I've been paying fairly close attention to the painting board, seeing how things are going for everyone. I'm paying especially close attention to Sorastro's work and excellent tutorials. My first Imperial Assault campaign is past the halfway point. We have four missions to go, including tomorrow night's side mission. After the campaign wraps up, I want to take a break and paint up my own figures. But I'm a total noob to miniatures painting. Never done it before in my life. So I'll be starting from scratch on supplies: paints, brushes, everything.

One of my Rebel players is strongly discouraging me from spending the money on dedicated miniatures paints (Citadel, for example). He says I can get satisfactory results with inexpensive acrylic paints available at big-box stores and craft chains, because of the plastic FFG uses for Imperial Assault. He acknowledges the dedicated paints would be a necessity (or very near it) if I wanted to paint metal figures. He showed me some of his painting work, from Descent 2E. It looked OK, but nothing like some of the pieces I've seen on this board. Nonetheless, I'm giving his opinion some serious weight, because he would stand to profit if I opted to order dedicated paints -- he is also one of the owners of my local game shop -- and he is telling me not to spend the money with him.

My first question is, is my friend right? Can I get really good results with basic craft paints? I've done a little bit of pricing, and the craft paints are so much cheaper. The biggest problem I see so far is a shortage of subtly different shades of the same general color, which could make it tough to get nice highlights. If this can work, and I decide to go that way, how different would the process be than what we see in Sorastro's tutorials?

If that isn't particularly viable, or will be a lot harder to get good results with, what are your recommendations for starting off with dedicated miniatures paints? Is one of the major companies (off the top of my head, I know of Citadel, Vallejo, and Army Painter) a better budget option than the others? Are there any paint sets that are an especially good deal for someone starting off?

The sheer number of products out there is intimidating for a new painter. Help me, Imperial Assault painters. You're my only hope.

So, the short answer is that you probably won't get a very satisfying answer.

I'm a decent painter, I've won a couple of golden demons back in the day but haven't had much time for it over the last five years or so. I would only personally use craft paints for terrain. There is a distinct difference in pigment quality, coverage and durability between craft paints and miniature paints.

Miniature paints have also become a bit more sophisticated recently. Pre-mixed washes like the Nuln Oil you would have seen referenced or Secret Weapon washes are all significant time savers and allow consistent results to be achieved.

Ultimately though you can achieve adequate results with craft paints.

If you A: carefully prepare your minis (cleaning mold lines, washing off mold release agents/oil from in game use, priming the mini) and B: proceed with thin layers of paint while concentrating on brush control and neatness then you can get ok results.

One of the big negatives is that you are going to generally need more layers of a craft paint to get a consistent colour. This is potentially a bigger issue with the IA minis as some of the detail is shallower than it would be on a metal, resin or HIPS mini..

I'm guessing that your friend considered IA minis more suited to craft paints than metal minis as they are lighter, softer and less likely to chip. Craft paints aren't generally as durable as miniature paints, this isn't universally true though, Vallejo paints can be relatively delicate for instance. Regardless I would suggest varnishing/sealing your minis in either case.

If you like painting, and plan to continue doing it then I think miniature paints are well worth the investment. Getting started can be frustrating, using paints that have been expressly created for this sort of of work can help alleviate some of that frustration.

Remember that you aren't learning an art, it's a skill set that you can't achieve excellent results in through learning and practice.

Is there any way for you to try painting with a friends paints first? At the very least I would suggest that you use some other cheap minis to practice on before you jump into your IA stuff. Maybe you just won't enjoy painting at all!

Assuming you do like it, what sort of results are you expecting to achieve? It sounds like your friend may have lower expectations/ standards than you.

How tight is your gaming budget? You certainly don't need to stick to Gw (citadel) paints. Their current line is very nicely laid out for beginners, with Base colours and Layer Colours clearly defined, but there are many other options. Vallejo, Privateer Press, Reaper Paints and Coat D'Arms paints are all great options. There's no huge savings with any of them but they are all cheaper than GW.

Anyway, that one rambling answer for you.

What I want are figures that look good on the tabletop. I'm not expecting something that you would stick on your mantel or win a painting competition. But I want my minis to look at least as good as the ones from Wizards of the Coast's old Star Wars Miniatures line. I don't want to put a Stormtrooper group on the same table as the WOTC minis I'm currently using as proxies for Han and Chewie and feel embarrassed about the work I put into it. I don't want to spend the money on supplies and time painting and feel like it was a waste.

I can afford to get some serious paint supplies if need be. I have a substantial store credit at the game shop after selling most of my Magic collection (Magic is near the bottom of my top 10 games I care about anymore, and it's that high mostly because so many people play it locally). But I might want to spend that on getting into X-Wing if my schedule changes and I have evenings off.

Edit: I probably could try out acrylic painting with my friend's stuff, but the paints are cheap enough I could just get my own to try out. On the other hand, none of my friends locally use miniatures paints, so far as I know, and the nearest store that normally carries them is about an hour away. I've been told there's a painting crowd that shows up there most Saturday afternoons, but I'm working then.

Thanks for your input.

I'd suggest buying a few miniature paints (the colours you need to paint a stormtrooper if you are planning to follow Sorastro's guide for instance) and then buying a few other craft paints and see what you like using.

You're going to want a decent brush regardless so that won't change either way.

Yeah, I could probably try it out with both. I could even try out the Citadel paints with as few as four (Mechanicus Standard Grey, White Scar, Nuln Oil, and Ardcoat) if I do a group with pristine armor. I'll want white primer and matt varnish whichever way I go.

I got a $15 acrylic 18-color set by Reeves, a $1.50 2 oz container of metallic silver, both black and white primer, and both matte and gloss finish, brushes and a palette for a total of about $35.

