Recommended paint starter sets?

[Newbie arcanist]

Hello all,

I've just ordered the Malifaux starter set (very excited for its arrival!) and I was wondering where to start in terms of getting paints to use on the models? I've had an intense Google but nothing helpful pops up. I was thinking back to the days of Warhammer when there would be paints that were actually designed for the miniatures. Is that not the case with Malifaux? I hope this isn't duplicating any other discussions - I did have a look and couldn't see anything that answered this question specifically. 

Thanks in advance. 

Noob

[Lamby]

There are no malifaux specific paint sets but some paint manufacturers are p3, coat d arms, scale 75, gw, reaper miniatures, vallejo, army painter, darkstar, they all do sets of colours that you can buy i think.  Hope that helps a little.

 

[Guildenstern]

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/learn to paint/latest/08906

 

This is a very nice set, with a few minatures to learn to paint on (made of bones material which is different from the malifaux materials). But it includes a couple of paint brushes - of medium quality - several paints as well as the carrying case itself. It also has a very handy how to booklet on painting miniatures.

You can choose from many different paint brands now as mentioned above. GW paints are still pretty thick and require more thinning to use (just use water), Vallejo makes very good paints as well, and of course Reaper too, as mentioned above. They have a whole paint line that is available in triads, a very useful format for beginning to paint. Triads mean you have three paints meant to work together as base, medium ton and highlight - so basically you don't have to start out figuring out your recipes.

As regards to colours etc or what to pick, I would do something like this as a minimum:

Black

Off White

Brown (Dark and Medium)

Metal (Leadbelcher etc)

Silver (Runefang steel, or other highlight metal colour)

Then pick a couple colours you intend to paint your miniatures - for instance, for Gremlins, I use green skin tones so I tend towards swamp greens (a dark, medium and highlight). Then if you have clothing, you can do a primary or secondary colour. So for instance maybe you pick a red shirt, with brown leather pants. then you'd buy a red and a red highlight colour (Mephiston red, Wazdaka red, fire dragon etc)

 

Once you've the clothing and skin tones sorted, you've really got all you need overall.

I usually prime black if I'm going for dark colours, but some people use grey or white as well.

Do your metals by painting black (unless you primed black), then use your base metal colour. Optional: something like Nuln Oil as a wash. Highlight with Runefang steel, or another close to silver tone.

Do your leathers/other browns with the dark brown. Optional: Agrax earthshade wash (or other brown ink wash). Highlight with the medium brown. You can do extreme highlights with the off white as well.

Clothes will obivously depend on what colour you pick, but if you pick at least two, a main colour, and a spot colour, to help it stand out a bit, that'll get you started pretty well.

Also, check out various painting tutorials on Youtube! I like EpicDuckStudios, Miniwargamer Jay (excellent step by step beginning tutorials and technique tutorials), GirlPainting and Doctor Faust's Paint clinic, myself.

[Lamby]

For beginners i would imagine reaper would be helpful as they do triumvirates of paint, so you buy a pre picked group of 3 colours that work as a dark, mid and light tone.  I cant recommend the paints as personally ive never used them.

https://www.reapermini.com/BuildYourOwnPaintSet

thats the link to the build your own paint set, youll notice that the colours work in the groups of three, so for example youd buy deep red, blood red and fire red as your dark mid and light tones.

[Whiskyjumper]

I'm not the OP but I wanted to thank him and you guys as well. I was coming here to make a similar post but found this one. I too am a new painter and soon to be noob at Malifaux. I too needed painting advise. I have only two FLGS in my town and they both only stock Citadel paints. And for whatever reason both stores only have a small variety of colors. The rack in both stores is mostly empty. I'm sure that Citadel paints are awesome but it is the most expensive of all the paints mentioned. As a gamer on a very tight budget I just can't see using Citadel. I also have access to Hobby Lobby who stock Vallejo Model color, which is cheaper, but again, very limited on variety of colors. Sooo...I was just looking for advice, like the OP, about what paints you guys use. If any of you know of any good online retailers for paint with cheap shipping for small orders I would appreciate that info also. Out of curiosity, what paints do you use @Lamby and @Guildenstern? 

[Lamby]

I've personally just switched over to mostly scale 75 as i love the matt finish but ive also used vallejo, gw and p3, so like most long time painters i have a preferance but kinda just mix and match between manufacturers for colours.  Theres no right brand, theyre all good some excel in certain areas some are cheap and alright, some are over priced and alright, you need to experiment a bit and just find what you like.  I also really like the dropper bottles as they dont dry out anywhere near as quick as flip tops.

[Whiskyjumper]

Thanks Lamby. I just checked out scale 75 paints and they are pretty out of reach for me. I will most likely end up trying reaper because I can order them directly from reaper for roughly the same cost (minus shipping) as the Hobby Lobby Vallejo.

[Whiskyjumper]

Does anyone know of any good US online suppliers of Coat D'Arms paints? I can't afford shipping from the UK.

[Grayfax]

Another good option is the Army Painter sets of paint.  Inexpensive, bright colors.  The Zombicide sets are particularly good, even if the names won't match up with what they normally carry.  If you are wanting to dirty up the models a bit, I would recommend their zombie shader, but not their strong tone (unless you want really dark tint to your just painted models).  They do not have the triads that Reaper does, but the sets aren't as expensive.  

I have one of the large sets of Vallejo Model Color, but I have not gotten my obsidian beads yet to agitate them, so I haven't even tried any of the paints yet... I would cry, but I have a backlog of my wife's zombies keeping me busy and not wanting to mess with them too much yet.  Also, I have to clean and assemble all my Malifaux models, so I have time.  

I'm still debating on color schemes with my Malifaux models and I may pick up some of the fleshtone Reaper triads to round out some of my color areas, and to get a feel for how they compare to the other two that I have.  

[Newbie arcanist]

Hi everyone - thank you for all your helpful comments. Paints acquired. Now all I need to do is put brush to model 

[tmod]

On 31.8.2016 at 9:09 PM, Grayfax said:

Another good option is the Army Painter sets of paint.  Inexpensive, bright colors.  The Zombicide sets are particularly good, even if the names won't match up with what they normally carry.  If you are wanting to dirty up the models a bit, I would recommend their zombie shader, but not their strong tone (unless you want really dark tint to your just painted models).  They do not have the triads that Reaper does, but the sets aren't as expensive.  

This, except I would avoid the zombicide sets. I have them, and I use them when I need a specific tone, but because they are so much thicker they are much more difficult to thin properly and thus get consistent results with.

I use some reaper and P3 as well, and quite a lot of Vallejos (I really like their Air colours), for specific colours, but neither of these are any better than Army Painter, and they're more expensive...

[ringsnake]

I'll give an additional endorsement to the Reaper Paints, but you should ignore the triads and just go with what looks right. Even experiment with things that might look like they're wrong to see what happens.

If you've got $200 burning a hole through your pocket, this will set you up for the next few years:

 

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/Master Series Paints/sku-down/09952