Salutations from a complete novice. What’s your recommendations to get started?

Note: A FLGS in town actually has a mini-painting workstation that you can use for $5/session, or as part of their monthly subscription for playing TTRPGs onsite. Since I play PF2E there several times a week I have that subscription. So I have a place to paint that’s already kitted out with just about anything you could need for mini-painting. (I think they charge extra if you want to add stuff like grass, sand, etc. to the mini, but the primer, paints, sealers, etc. are all included.)

I have two awesome minis arriving soon that are unpainted, so I’m looking for online sites/videos that start from “I know nothing” and work up from there.

Thanks in advance for any and all guidance you can provide!

  • SSTF
    2•1 year ago

    When it comes to metallic paints, I almost always underpaint, usually a black for steel/silver, and a brown or orange for gold. Applying the metallic paint on top of these layers allows for more control and definition of shapes than just using a wash. The underpaint and strong recess colors help shake that fake plastic look.

    For NMM, there are degrees of intricacy. Most people think of the super flashy competition grade NMM, but for things like weapons, painting them black, then grey, then highlighted light grey or light blue is all it takes. Not much different than normal highlighting. It’s especially easy with firearms, which have more boxy shapes. Here’s two example of my own NMM, which was very simply done.

    Gold is a little harder to make actually look like gold, but I prefer shiny yellow to gold for things like armor trim anyway.

    For metallic paints I really have come to like the Vallejo Mecha metallics line.