Starting to paint and need some advice.

[MrG]

Hello guys,
first of all a bried introduction:
Both my wife and I play Malifaux and we own Ressurrectionists and Gremlins.
I would like to paint these two crews in the official colors (the one that you can see in the boxes/pictures).

I have already meddled for a bit with painting miniatures, but I would like to make it my main hobby.
Since I am new to painting, I would like to receive some insight taking also into account that:
- I have recently relocated to Cambridge UK and the weather here seems to be quite humid;
- I will need to buy everything (E V E R Y T H I N G);
- my starting budget is 350/400 pounds.
- I don't need to spend the entire budget(note of the wife =P)

PRIMING:
Spray Can or Airbrush?
Owned a Neo Iwata for priming/base coating/bases spray and it was ok.
I can spray outdoors if needed, but I would rather work in my hobby room inside the house. I like the idea of colored primers (Army Painter) but are they worth it?

Which primer?
Vallejo (which I already used on the NEO Iwata) didn't strike me as the perfect primer, but it was good, kind of matte finish and rubberish on touch
what about Badger primers or the Army Painter colored primers?

BRUSHES:
I was planning to buy the winsor and newton series 7 (#1 and #0) and a bunch of cheap ones for other harsh uses.

PAINT:
I know that on this matter everyone has a subjective opinion, but which one would you suggest taking into account:
- the humidity of the place
- the fact that I would like to paint my models as close as the original colors
- the fact that I like matte finish
- possibily basecoating with airbrush

Any other advice/suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[Pierowmaniac]

Not sure if Cambridge has its own micro weather pattern, but can't recall the humidity being a massive problem (unless we are just used to it).

I'm a bit further north (Derbyshire)

I use Vallejo primer and paints with no issues.

There's plenty of decent paintbrush manufacturers around now and I believe 'rosemary and co' are a popular uk based choice for quality brushes, though I haven't had to buy a new brush for some time now, so don't actually have any experience with them.

 

 

[CorvusGS]

Hey, some advice from me:

• priminig: I always use a spray can, tried many brands over the years, Citadel works the best for me
• brushes: W&N series 7 is what I use. If you're a beginner and don't want to spend too much money on brushes then try out the Rosemary & Co series 33 (I think they are called). Quality comes pretty close to W&N but they wear out a bit faster. Brush soap is also a must, add that to the shopping list.
• paints: whatever works for you, I use both Vallejo model color and some GW paints. They only brand I had some problems with in the past is Scale75 and I also don't like the Vallejo Game Color washes that much.

Hope this helps!

[Parintachin]

I've had some mixed luck with AP sprays; for no apparent reason, the sprayed surface turned water-repellant, which is kind of a problem when trying to put water based paint on top. I've switched back to gw and vallejo sprays. 

 

[MrG]

On 6/14/2016 at 9:24 PM, Pierowmaniac said:

Not sure if Cambridge has its own micro weather pattern, but can't recall the humidity being a massive problem (unless we are just used to it).

I should have probably said that it is very humid for me when compared to other places I lived in, so I wanted to know if humidity here is an issue with the paints, but you answered already to that =) Thanks!

9 hours ago, CorvusGS said:

Hey, some advice from me:

• priminig: I always use a spray can, tried many brands over the years, Citadel works the best for me
• brushes: W&N series 7 is what I use. If you're a beginner and don't want to spend too much money on brushes then try out the Rosemary & Co series 33 (I think they are called). Quality comes pretty close to W&N but they wear out a bit faster. Brush soap is also a must, add that to the shopping list.
• paints: whatever works for you, I use both Vallejo model color and some GW paints. They only brand I had some problems with in the past is Scale75 and I also don't like the Vallejo Game Color washes that much.

Hope this helps!

I consider myself a total beginner so I will take into consideration the Rosmary & Co series.
I am a little bit disappointed in hearing that you had problems with Scale75... I guess I was a little bit hyped about the fact that they are easily available here in Europe (when I was living in the US they were fairly out of reach). Thanks for your advice!

8 hours ago, Parintachin said:

I've had some mixed luck with AP sprays; for no apparent reason, the sprayed surface turned water-repellant, which is kind of a problem when trying to put water based paint on top. I've switched back to gw and vallejo sprays.

Sorry but I actually chuckled at the primer making the surface water repellent when the main point of priming the model is for the paint to stick to the minis =)

So far it seems that Vallejo is still a very good choice (especially VMC and not VGC).
GW washes seems to be good as well
W&N or Rosmary & Co are good brands for brushes.
NEED TO BUY BRUSH SOAP (thanks for the advice again)
 

[Parintachin]

16 minutes ago, MrG said:

Sorry but I actually chuckled at the primer making the surface water repellent when the main point of priming the model is for the paint to stick to the minis =)

Kinda gave me a chuckle too =P

Army Painter make the best washes on the market these days, and their paints are not half bad either. Should you stumble across some reaper master series and / or P3 you like the hue of, I doubt you'll regret grabbing it. 

The reaper skin triads are fantastic.