#Best starter paint for Malenia + general Dnd painting

5 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

brave sorrel
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Hello, I started the hobby recently, at first I've bought normal acrylic paint, and it somewhat worked with my FDM prints, but now that I've acquired an resin printer and tried Citadel paints, it feels horrible to paint with these cheap paints. Therefore, I wanted to buy some paints. I paint DnD mini, and also bigger thing such as this Malenia from NomNom Figures that I've just printed (it was way bigger than what I thought, it's not mini anymore..., the full size of the print is about 30cm in height.)
And I'm trying to find which paint I should go, living in Switzerland in a small city, I must order it online. I know I like citadel paint, and from what I've readed, Reaper, AK interactive and P3 have also great paints, I know that citadel is more expensive and therefore I'm not sure what to buy. I found the "BATTLE READY PAINT SET" which contains 22 bases and 8 shades for about $110. Should I just go for something like that? Should I precisely watch which paint I'll need for this Malenia and buy 10-12 paints (or whatever number, tell me) for it? Should I also look for washes and contrast? Thanks!

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sand scaffold
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It very much depends on what you want and what you have access to - as you say citadel is good but expensive and comes in a bad bottle design. The other paints you've mentioned are all decent, also check for Vallejo, ProAcryl and perhaps Scale75. If you just want to brain off and paint then a painting set is usually a good start, but if you have the energy and time to plan out and figure what paints you need, that will probably be better value as you will end up not using certain paints in most paint sets. Contrasts are good but a different style of painting - great for getting something quick on the table but if you want to eventually be "good" at painting then it's probably worth learning the basics with standard acrylics. Washes are good for painting in shadows, a black and a brown are both good to start off as they'll work with most colours, just be aware they'll dull down anything you put them on.

brave sorrel
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Thanks! Definitely gonna check out the other paints, I've some Vallejo paint but for airbrush, actually, maybe I can easily get access to non-airbrush one! I'll probably go with a starter set, and probably add a few paint for this model!

urban acorn
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Well, first time I've heard that Citadel are cheap paints! They are (per ml) the most expensive paints on the market. Unless you mean cheap by "poor quality" Here I can't say as I don't use them, but general consensus is they aren't bad.
Now for painting on resin:

  • have clean parts. If you're printing them yourselves, I think one of the step is cleaning with Isopropyl alcohol. That is enough. But if you handled them with bare hands, a quick wash with IPA is recommended.
  • prime your mini: no need for a "hobby branded" primer. Go to your nearest hardware store and pick a can of plastic primer. The colour you pick will depend on what colours you're planning to use (a lot of bright and saturated colours -> white, dark and muted colours -> black, and grey in the middle). [Note: use a good breathing mask when priming with cans]
  • paints I second what is above. My choices will go to these, by order of preference:
    1/ AK 3rd Gen Jose DaVinci Signature set completed by the Metallics set
    2/ Pro-Acryl Basic set
    3/ Vallejo MODEL colours. The set Basic colours USA is fine, except the 2 metallics. All the Model colour range is good
    4/ Vallejo GAME colours, but only the most recent ones (with a black cap and security seal). The old ones with a grey cap are very inconsistent and some are really bad.
    Reaper MSP core are also very good but quite difficult to source

One more thing: you can use with a brush paints that are for "Airbrush". You just need to thin them much less than the other ones.

brave sorrel
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Thanks! You probably missread, we indeed said that Citadel paints were more expensive, I also do the cleaning of my print thoroughly and has an OK primer, I think. I will definitely look after your different propositions! And also thank you for the infos about the airbrush / brush paint