what figures are you painting?
Stormtroopers should get a white primer, Rebels miniatures could probably go with grey, camo green or black.
Army Painter has a very solid and inexpensive base paint system.
If you are painting Stormtroopers please watch this video.

14 hours ago, tuco74 said:

Vallejo - My paint of preference. Really good quality, huge range, good price and they come in dropper bottles which are much more practical.

7 hours ago, VanorDM said:

Myself I hate citadel paints... not because of the paint, but rather because of the pot.

I also don't like them because it's harder to get a decent load of paint out of the pot and onto a wet palette compared to paint that comes in a squeeze bottle, like Reaper, Army Painter or Vallejo. In fact I think GW/Citadel is the only one that uses a pot instead of a squeeze bottle.

5 hours ago, Force Majeure said:

I'm a Vallejo man myself and find their paints go on smooth, have a quick dry time and have great coverage (and they are less expensive). Plus they come in a dropper bottle , so risk of spills is minimal and you'll never contaminate the paints with another color, as one might if you're painting straight out of the pots.

Hallelujah. 40k was my gateway into hobbying (well, originally it was Battletech, but that was loooong ago). So I went heavy with Citadel paints at first, until I discovered Army Painter and Vallejo, now the latter is my go-to. (Although if I could get them semi-locally, I like Reaper as a company enough that I'd give them a solid go). Under no circumstances could anyone say that Citadel makes bad paint, but the sheer quality of life improvement you see when you move to dropper bottles (and paint brands that seem naturally thinner, consistency wise), is tremendous.

5 hours ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

I'm already a painter, mostly watercolor/gouache,

Props . Pencils and charcoals I've fooled with much, watercolors baffled me, (which I had kids by the time I attempted to futz with it, so it was very half hearted and my game nonsense was more cathartic)

I've invested about $1.69 in the construction of a wet palette also, totally worth it.... heck I need to make a YouTube channel on how to hobby 1. on a severe budget, and 2. with no hobby stores around... Dollar Store and Wal-Mart, FTW.

I'm an Army Painter guy. I found a great deal on a large starter set and have been happy with them since. I also use their primer sprays as well, they really help speed up the whole process. I use the white, grey and black primer sprays the most. Their range of washes has been pretty helpful as well. If there's anything I have against them, it's the fact that you need to shake them like crazy sometimes.

That being said, I do mix and match. Citadel paints, while expensive do have excellent quality, and I often like using their yellows. I also like their glazes and other special paints. I use their Nuln Oil frequently.

I also have had positive experiences with Vallejo.

On 9/22/2017 at 7:07 AM, Stasy said:

Maybe I'm just cheap/ don't have a ton of options via my LGS, but I spray prime my stuff with Rust-Oleum matte white or black. Seems to work out just fine. Also my pallette is just a heavy duty paper plate. The kind with the glossy surface and patterns printed on them.

I don't seem to have any issues with my results, so don't feel obligated to throw yourself into buying everything especially as a beginner.

Truer words have never been spoken. I think a lot of people think the paint brand makes the model look good, but it's about what you can do with the paints. I use the craft store paints for most of my large area/base coats and P3 stuff for highlights and washes. I usually use Vallejo paint-on primer (I live in Michigan so half the time it's too **** cold to be spray painting models and the other half it's too humid to get a good even coat without the grainy feel to the model).

My suggestion is to buy a few of the Reaper Bones minis that are about $2.50 each, preferably different styles like lots of flesh, armor, etc, watch a video, and then try the techniques they show you. You'll learn a lot from it.

Don't feel like you should drop hundreds on brushes and paints. That said, getting a good, vibrant white is going to help you in the long run. Painting white is horrible.

I've used Vallejo paints, both model color and game color, citadel/GW paints, and privateer press P3 paints. All of them are good paints and can be used with each other. I like the Vallejo dropper bottles as its easier to match mixes later on. For primers, I used all sorts of sprays with decent results as long as the weather cooperates. Lately I've been using Vallejo surface primer in black and white. It's a brush on primer but lately I've been doing single models at a time so it's no big deal. You can also use gesso, which is available at most hobby stores. It's a canvas primer but you really have to do a good job cleaning the miniature and letting it dry. It's brush on and dries very thin. It will also shrink, so it normally takes a couple of coats to hit everything. But for anything with lots of detail that you don't want to obscure, it's the best thing out there. For clear coats, I use a coat of testors clear gloss followed by a coat of testors lusterless flat. With this combo, once you start seeing shiny spots of a miniature, you know its time to hit it with some more lusterless flat before you start to rub off paint.

On 9/21/2017 at 8:59 PM, manoftomorrow010 said:

Citadel has a starter with fewer paints but other tools for $60 on Amazon, but Vallejo has a paint only starter for $45. I'm tempted to do Vallejo but have mostly seen people use Citadel in painting videos

Reaper did a Kickstarter and you can get paint sets of twelve for $18, which is incredibly cheap. While the Kickstarter is done, you can still get what they offered at that price.

But the delivery date will be next year. Still a good buy for those looking for a deal. Some great minis for terrain as well.

Reaper Bones Kickstarter.