to sound not helpfull but

Your first models will suck and you will have to get use to working and blending on a small scale so. Pick colours you like work with them and stick to basic washes like brown/badab I think it is called. Once you find your groove experiment and see where ya get to .

So for me I like blue I like red and green, So I bought those colours and some skin tone and went with it, after a couple paints I thought I need more highlights but 2 shades of not 1, after 8 years I got like 300 paints going :S So start with the basic's what you like.

I know my first models will suck. I'm sure my later models will suck too haha.

In the end I ordered four or five reaper triad sets, and then vallejo metallics, the p3 cryx set, agrax earthshade, and Vallejo black surface primer.

Yeah well don't pay too much attention to Ogre boy there.

You'd be surprised how well your first models can turn out when you approach the project prepared as you are. If you look at the fundamentals of base coating, inking, and layering, and practice drybrushing for 5 minutes on a paper towel before trying it, your first models may end up WAY better than you expected. This forum in particular has at least one thread a week where someone posts their first model and it blows us away as a first attempt.

I've seen some threads like that actually I dunno if mine will be like that though haha. I'm exited though to start, hopefully the reaper paints come quite quick

ImAGeek wrote:
I've seen some threads like that actually I dunno if mine will be like that though haha. I'm exited though to start, hopefully the reaper paints come quite quick

Just take your time. Plan out what you want to do, and above all else have fun with it. Your paint job will look what ever it looks like. You will get better with practice. If it turns out great, even better.

 darefsky wrote:

ImAGeek wrote:
I've seen some threads like that actually I dunno if mine will be like that though haha. I'm exited though to start, hopefully the reaper paints come quite quick

Just take your time. Plan out what you want to do, and above all else have fun with it. Your paint job will look what ever it looks like. You will get better with practice. If it turns out great, even better.

Yeah thank you. Looking forward to it now. Thanks for the help everyone

If you are just after a list of what to get then this is probably the best I can do, you will have to pick out the specific shades and brands that you like yourself though. To be honest, building a good paint set is always going to take some practice and experimenting. It took me a long time to find colours that I feel work well together (some pots I ended up mixing myself completely), and I've bought more than few duds in the process. Having to mix colours is inevitable (even if you do own all the paints). Usually it is how you find gaps in your paint set... If you keep having to mix the same colour all the time, then paint it on a bit of white card and try to find something similar in the colour charts to buy next time.

Expecting to paint completely from the pots without any mixing is going to severely limit what you can do, regardless of how many mega paint sets you own. And expecting your painting to stall just because you don't have a pot of the right colour immediately to hand is unrealistic. So long as you have a good range of basic colours and your faction colours are sorted out then you will be prepared. If you do suddenly realize (on one odd miniature) that you don't have the perfect colour for something like 'blonde hair' then it's no big deal, you can just mix it from something close, or just give the charterer black hair. There is just no point owning a pot of 'blonde hair' if you're only ever going to need it for 1-2 characters.

Paints you need:
So long as you have these you will be able to mix any colour in an 'emergency' (so there is no need to panic). There are some colours that you will use so infrequently that it makes no sense to buy them, because you can just mix up a little on a palette or plate if they ever come up. There are other colours that you will use all the time so it's better to have the pot. Some of these are colours that everyone needs, others will be more specific to you (I'll try to cover those further down). Here is a list of paints that you need, with these you can mix all greys, colours and (to an extent) metallics.

Black
White

Red
Yellow (can be used to highlight red/green)
Blue (Cyan)

Gold
Silver

Paints everyone should have
These are colours that you will need all the time regardless of what you are working on, or plan for the future. You should get at least one shade of these because they are a nuisance to keep mixing. If you are not sure what shade to get, just go with the most medium 'pure' version, as those give you the most options to mix other shades. If there is one you like as an army specific colour then you can get that as well or instead.

Bone/cream
Light flesh
Dark flesh (can be used to highlight red)
Brown (recommend P3 Beast Hide)

Green
Orange (can be used to highlight red)
Dark Red (recommend Vallejo Gory Red)

Grey (I would suggest a light and dark)
Not-black (it's handy to have a slightly off-black grey for painting black, so you can shade it).

Copper (metallic)
Gun metal (metallic)

More colours that are useful
Here are some other colours that are nice to have, and will generally prove useful now and again.

Pink
Purple
Deep Brown
Deep Blue
Electric Blue
Terracotta (good for bricks and rust)
Lime Green/yellow
Pale/rotting flesh (comes up a lot for dead/zombie flesh etc...)
Gold (none metallic)

Army specific colours
These are colours that you will use a lot because they are specific to your army. These are also the colours that you might want to look for specific highlight and shadow versions of. It might also be worth looking at what is available as a spray if you have a lot of miniatures to paint (Army painter have a selection of coloured spray primer). Based on what you linked, you're probably going to want:

Khaki/green
Muted blues
Muted red
(remember some of these might already be covered above)

Washes and other stuff
For washes, you will probably be okay with one warm and one cool colour. Something like a Sepia/brown and a Grey/blue. If you want to pick up a black or some fraction specific washes, that is up to you, and how you decide to paint. You'll also want a varnish. If you're not sure what varnish to get then I would suggest a Satin (if you want to change it later you can just go over it with something else, extra layers of varnish never hurt). Some people also use spray varnish, it's really down to personal preference. I would also recommend picking up some glaze medium, and fluid retarder.

Thank you, that's super helpful gonna copy that to my notes for future reference

Really really appreciate that.

Update: just got home from my girlfriends to a parcel with most of my paints and my cryx and Skorne battle boxes, so expect some photos up this week