Guides · Getting started
How to start painting miniatures
Painting miniatures looks harder than it is. The barrier used to be real — a wall of pots, brushes and techniques before anything looked good. One-coat paints changed that. Here is the shortest honest path from a bare plastic model to one you're happy to put on the table.
The shortest shopping list
Ignore the mega-hauls. You need paint, something to put it on the model with, and a few tools to prep the plastic:
- Paint — a one-coat set is the fastest start: Citadel's Paints + Tools set, or The Army Painter Speedpaint Starter Set (about $50 for ten one-coat colours and a brush). Either paints an army.
- Two or three brushes — a size 2 workhorse for basecoating, a fine one for detail, and an old brush for drybrushing. You do not need a sable kit on day one.
- Plastic clippers and a hobby knife — to cut parts off the sprue and shave the seam lines. Skipping the seam lines is the most visible beginner tell.
- Plastic glue, a water pot, and a palette — a wet palette is a nice upgrade, but a ceramic tile or even a bit of baking paper works.
- Primer — a rattle-can of grey or white spray. Paint does not stick to bare plastic; this is not optional.
Thin your paints, prime your model
Two habits separate a clean beginner from a frustrated one. First, prime — a thin coat of spray primer gives the paint something to grip and unifies the surface. Second, thin your paints: a drop of water on the palette so the paint flows off the brush instead of clogging the detail. Thick paint is the single most common thing that makes a first model look worse than it should. Two thin coats beat one thick one, every time.
Your first model, start to finish
The whole loop, on one rank-and-file model:
- PrimeSpray grey or white and let it dry fully. Grey Seer or Wraithbone if you're going straight into Contrast or Speedpaint.
- BasecoatBlock in the main colours — or, with a one-coat paint, lay a single coat that shades itself as it dries.
- ShadeIf you used ordinary paints, a wash into the recesses does the shading for you. With Contrast or Speedpaint, this is already done.
- HighlightOptional at first: a lighter edge on the raised areas lifts the model. Drybrushing is the easy version.
- BaseTexture paint and a rim colour on the base. It takes five minutes and doubles how finished the model looks.
Where to go from here
Pick a forgiving army so your practice looks good fast — our guide to the easiest armies to paint explains which and why. Steal a colour scheme from the paint-scheme galleries, each with a real Citadel recipe, and follow along with the teachers worth watching.
Questions people actually ask
What do I actually need to start painting miniatures?
Less than the internet will tell you. A one-coat paint set (Citadel's Paints + Tools set, or The Army Painter's Speedpaint Starter Set at around $50 for ten bottles and a brush), two or three brushes, plastic clippers, a hobby knife, plastic glue, a water pot and a palette. Add a can of primer and you can paint a whole army with that kit.
Do I need an airbrush?
No. An airbrush speeds up basecoating a big army and is worth it later, but every technique a beginner needs — basecoat, wash, layer, drybrush, highlight — is a brush job. Learn the brush first; the airbrush solves problems you don't have yet.
What are Contrast and Speedpaint?
One-coat paints that act as basecoat and shade at the same time. Applied over a light primer, they flow into the recesses to shade a model while leaving the raised areas bright — collapsing the old basecoat-wash-highlight routine into a single pass. They are the single biggest reason painting is more beginner-friendly than it was a decade ago.
How long does one model take?
A tabletop-standard infantry model with Contrast or Speedpaint can be done in fifteen to thirty minutes once you have a rhythm. Display-level work on a single figure can take many hours — but that is a destination, not a starting line.
Should I start with a single character or a squad?
Start with a rank-and-file infantry model you own several of. If it goes wrong, you have ten more to get it right on, and there's no pressure — nobody frames their third-ever Space Marine. Save the hero model for when your hands are warmer.