ok painting miniatures 101.

Wash and dry the mini, clean the flash off....prime the mini..use water souluable acrylic paints and thin them down. Unless you plan to go into the painting hobby best get a basic miniature paint set ( usually 4-5 colors). I'd check out galactic (before it closes) or hub hobby. Saty away from paints that need thinner and dont go for anything "glossy"

Many things will work as paint but unless you are very talented or experienced its hard to get good results without the right paint.

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I'm just looking for the cheapest decent solution.  I'm not too interested in getting into it as a hobby or anything.  It's really out of necessity; I just prefer the way painted metal miniatures look, so that means I have to paint them myself.

Apparently I need some tiny brushes (5/0, 000, etc.) which I was unable to find at Michael's the other day - I can walk there from work.  As it happens, Michael's kinda sucks.  Their paints appear to be overpriced and their selection looks pretty limited.  I feel like I should be able to buy a tube of paint for $2, but that doesn't seem to be the case there.  Admittedly, I might just be looking in the wrong place.

Any guidance in terms of where to buy stuff locally is really what I'm looking for.

i tend to see a "you get what you pay for" effect in painting. if you check out michael's weekly ad, they occasionally have 40% off one item coupons, and you can go to the store, grab a handful of those coupons, and go in for multiple trips to stock up on paint. they normally don't care how many times you come in with them, as they make their profit either way. i'm not sure how other stores would do it though, and i think michael's just has basic acrylic and oil paints, and then model paints for plastic models. i'm not sure what works best on metal; i always used model paint on plastic figures back when i painted stuff like that.

in fact, i've still got a basic set of model paints (6 flat, 6 glossy, basic and metallic colors) made by testors that you are welcome to have if you want it. i live close to the elmwood michael's (citrus creek apartments, if that helps) and can meet you somewhere if you want them. let me know if you are interested and we can figure something out.

Hey I have paints you can use if you want to get together and do some painting. It is also important to prime your mini's before painting them. I'm not great at painting but enjoy the hell out of it, and have not been able to do it for the last year or so. Also I have mini's that you could practice on if you find an unpainted one you like in my stuff.

Daniel