Best Starter Gear for Miniature Painting

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

A first paint haul is usually chosen by colour count, which is the number that matters least. Twelve well behaved paints teach more than ninety, because the thing that stalls beginners is not a missing shade but paint that dries gluey on the palette and leaves brush marks across a shoulder pad. What earns a place in a starter selection is forgiveness. Dropper bottles over pots, because a dropper lets you put out two drops instead of dunking a brush into a drying pot. Pre-thinned or contrast style paint over traditional acrylic, because one loaded coat that pools in the recesses does the shading work you cannot yet do by hand. A grey or white primer, in a 400ml rattlecan or a brush-on bottle, since bare plastic sheds paint no matter how careful the brushwork. One synthetic round in the size 1 to 2 range plus a flat for drybrushing, and nothing finer, because a 000 brush holds so little paint that it dries before it reaches the model. A wet palette, which sounds like an advanced accessory and is the opposite: it keeps thinned paint workable for an hour instead of ninety seconds. Everything else, including the airbrush end of this list, is for when brushwork has started to feel slow rather than difficult.