Originally posted by dougaderly
I also don\'t know if anyone else here will agree with me, but if you are working on a budget, and want to figure out the raw basics of painting, Walmart has apple barrel paints for about 60 cents a bottle, and they work great for getting the hang of painting. I don\'t think they produce primer, but for 18 bucks you can already have almost 30 colors to work with and once you decide you like the game and painting you can upgrade to the games workshop and vallejo color lines, which are 3 bucks a pop.
I agree 100%. This is a great idea and one I went with when I started (all of 2 months ago). I wasn\'t sure if I would even enjoy painting minis, so I didn\'t want to get too heavily invested. After painting my first one I knew that it was something that I was going to enjoy, so I started getting better paints, brushes and minis.
You don\'t need to get the top-of-the-line stuff right off the bat. Just getting started and learning the basics, such as brush control, shading and highlighting, can be hard enough.
Other advice: read the message boards - especially any tip and tricks sections, look at what others have done and ask them how they did it (most are usually quite happy to tell you), and practice, practice, practice.
Most of all, don\'t get discouraged; this hobby is a learning process. Some (like me) take a while to pick up on things; others get it right off the bat. Stick with it, though, and you\'ll see definite improvement in no time.