When I wanted to learn how to paint my own miniatures, I know I needed brushes and paints. Beyond that, I wasn’t sure where to begin. Here is a quick guide for the beginner mini painter!
There are five types of supplies you’ll need to paint miniatures:
- Brushes
- Paints
- Miniature Holder
- Exacto-Knife/Scalpel (optional)
- Misc. Supplies: Water Cup, Paper Towel, Dropper, Palette
These are what you will need to start painting. Of course, you will need miniatures too. If you want to learn how to paint, then I have a helpful article on the Five Techniques every beginning painter should start with. Please note that most links in all of my articles are connected with my Amazon Affiliate program. It won’t cost you any more to make the purchase, but Amazon shares part of its revenue with me to help keep this site up and running.
This article references a lot of different products. If you want links to these products, and more, then please go to my Resource Page for Miniature Painting.
Brushes
Unless you plan on using your fingers (don’t), you will need brushes for painting. For my friends who paint on canvas or water color, they are always amazed at how small and fine my brushes are.
There are two types of brushes: synthetic and hair. Of course hair brushes are going to be better than synthetic brushes. But they will also be more expensive. As a beginner, just start with the synthetic.
I use to buy whatever was available at the friendly local game store. But I’ve recently started buying Vallejo Toray brush sets. This is a three-brush set that will take you down to very-fine work on small details or the eyes.
Army Painter has a starter brush set. What sets this set apart is it includes a flat brush. This is useful if you’re painting on primer or clear varnish. Unless you’re painting a very large miniature, like my Cthulhu pictured on this site, it is too broad for base coating or detail work. Vallejo does have a similar set.
It can be used for dry brushing your miniature. What is dry brushing? I give a brief explainer in my beginner painting guide.
By the way, do not worry too much about painting the eyes on your miniatures. That is an intermediate to advanced technique.
These brushes will hold up through a half dozen to a dozen miniatures before they start fraying. By which I mean, you’ll see individual strands sticking out at odd angles. Or the brush no longer comes to a single point. You will then notice errant paint being placed onto adjacent sections of your miniature.
If you went with the Vallejo set instead of the Army Painter set, then once your brushes start to fray do not throw them away! You can use those frayed brushes for dry brushing future miniatures. With the various sized brush heads, you can better control the area of your dry brushing.
Paints
You should get specific types of hobby acrylic paint sold at game stores. These paints are thinned and come in a wide variety of colors that are designed for miniature painter.
Many of the companies that make these paints also sell miniatures that are for various game systems, such as war gaming and roleplaying games. The biggest one is Citadel Paints made by the Games Workshop. These paints were created for their Warhammer system of war games. Many of these paints have names specific to the Warhammer universe fiction.
Citadel paints are going to be the easiest for you to find at local gaming shops. These are good quality paints, that can run a little thick. These paints come into paint pots. You can dip your paint brush straight into these pots for painting. But your paint will go on in slightly thick layers.
If you want to thin Citadel Paints, you’ll need to pour paint out into your pallette, then use a dropper to add water to thin the paint. I prefer to use several coats of thinned paint, rather than a single coat of too-thick paint. Too-thick paint can hide details and look unnatural.
The other major brand of paints is Vallejo. Vallejo does not make miniatures or have its own system of war gaming. As you review their paint, you’ll notice the color names are more descriptive than Citadel’s, with a few exceptions (I am looking at your Escorpena Green).
Vallejo does have a few different lines of paint. One is simply called Game Color, which has paints that have colors and names that evoke generic fantasy. Examples are Magic Blue, Hexed Lichen, and Goblin Green.
Another line is called Model Color. These paints are for historical wargaming, especially World War II. The colors are more natural and less vivid than the Game Color Line. I have a few of these bottles and the paint is really thick and requires extra thinning.
Whether it is the Game or Model Colors, Vallejo has a line of “Air” paints. These are designed specifically for use in air brushes. I have never used an air brush, but I imagine this paint is the thinnest of their line.
