I've never painted any minis before and one of the things that attracts me to Armada is that the minis have, for a massed produced mini, a decent paint job. But I've been perusing the forums and looking at the paint jobs other people have done I'm inspired to try it out for myself.

Which of the Armada minis would be the easiest to start with? I figure that the fighters are really small, but there isn't much to actually paint so I could see the results faster, but I figure a larger mini might be easier to deal with.

I appreciate any and all advice.

For the "large" ships, I would say start with the CR90. enough detail to work with, but small enough to hide mistakes.

I painted my fighters as my first-ever miniatures painting work. They came out okay, and each new squadron looks better than the one before. Painting squadrons is nice because they give your fleet a more complete look. There's a lot of guides that might be helpful to you as you start out. The big points are:

Simple is good. This is your first attempt, and they're small, so don't go crazy.

Prime, then do a base coat, then highlight as needed, then apply a wash. For priming, use an acrylic spray primer. For base coating and highlighting, use either acrylic hobby paint or spring for some paint designed for miniatures (Games Workshop, Vallejo, etc), but don't blow your budget just on paint. For a wash, I can't recommend Citadel Nuln Oil enough.

Again, thin your paints a little bit. You want them to spread evenly, adhere very tightly to the small surface details, and not clump up. You may have to do a second layer, even on these tiny guys, but maybe you won't.

Go easy on the wash. It looks nice, but if you do too much it darkens everything.

Don't mix your paint types. Stick with acrylic.

Make sure everything dries totally before you touch it again with new paint - fifteen, twenty minutes. If you wet it before it dries it'll smear and wrinkle.

Post pictures!

There is one solid, but unconventional piece of advice I would give to start with...

I would ask where you are...

Because you said you've never painted a Miniature before.

The first step I would advise someone to do, is find your local Games Workshop / Warhammer Store.

Leave the wallet at home. You're not buying anything day one.

But you're going to go in, and you're going to find someone in the appropriately labelled shirt, and you're going to say:

"Hey, I've never painted a miniature before."

If they're doing their job , they'll bring you over to a table. They'll give you a choice of miniature, and you'll be taught the absolute basics on how to paint it. Right there. On the spot.

Use that time, and that experience, to help frame the question: "Is this something I'm actually willing to give a try........"

Listen to their spiel - its the price to pay. But you'll walk away with the free miniature at the end, and a touching expedience on painting.

If after that, you still want to give it a go... (And not everyone does! Goddess knows I've built a Business on that!) - Then come back here. We'll set you up on how to economically and easily start the Hobby of Miniature Painting with your Star Wars: Armada miniatures

Another perspective:

Start with the nebulon-B from the core set. The original paintjob is pretty bad: you'll likely improve it just by priming it with a can of gray auto-primer.

ADDITIONALLY.

I'll redirect people to this thread:

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/141878-x-wing-beginnermasterclass-painting-tutorial-pic-heavy/


This was something that Lurtz did, Early last year. It was "lost" with the Original Painting Forum

. I found it again.

I tend to agree, start with the squadrons. Just remember they are tiny, so what you are trying to achieve is the impression of them looking "about" right.

You can also try masking off each ship and painting them up with a can of coloured spray. A light coating is opaque and will show up the different coloured panels and the panel lines quite well:

I tend to agree, start with the squadrons. Just remember they are tiny, so what you are trying to achieve is the impression of them looking "about" right.

You can also try masking off each ship and painting them up with a can of coloured spray. A light coating is opaque and will show up the different coloured panels and the panel lines quite well:

How do you mash such nice lines! Don't all the raised edges and such get in the way? Can you show us in a few pictures? Can you add the pictures and explanation into the tutorial thread?

Masking Tape!!

Even if you are painting by hand a strip of making tape and a "dappling" of paint will produce a nice clean line.

To get an area blocked off the main thing is to use several small strips of tape rather than one big piece.