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!
Welcome! Others have posted some great tips so I’ll only throw in a few.
As a beginner I’d recommend just using contrast paints for now, particularly if you have access to a to of them at your FLGS. Contrast paints (or speed paints, different brands call them different things) are basically pre-thinned and my experience is that they’re a great way to get used to how paint is meant to move on a model and how to fill in spaces. There are a ton of “slapchop” videos on Facebook which is a painting approach that uses speed paints.
Once you’re happy with this you can move on to thinning and mixing your own colours, and throwing in stuff like edge highlights.
Also - don’t throw away or strip your first mini once it’s done! Keep it and compare back to it as you improve.
I’ll agree that contrast/speed paints are good jumping on point.
And I say never strip a model. See your progress, enjoy how far you’ve come.