The final line of Vallejo paints is a relative newcomer called “Heavy” or extra-opaque paints. While these paints have the same consistency of the Game Color paints, more on that in a second, there is simply more pigment in the bottle. The color choices also tend to be more basic, which is goes with their use for only the base coat.
The theory is that, even if you thin the paint some, that you can get a full coverage base coat in one application. This should be true even if you’re applying a red or a white that tends to show the underlying white or black primer with just one coat.
I’ve used these paints some and my experience matches with the reality. These paints save a coat of paint. Where I would normally do three coats, these paints let me use two.
All of the Vallejo Paints come in dropper bottles, which I prefer. This allows me to precisely mix colors, thin paints, etc. Of course, you’ll need a dropper for your water if you want ratios. With the Game Color, I will go with a 2:1 or 3:1 paint to water ratio for base coating.
After Citadel and Vallejo, the distant third choice is Army Painter. Army Painter paints and accessories started for historical wargaming, much like Vallejo’s Model Color. They have now branched into fantasy painting based upon the names of some of their paint.
I have not used their paint, just some of their washes. I do not know how thick their paint is out of the bottle. However, they use dropper bottles like Vallejo.
There are other brands of paint too. Reaper has paint that it sells along with its miniatures. These are dropper bottles and the quality is similar to Vallejo’s products.
Privateer Press has a line of paints too. Like Citadel, Privateer’s P3 paint line supports its wargame system and models. Also like Citadel, their paint names evoke their fiction. Finally, like Citadel, their paints come in pots and must be poured out to be thinned. I try to also use a 2:1 paint to water ratio with their paints.
Miniature Holder
Next you will need to figure out how to hold your miniature while you are painting it. These are small. While I have held them by hand while painting, you tend to waste paint on your thumbs and smear off fresh paint. There are two options for this problem.
One is to take a paint pot or some other small, round object with a flat surface on the top or bottom. Get some sticky or poster tack and put it on top. You then stick your model on the tack to hold it in place. The model must stay on well enough to not fall if if you hold it sideways.
Personally, I used for a while a dried out pot of P3 Paint. They have a flat top and bottom, perfect for the sticky tack. But you could cut yourself a 2″ to 3″ wooden dowel.
Another option is a custom designed Miniature Holder by Citadel. They even have one for larger miniatures. I bought one of the regular-sized ones a while back and it was well worth the purchase. If you’re having trouble focusing on the small details, then there are some weird scientist style contraptions you can acquire.
Exacto-Knife or Scalpel
For a beginner painter, this is completely optional. Miniatures are made in molds. That means hot metal, plastic, or resin is injected into these holds. When cooled, the molds are separated and the miniature extracted. However, it is inevitable that your miniature will have mold lines.
To trim off those mold lines you will need an Exacto Knife or Hobby Knife. I note this one is optional because as a beginner painter, you have other more basic techniques to learn. While cutting away mold lines isn’t difficult, filling in the spots where you have cut away too much of your miniature is for intermediate painters.
Miscellaneous Supplies
Finally, there are some miscellaneous supplies that you’ll mostly find in your home. For example, paper towels. This is for you to protect your painting surface, to clean and dry your brushes, and to remove excess paint from your brush (especially with dry brushing).
You will need a water cut for cleaning and rinsing your brushes and thinning your paint. Any cup in the house will do, except for the fine china or crystal. Speaking of which, you’ll need that dropper or pipette for thinning the paints.
Of course, you’ll need someplace to mix together paint colors or to thin them: a palette. Again, as a beginner just get a “dry” palette (e.g. what a common person would think of as a palette. It’s what I use.
Wet palettes are useful for longer or larger painting projects. The basic idea is they keep your paint wet between sessions. This allows you to waste less paint. As a beginner, you’ll know you’ve advanced to intermediate when you’ve finally used up a complete bottle of paint and need to replace it.
I hope this guide to supplies for the beginner miniature painter is helpful to you as you explore this new hobby!
If you want to start to learn on how to paint miniatures, click already! If you want to read more of my posts about Dungeons and Dragons, then click away here! Or maybe you want to explore the wilder (and wider) world of tabletop roleplaying games!
