Although I am a bit late on the welcome, welcome anyways!
Three things I would recommend you invest in are:
- Primer - whether black, white or gray.
Black will give you a clean finish (basically any areas that are hard to reach with a brush will just look like shadows). Overall the colors you use will come out a tad bit darker because of the black undercoat, but not enough that you should worry about it.
White will essentially brighten the colors a bit but you have to be a bit more careful to make sure you cover everything up nicely. If you don\'t the white will stick out like a sore thumb.
Gray will give you the most natural finish by distorting the colors as little as possible but, you must also be careful to make sure you cover it up nicely.
Personally I use Games Workshop primers and find that they work very well although, I\'ve also had great results with Armory Primers. If you are heading to Walmart you should be able to find Tamiya primers there in the section with the few model kits that they sell. Give those a try.
- Paints - Even though it can be quite expensive to build up a decent range of paints I would recommend picking up a few basic colors that are specifically formulated for painting miniatures. The obvious recommendation is start with Games Workshop Citadel paints. They are very good paints and most hobby shops carry them. You can also try out P3 paints (made by Privateer Press), although those are a bit more tricky to use especially if you are a beginner. Last but not least come Vallejo paints which are my favorites. Some hobby stores do carry them and you can also easily order them online. They tend to be cheaper than GW paints, cover very well and come in neat little dropper bottles.
The paints you are using, Folk Art Acrylics, I have never used but, I find that the regular \"generic\" acrylics that you can pick up at craft stores have larger pigments and don\'t cover as smoothly as the ones formulated for mini painting.
- Brushes - Even though you can start out with cheaper brushes (ones that you can get at a craft/art store for around 4 bucks a pop (USD), I\'d recommend starting with the good stuff just so you can learn to use them from the start. You can get Windsor & Newton Kolinsky Sable brushes (their famed series 7), my favorites by the way, for about 7 USD a brush at www.dickblick.com.
I realize that this may all seem like quite a daunting investment, but, you definitely don\'t have to purchase it all at once. Pace yourself, buy each item one by one and practice using it. You can definitely get all the basic paints that you need for 20 -25 bucks and still have some cash left over for minis. Even go to your local hobby shop, a Games Workshop shop would work even better and pick up one of those starter painting kits (they sell Warhammer Fantasy ones with a few Night Goblin minis, Warhammer 40k ones with Space Marines, and Lord of the Rings ones with Moria Goblins.) Those kits come with a few starter paints (GW Citadel ones), minis mentioned above and a starter GW brush. Although in all honesty Games Workshop brushes are horrible so your better off using a generic craft/art store one.
Hope this helps.
Sorry for writing close to a book, hope you like to read.
