Before we start to put paint to miniature let’s review some essentials that you should have around you. This list is in no way exhaustive, and covers items used for painting and modelling.

Cutting Mat

A cutting mat is very useful to work on. It protects the surface underneath, so any slips of the knife or paint spillages are caught.

Brushes

Brushes are an obvious one as we’ll be painting, although which brushes to choose is a good question. There are a few brands of brushes out there designed for the detailed work you’ll be doing. Games Workshop’s range of brushes have recently been revamped and seem to be a good all round set of brushes. Army Painter have a range of brushes, although I’ve not tried them myself. Personally I have long been a fan of the Windsor & Newton Series 7 range, as even though they are more expensive, they are the best quality I have used. The important thing here is that you are comfortable using your brushes of choice.

Palette

A palette to mix paints in is essential, and the best thing for this I find is a ceramic tile or saucer. There are palettes you can buy out there but a saucer does the job perfectly, and most of the time you can use an old one for free! I’ve played around with “Wet Palette’s” in the past too, but still prefer my old saucers!

Water

An old jam jar is ideal as a water pot, but you can use anything you can put water in really. Remember to change your water regularly too!

Paints

Paints are another obvious one, but again which paints to choose is the question. Like brushes there are many choices. Personally I use both Games Workshop’s range and Vallejo’s Model Color range.

Daylight Lamp

As I mentioned in the previous section, you will need plenty of light! Ideally natural light, however sometimes you can’t paint near a window, and of course there’s no light at night time! Enter the Daylight lamp – or more specifically Bulbs. I have an angle-poise strip lamp bought from Ikea, and have put Daylight strip bulbs in. Daylight bulbs will give you clean light so you can see your colours perfectly (normal bulbs are usually tinted yellow and aren’t as bright).

Clippers

Clippers are ideal for removing models from sprues and removing unwanted parts. Personally I like Games Workshop’s clippers, but you can pick up a similar pair elsewhere.

Files

Files are useful for removing unwanted mold lines from models. I picked up a cheap set on ebay.

Super Glue & Plastic Glue

Glues are essential for putting your models together in the first place. Personally I like Loctite’s precision super glue and Games Workshop’s plastic glue.

So there we have some essentials. If you have any suggestions on alternatives for any of them post up a comment letting us know!