Oh, a brush recommendations! Company or brands. I know it's 00, 0, and 1 that I should be using?

I like Windsor and Newton Series 7 but you are paying for them. Generally I think you want the best sable fibre brushes your budget will allow. Synthetic brushes tend to be short lived.

For dry brushing I like a 1/4" flat brush, you can use the width of the brush to get a large area or go the other direction and get a little more paint down for each pass.

I also recommend some brush soap. This keep everything nice and soft and makes the brushes last just that extra bit.

I'm bookmarking this thread for when I paint my squadrons and wash/ink some of my ships. Thanks for all the good advice gentlemen!

GW and Vallejo paint sets are the ones I've been recommended so far. Anybody got a set they can recommend? I'm just looking for some basics.

Brushes are a pretty personal choice. I buy a lot of cheap brushes in combo packs from places like hobby lobby for things like base coating, dry brushing, washing and stippling. I don't care how I treat them as they can be had for a song. I'm currently using high quality Games & Gears brushes for detail work and I'm ocd about keeping them nice.

For normal painting of minis use sable brushes. Nylon for enamels.

I was able to go to hobby lobby and get some cheap sets of detail brushes. down to 5/0 detail.. great for making "dots". tho i have found after about 3-4 uses they lose their tip.

Get some brush soap. Unless you've really ruined your brush you can get the point back. I use The Masters brand but there are plenty out there. I've got a 10/0 brush that is probably 15 years old.

Okay, so for my initial foray into mini painting this is what I think I'm going with:

Vallejo Native American 17ml Paint Set ($50)

The Masters Brush Cleaner & Preserver ($6.12)

Pyscho Paint Brush ($3.38)

00, 0, 1, 2 Paint Brush Set ($5)

I have no FLGS or hobby store nearby so I'm going through Amazon. I'd love for a cheaper paint set, surely a nice set of generic colors can be found for less? And I want some nuln oil but can't seem to find it anywhere. Suggestions?

That's what I got so far, thoughts please!

Honestly, $50 for 16 paints is a pretty good deal at $3.12 per dropper or pot. I went whole hog and bought the 72 paint set when I switched to vallejo from citadel. Hobby paints are just plain expensive, no bones about it.

I did see nuln oil on amazon but if you're not seeing it vallejo black wash, reaper black wash, or P3 Armor Wash are all pretty much the same thing.

00, 0, 1, and 2 are you're go to brushes. Properly maintained they will be they will be your work horses. Larger or smaller will see limited use, so buy nice ones and treat them right if you don't want to have to buy them again.

The Army Painter (another good company btw, they make multiple colours of primer which is very useful) Psycho has the look of a 5/0 brush. Looks interesting, especially with that handle. I may pick one up. You won't get much mileage out of it, though, especially with SWA ships. It's more for doing tiny bits like eyes on miniature faces.

Only thing I'd add is some white primer if you're going to strip the miniatures to bare plastic first (P3 for me) or not if you're just going to paint over the existing paint, a wet pallet (I use the P3 one but you can make your own with a plastic plate and baking parchment paper) or dry pallet (easily had from a store like hobby lobby...or, again, a platic plate) and some pipettes or eye droppers (or a leftover one from some eye medicine or an empty paint dropper bottle).

I've got everything in terms pallet materials from other painting projects.

Glad to hear (I guess) that's a good price on the paint. I just didn't want to buy it and find out there was some $20 starter pack I was ignorant of. As for the nuln oil, I was going for it because literally everybody recommends it. But if the black wash, reaper black wash, or P3 Armor Wash are just as good I'll do that.

Remind me again what the white paint primer is for?

Thanks a ton.

Primer is to provide a base for other paints to stick to. If you were to paint on bare plastic or resin it will kind of smear around and take several coats of good, expensive paint to get complete coverage. That's why primer is cheap and comes in a rattle can (usually). If you're just planning on repainting over the paint that's already on the models you don't need to spray any primer over it. This may cover up details on super detailed models but I don't think it's a concern on SWA models.

Basic steps are...

Prime

Base coat

Wash

Highlight

Detail

Varnish/seal (if you want to)

Can I just use a random paint from the set as a primer? For these mini Armada fighters anyway, like gray, white, or tan for the Rebs. Or do I need to buy a specific primer paint?

You certainly can use the paint from the set to prime and base coat, it's just not as cost efficient. A primer will stick better to the plastic making a better base for successive coats to stick to. I really do recommend priming bare plastic.

I really do recommend priming bare plastic.

Can anybody recommend a good online painting tutorial site? Basics, vocab, how to, etc. Videos are nice to but I imagine being able to reread things at will without continual pausing would be nice.

Remind me again what the white paint primer is for?

Under a microscope regular paint looks like ____________________________________

Under a microscope primer looks like VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Exagerated for effect and some artistic license.

As for a good youtube channel, nope sorry. I find you end up looking at lots and borrowing ideas from here and there.

Hey, are people cleaning the fighters off before priming? I've seen it recommended but they're so flipping small to begin with...

Hey, are people cleaning the fighters off before priming? I've seen it recommended but they're so flipping small to begin with...

Plastic (and metal) minis tend to have oils and such from the molds, so you're better off cleaning them. I usually go the extra paranoid route, and once the mini is clean, I only touch it with gloved hands. You can pick up nitrile gloves at drug stores.

Personally I've never felt the need for a primer for small miniatures. Been painting plastic (& metal) miniatures for over 15 years now, and just using a sprayed basecoat works fine in all but the rarest cases (which I have never encountered). Saves another step, which when you have to paint an entire army of 200 models adds up. Never washed my plastic miniatures before painting either, the only stuff you really do need to wash is resin.

Obviously it's different for large & expensive model kits and the like, but tabletop miniatures? Mwha.

Thanks fellers. I'm going with VW for primer and paint, plus the Nuln Oil. Is there a standard drying time between each step?

Going:

Prime > Base > Wash > Highlight > Detail

Thanks fellers. I'm going with VW for primer and paint, plus the Nuln Oil. Is there a standard drying time between each step?

Going:

Prime > Base > Wash > Highlight > Detail

I would say a day for priming (you want it dry), and then 30 minutes to two hours for each additional step.

Alright, so I got impatient waiting for Wave 1 and painted some X-wings from my core. Didn't wait long enough between coats and just did it. Forgive me, first time. 'ppreciate thoughts and critiques!

I think the brown one came out best. But I like how the engine glow pops.

EDIT: I can't get the gorram images upright. Frakk.