My models wouldn't win any awards, but considering I'm not an artist by any means, I'm happy with how they turned out, and considering 95% of the time, I'm viewing them from 2-3 feet away, I couldn't imagine spending 100+ dollars on paints to get them unnoticably better.

And that's the thing. If I know it'll turn out the same either way, of course I want to use the inexpensive option. But I see something like Sorastro's series where the models are turning out brilliantly, and I want to use his process. But I don't know if that's something I can really do with acrylic craft paints. (BTW, what kind of paints are the specialized minis paints? Are they oil paints or something like that?)

They are acrylic paints as well.

There's no particular reason that you couldn't use Sorastro's method with craft paint. As you surmised, your biggest issue is going to be matching colours if you are trying to follow him closely.

I'd suggest going with miniature paints for any metallics and for white and yellow. Those tend to suffer the most from the deficincies inherent to craft paints.

Something like Nuln Oil (which isn't simply an acrylic paint) you also wouldn't find with craft paints.

If you are keen to jump in I'd suggest mixing and matching rather than thinking you'd have to go all in with one or another.

I'm in a similar situation right now, but I lucked out and my FLGS owner has a Citadel project box set up in-store. They let me see how I liked actually painting miniatures before committing any money to it.

Turns out, I love it.

I agree with rumblefish. When I started out painting miniatures many years ago, I went with Citadel (the only brand of miniature paints i had knowledge of at the time) for metallics, flesh tones, and washes, then used craft paints for most everything else. They gave me good table top quality results that, when I pull those old minis out today, I am still proud of most of them.

another thing to consider is the idea of picking up some cheap miniatures to test out. Either as a first run to build up brush control skills with, or as a test pallet for different types of paint. Perhaps pick up reds in both a miniature and a craft paint, an a few robe-ish-ly dressed miniatures, or grey/green paints and some officer-ish miniatures. Paint one or two miniatures with the crafts paints, and one or two with the miniature paints. Sure it adds a bit more to both the cost and time of getting started, but with maybe $30 in paints and perhaps that again in test miniatures (less if you have a FLGS with a miniatures bargain bin), you get side by side comparisons of the two types of paint, some experience putting brush to plastic/metal, and a solid idea of which type of paint you want to build your pallet out of.

Like Govrek said, having available minis to practice on is a great idea. I have personally been using my Descent 2E figures to practice on (since I don't play it much anymore, and Star Wars will now be my go-to).

I use craft paint myself, and I've never felt my models suffer for it.

It's not going to win any golden demons, but no matter what paint I use, I'd never win one of those anyway. But a friend of mine who does, and in fact has some of his worked featured in the Reaper Miniature catalog... Thinks my stuff looks great.

Generally there's two types of models when it comes to paint. Display and tabletop, I paint for tabletop and find that craft paint works well enough.

I have a couple of follow-up questions.

OK, so it works perfectly fine to use both specialty and regular craft paints on the same figure. In what applications are craft paints the closest to the specialty paints? Like, would it be better to basecoat using craft paints and highlight using specialty, or the other way around?

And where should I look for the brushes to do this with, and how do I tell which ones are good? There's a Walmart and Hobby Lobby in town, and I'm about to go check out an art supply store, but I don't know good paint brushes from bad.

You're going to want a primer, regardless, as your starting point. There are brush on options, but aerosol gives good quick results if your climate/home makes using spray cans feasible.

On the paints, your goal initially should be using thin, neat coats. Craft paints might require a few more coats than miniature paints to get solid colour, this is usually exagerrated with yellows, reds and metalics.

I wouldn't say that it really matters if you use them as the base coat or the highlight.

Brushes can be tricky. See if you can find some reviews online so that you at least know the physical type that you are looking for. Kolinsky Sable is generally considered to be the best material, with Windsor Newton Series 7 being a reliable benchmark for quality, they are also quite expensive.

Basically you want the largest size that you are capable of painting neatly and accurate with. Larger brushes will hold more paint and not dry up on you mid-stroke.

You want a brush that forms a point when moist.

Basically any short handled brush from a size 1 to 00 will work. You'll probably have more luck at the art supply store, but I'm not familiar with hobby lobby.

I got a large acrylic paint set from Hobby Lobby. It works just fine. You do need to do some thinning to make it apply better, but it does the job.

Brush Selection: For years I used the synthetic or synthetic/natural mix brushes from stores like Michael's or Hobby Lobby. $5 to $10 for a brush, kept as good of a point as I knew it made a difference, and at that price, I didn't feel bad replacing them once or twice a year. About two and a half years go I splurged pick up a set of Windsor & Newton Series 7 brushes, and for my main go to brushes, I will never go to another type. They relay are, in my mind, worth the the extra cost and effort to get. Given that, I would not suggest them for your first set of brushes. To start, I would suggest picking up a 1, and a 0 sized cheap-ish brush from Hobby Lobby. As budget allows, over time, try out a few sizes around there, up to a 2, down to a 000(3/0) or even a 00000 (5/0). Find the two or three sizes that you reach for the most, then pick up some high quality brushes in those sizes.

Paint Purposes: I think rumblefish hit the nail on the head there. Most of the layering techniques in Sorastro's videos will work with either type, but the miniature paints will be much more pleasant to work with. The crafts will take more time to do this, but should work just fine.

One observation I've made, is that the Craft paints seem to dry brush a bit nicer than the miniature paints. I'd be curious if anyone else has experienced this too. I chalked this up to the larger pigment particles in the craft paint giving a more bits for the dry brush to pick up on, but I could very well be quite wrong.

This is true with brushes. Once I went for W&N#7s, they are well worth the cash. The only thing I use Michael's or Hobby Lobby brushes for are dry-brushing since that is going to eat up a brush. The W&N last forever if you take care of them.