Intro & Basics

I started playing Warhammer 40,000 about a year ago. In that time, I've amassed over 6,000 points worth of Dark Angels and over 2,000 points of Tyranids. I've also built a Tau army for my son consisting of nearly 3,000 points so far. Lastly, I've just started picking up some kits to get into Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

Everyone in this hobby knows that it's expensive: the models are expensive, the rulebooks are expensive, the painting supplies are expensive... Apps like Battlescribe can mostly take care of the need for rulebooks, but what can you do about the cost of models and paint? Conversions and cheap paints, my friends, that's what. Some people don't like using proxies or "counts-as" models (See what I did there?), and some stores even prohibit playing with proxies and unpainted models. I don't play or shop at those stores because that's a dick thing to do.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle and explain my personal process for converting and painting miniatures. I don't pretend to be an expert, nor do I have illusions of being anything more than a casual hobbyist who only cares that his models look cool to himself. If you're hoping to learn how to paint competitively or professionally, this isn't the place for you. If you just want your army to look pretty good without shelling out more cash than you have to, stick around, maybe you'll learn something that'll help with your hobby!

The Basics of Cheapskate Miniature Painting

Paint
If you're anything like me, you balked at the price tag of Citadel's thimble-sized bottles of paint. Five bucks for like what, an ounce of paint? Now, I have used some of those Citadel paints, and they are really good. They're very smooth, they coat well, and they usually leave a really clean, crisp finish. But still, five bucks a pot when you need three to seven colors for a given model, that adds up fast. I do own a few pots that I acquired for specific effects (which I'll explain in later posts), but for the most part, I use a simple, super cheap alternative...

Apple Barrel acrylic paints from Walmart. Each bottle contains easily five times the paint of a Citadel pot, and only cost $0.50 apiece. Some colors and effects, like metallics and fluorescents, cost a little more, but always under $2 a pop. Are they as clean, smooth, and consistent as Citadel paints? Not at all, but if you're careful and patient, you can still get a decent paint job out of them.

One exception to this: go ahead and shell out for Citadel washes (or "shades" as they call them). Many people I know refer to washes as "liquid talent" as they can significantly improve the look of a model with so very little additional effort. When I started, I made my own washes by just seriously watering down my existing paint. It worked, but the final look wasn't super clean. Once I tried Citadel washes, though, I was hooked. They come in larger pots than other Citadel paints and cost about $7 apiece, but they're well worth it.

Brushes
Get yourself a decent quality size 2 round brush. You don't have to go crazy, but if you spend about five bucks on a decent one, it's pretty much the only brush you'll ever need. If you take good care of it, you can easily use it for painting broad areas as well as fine details, no problem.

Personally, I do have larger flat brushes for basecoating and basing, finer brushes for really fine detail work, a size 5 round brush that I love for shading, and a cup full of super cheap fine brushes I use for metallic enamel paints (because that stuff seriously fucks up a brush).

Modeling Supplies
Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy citadel modeling tools. Why pay ten bucks for an exacto knife when you can get one at Walmart for a dollar? Why shell out $20 for a tiny hand drill when you can just spin the tip of your $1 exacto blade? Why spend $15 on set of Citadel plastic clippers when... ok, I spent $10 on a pair from Army Painter, but I still saved money.

Again, there's one exception to this. Pick up a Citadel mouldline remover if you can. They cost about ten bucks, but they're well worth it. I don't own one myself (I carefully scrape away mouldlines with my exacto knife), but it's on my list of to-gets. Everyone I know that's into this hobby swears by them. I've used one before, and they are amazing (hence its place on my to-get list).

Another thing to consider is epoxy putty. Even I'm kind of split on this one. I currently use a cheap epoxy I got at Lowes for $5. Three times as much material as a pack of Greenstuff at a third the cost. The only problem is it sets a lot faster than Greenstuff does, so I've ended up wasting a lot of it. I'm also not skilled enough to do anything beyond simple applications like filling in gaps and making simple additions like capes and cloaks, so I'm not really sure if actual Greenstuff is worth it.

Primer
I pretty much use three kinds of primer depending on what I'm working on. For my Dark Angels (or any army where you're painting a limited number of models), I use Army Painter primers. Black is really the only color you need, but I keep some gray handy for painting lighter-colored models. For my Tyranids (or for any horde army where you've got hundreds of models to paint), I use the $0.97 black spray paint from Walmart. Is it the best primer on the market? Hell no, and if you're not careful and patient, it really kind of sucks. But if you're painting a lot of little models, it doesn't make sense to spend $10 a can when you can spend less than one.

Expensive Individual Models
Don't like the fact that certain Independent Character models cost $20 a pop and can only be assembled in one configuration? The simple answer is proxy, proxy, proxy. I'll post an in-depth article on the the process later, but for my Dark Angels, I build a bunch of ICs in terminator armor from a standard Deathwing Termnator kit I got on Black Friday for $40. From it, I build a terminator Librarian, Company Mater, and Interrogator Chaplain (as well as a Deathwing Champion and Apothecary). Purchasing the actual models for those ICs would have cost over $60. Not only did I save a ton of money, I got to completely customize their appearance. And that's more fun anyway, right?

Thanks for reading this basic overview of modelling on the cheap. I'll be back soon to post tutorials and work-in-progress articles for specific models I'm working on.