What It Costs to Start Painting

Why there are no dollar figures on this page

Because we will not print a number we cannot stand behind. Hobby prices change with retailers, regions, exchange rates and sales, and a cost guide quoting last year’s prices is worse than one that sends you to today’s.

So this page does the part a number cannot: it tells you where the money goes, which items are one-time and which recur, and where the cheap options are genuinely fine. Every product links through to its current price. The policy behind that is in our review policy.

There are two budgets, and people conflate them

The painting kit. Primer, paint, a brush, a palette, a wash, a topcoat. This is a one-time purchase that will paint your first army and your second. Pots of paint last dozens of models. A brush lasts a year or more if you look after it. Primer is the only item you will genuinely run out of.

The models. This is the recurring cost and it is the larger one by a wide margin. A single infantry box can cost more than the entire painting setup, and an army is several boxes.

That distinction matters because “getting into painting” is cheap; “getting into the game” is not. You can start painting with one cheap model and a small kit.

Where the painting money actually goes

1. Paint is the biggest line. A dozen colors is the bulk of the cost. A starter set is meaningfully cheaper per pot than buying individually, and the large-bottle ranges give the most paint per dollar.
2. Brushes are where people overspend. A ten-brush bundle costs more than one good brush and performs worse. Buy one.
3. Primer is modest and lasts. A large bottle of brush-on or airbrush primer primes an army; aerosols cost more per model.
4. The wash is the best value item in the hobby. One cheap bottle visibly improves every model you own.
5. Palette, handle, topcoat are all small, one-time and optional-ish — though the palette earns itself quickly.

The cheapest honest way to start

If money is the constraint, this is a real route rather than a compromise:

• Brush-on primer rather than an aerosol. Cheaper per model, works indoors, no weather window.
• A small starter set and mix what you are missing. Twelve colors mix into far more than twelve.
• One mid-price synthetic brush. Not the cheapest in the shop, which will not hold a point, and not sable.
• A DIY wet palette. A food container, kitchen towel and baking parchment. Genuinely works — instructions here.
• A cork or old paint pot as a handle, with poster tack.
• One wash. Do not skip this one.
• Models: a starter or single-figure box, or secondhand. Nobody’s first model should be an expensive one.

The “army on the table fast” budget

A different optimization: if your goal is a playable painted army rather than learning to paint well, one-coat paints reduce both time and the number of products you need. Light primer, a speedpaint-style set, one brush, a topcoat — and you skip the separate wash and highlight stages.

Fewer products, far less time per model, a lower finish ceiling. Whether that trade suits you is covered in speedpaint vs contrast.

What you will want later, and when

Nothing on this list is urgent, and each has a trigger:

• A second lamp — the moment you notice your hand shadowing the model.
• A sable detail brush — once you stop flooding the ferrule.
• A paint rack — around twenty paints, when you start buying duplicates.
• A carry case — the first time you take an army somewhere.
• An airbrush — when you are priming and basecoating units rather than models.
• A magnifier — when good light has stopped being enough.

The complete first order, in priority sequence, is in your first army shopping list.