Hey guys, hoping someone can help me out and give me some advice. I'm looking at getting the core set as the game seems like a lot of fun. My main issue is that i have never painted a miniature before so i have no idea if i will enjoy it or hate it.

I was thinking of getting the reaper bones learn to paint kit and see how i go. If i do enjoy painting (and dont completely suck at it) would the kit be a good starting point for the core set. I know i will need to get some primer for legion but what else would you guys recommend i get for the process?

Thanks

That kit looks like an excellent starting point. I tend to prefer Vallejo and Citadel (in that order) to Reaper, but that's purely personal preference and Reaper has some advantages. It looks like that kit comes with 3 simple minis to practice on, which I highly recommend experimenting with first -- no one's going to expect a brand new painter to have Sorastro-level minis on their first army, but your first one or two minis will tell you a lot about painting and what you need to work on, so experiment and learn on the practice minis before digging into your "real" Legion minis.

Looking at the contents of that kit, you'll probably find a few gaps you'll want to supplement. You might want to pick up a 3rd brush, possibly a dedicated drybrush, or a larger or smaller brush depending on how you feel after trying out the practice minis, but this is optional. Paint-wise, you're probably going to want to get a pure red for Vader's lightsaber, but otherwise your Imperial forces will be well-covered by that starter kit if all you're going for is a very basic paint job (which is totally fine!).

That blue might work for giving Luke's lightsaber an Episode IV feel, but you might prefer a darker, more solid blue for an Ep V/prequel look. Rebels can be painted in all kinds of crazy ways, so you may want some additional paints for your Rebel force depending on your preferences. I recommend Vallejo's line, as it's better suited for less-saturated, subdued military uniform colors, with about a billion shades of green and brown to play with, but other brands (including Reaper) work fine if you prefer them. The single bright green and only two shades of brown included in your Reaper kit are poorly suited for woodland camouflage if you're going for an Endor-style look -- a very common rookie pitfall with mini painting is having large areas of flat, over-saturated color that clashes with the overall look of an army, and that single green in that kit is going to murder you on that front if you try to rely on it for an Endor look. Rebels need a relatively large amount of subtle variation in their colors to have a good, cohesive look -- I'm a pretty simplistic and lazy painter, and even I'm using 4 different shades of grey on my Rebels, who have a predominantly grey theme. So, for a beginner, I recommend you have at least 2, preferably 3 shades of your chosen "theme" for your Rebels: Brown for Tatooine/desert, green+brown for Endor/woodland (woodland camo is very brown, not just green!), white (yes, you need shades of white! Or more specifically, light grey) for Hoth/snow, and so on.

Don't let that intimidate you -- just decide on what theme you'd like for your Rebels, and then buy 1 or 2 extra shades of that color in addition to what comes in the kit! You're also going to want an appropriate flesh tone from your brand of choice. There's a lot of exposed skin on the Rebels, and you'll need a proper color for it.

If you want to get a little more advanced and experiment with some extra techniques to enhance your minis, you may consider getting the ever-popular and ubiquitous Nuln Oil shade from Citadel.

Other than that, you should be good to go, and have fun with painting your first minis! Of course, do be sure to check out Sorastro's guides on YouTube, as he shows a lot of great ways to paint Legion minis and might help you get a sense for how the hobby in general works. Good luck!

Hey mate, thanks for the reply. Some really good advice in there. Think I'm gonna bite the bullet and get the kit this weekend and see how i go. I'll never know if i dont try.

Let us know how it goes!

And don't be discouraged if your first minis don't look amazing. I painted a set of Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Stormtroopers an atrocious combination of Snakebite Leather jackets and Ultramarine Blue trousers. It wasn't pretty. Everybody's gotta start somewhere.

Give it a shot. The idea of painting one or two practice minis first is a good one. Even though everyone starts with the stormtroopers because they are “simple” they actually take the most amount of fussing to make look nice.

The only other advice I would give you is to learn as much as you can from internet tutorials but DON’T compare your models to the people making those videos. Set a reasonable goal for yourself (mine is always “better than plain gray plastic and not so bad it distracts me during the game”) and then be happy with what you do. Agonizing over every little thing when you have 35 minis to paint just leads to anxiety and will make you enjoy it less (at least for me).

I agree with the comments above and wholeheartedly say do not start off with Stormtroopers. Although they seem like they would be the most simple and obvious choice, white paint is a beast to work with. I would start with the Rebels if you choose to paint both factions. There really is no wrong way to paint these miniatures. Plus I feel you can really find what you painting style will be.

I myself use paints and brushes from Michaels, Hobby Lobby and the like. A fraction of the cost and I am extremly happy with the results.

Youtube videos are an excellent resource but I am a firm believer that this community has a lot to offer. In terms of sharing tips and pictures there is a lot of inspiration to be had. Spend some time just going through threads.

Do not be overly critical of your work and most importantly have fun bringing these miniatures to life.

Don't limit yourself to gaming stores and miniature-specific paints and brushes. A lot of money can be saved at ordinary art stores. I get 3 packs of brushes sized 0, 00, and 000 along with flat drybrushes for a lot less than miniature wargame branded brushes cost. Brushes can be all over the board and higher price doesn't always correlate to better. Citadel brushes have always let me down every single time. I've probably owned 20 new Citadel brushes over the years and if I hadn't snagged them for free in various ways, I've had gone back to the store and asked for my money back. The very first time I used any of them, I was like "well this will be a brush for gluing sand to bases"

Dip a brush in water and flick it off. If it still comes to a nice sharp point it's probably a good brush. A brush that has strands sticking out all over is useless for miniatures.

Remember that your models only have to look good from several feet away. And of course.... the two Legion painting videos I share with all...

I never used her stormtrooper method but I liked her Hoth rebel one a lot and use a variation on it. My stormtroopers are just dark grey spray paint followed by two coats of white drybrushing, then picking out the guns, hands, and a few other key details. I use ordinary spray paint from the craft store for Legion primer and it works great.

Honestly though. If you are brand new, and you spray paint your stormtroopers white, and make their guns black with a pointy little brush, then paint the bases green or something, and hit them with spray sealer... they'll look pretty good during games. As long as your paintjobs look as good as kid's toys like Micro Machine guys and stuff, the games will look pretty awesome.

My speeder bikes I sprayed in three stages. Bases were primed off-white, bikes were primed black, riders were primed grey, then these 3 parts were painted before being glued to each other.

For things with capes (Darth, rebel squad commanders) it can be useful to spray prime before gluing the caped body to the legs.

Thanks heaps guys. Some awesome info in there. Looking forward to giving it a crack