Your First Army Shopping List
Nine items, in buying order. Three of them are optional and nothing on the list is a bundle.
The short answer
Buy a primer, a starter paint set, one decent detail brush, a wet palette, a brown wash and a matte topcoat. Add a painting handle, a second lamp and a drybrush when you can. That covers an entire first army without a single item you will not use.
The quick version
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Citadel Colour: Warhammer 40,000 Paints + Tools SetThe only starter set that hands you paints, a brush, clippers and a moldline scraper at once, so nothing else is needed to finish a first squad. | The one-box answer | 9.0 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 |  Vallejo Surface PrimerA water-based acrylic primer that brushes or airbrushes on with almost no smell. The answer for anyone who cannot spray outdoors. | Primer that works indoors | 9.1 | Check price on Amazon |
| 3 |  Rosemary & Co Series 33 Kolinsky SableKolinsky sable at a price that does not make you flinch when one eventually dies. The brush most experienced painters quietly settle on. | The one brush that matters | 9.3 | Check price on Amazon |
| 4 |  Redgrass Games Everlasting Wet Palette Painter LiteA sealed, mold-resistant wet palette small enough to live on a crowded desk. It keeps thinned paint usable for days instead of minutes. | Making thinning practical | 9.3 | Check price on Amazon |
| 5 |  Citadel Shade: Agrax EarthshadeA warm brown wash that flows into recesses and makes almost any color scheme look finished. If you buy a single wash, this is it. | Instant shadow | 9.2 | Check price on Amazon |
Scores are our own editorial read against the criteria stated below — not a lab measurement and not a user rating. Tap a row for the full write-up.
The list, in buying order
Ordered by what stops you painting if you do not have it.
1. Primer. You cannot usefully start without it. If you have dry outdoor space, a spray can is fastest. If you do not, a brush-on acrylic primer works in any room on any day — see the primer picks.
2. Paint. A starter set is better value than individual pots and removes the “which twelve colors?” problem. You need roughly a dozen: two or three armor colors, a metal, a leather/brown, a flesh tone, a black, a white and one bright accent. The reasoning on counts is in how many paints to start.
3. One good brush. Not a set. A single size 1 or size 2 round that holds a point will paint an entire army, and it will teach you what a good brush feels like. See the beginner brushes.
4. A wet palette. This is the item people buy fourth and should buy third. It is what makes thinning your paint practical rather than a race against drying — the full case.
5. A brown wash. One bottle. It puts shadow into every recess of every model you own in two minutes a model, and it is the single highest-impact purchase on this list relative to cost. See the washes.
6. A matte topcoat. Needed at the end of the first model, not the start, but buy it with the rest so you are not stalled. See the topcoats.
Worth adding soon after
7. A painting handle. Cheap, and it stops your fingers rubbing paint off the model while giving you something to brace against — handles.
8. A second lamp. If you paint under one light, this will improve your results more than any paint or brush upgrade available at the same price. Lamps.
9. A drybrush. A cheap stiff brush dedicated to drybrushing, so you are not destroying your good one doing it. Drybrushes.
What to skip, and what it would have cost you
- Brush sets of ten or more. You will use two. The rest are filler, and the good ones in the set are rarely good.
- A full paint range. Forty pots means thirty you never open and a storage problem — see storage when you get there.
- An airbrush. Not yet, and probably not for a first army. The honest version is in do you need an airbrush.
- Expensive kolinsky sable, on day one. Superb brushes that are ruined by beginner habits. Buy one after you have learned not to flood the ferrule — synthetic vs sable.
- Technical and texture paints. Lovely, entirely optional, and easily added per project.
- A paint rack, before you own twenty paints.
The alternative route: one-coat paints
If what you actually want is an army on the table quickly, there is a shorter list: light primer, a speedpaint-style set, one brush, a wet palette, a topcoat. One-coat paints shade and basecoat in a single pass, which removes the wash and highlight stages entirely.
The trade-off is control and finish quality, and they behave differently enough that it is worth reading speedpaint vs contrast before committing. For a first army you intend to game with, it is a legitimate choice rather than a shortcut.
Budgeting it
Prices move and we do not publish numbers we cannot verify, so the honest guidance is structural rather than a figure: the paint set is the largest single line, the primer and brush are modest, and the wash, handle and topcoat are small. Buying a starter set rather than individual pots is where most of the saving is, and skipping the brush bundle is where the rest is.
A full cost walkthrough, including the models themselves, is in what it costs to start painting.
The picks in full
Citadel Colour: Warhammer 40,000 Paints + Tools Set
The only starter set that hands you paints, a brush, clippers and a moldline scraper at once, so nothing else is needed to finish a first squad.
What it gets right
- Covers all five Citadel paint types, so tutorials that name a Citadel color just work
- The clippers and moldline scraper mean you can go from box to painted without a second order
- Agrax Earthshade and Armageddon Dust are in the box, so shading and basing are solved on day one
Who it is wrong for
- Wrong buy if you are not painting Space Marines or Tyranids — the 13 colors are chosen for those two schemes
- 12 ml pots are the most expensive way to buy paint per milliliter
- The starter brush is a starter brush; you will replace it
Scored against this page’s criteria
Specs from the manufacturer: Citadel product page
We do not publish prices. Amazon shows the current one, which is the only one that is ever right. #ad · how this is funded
Vallejo Surface Primer
A water-based acrylic primer that brushes or airbrushes on with almost no smell. The answer for anyone who cannot spray outdoors.
What it gets right
- No aerosol, no fumes, no weather window — prime at the kitchen table in February
- Sprays through an airbrush straight from the bottle, needing little or no thinning
- Sold in large bottles, so priming a whole army is cheap
Who it is wrong for
- Brushing it on fills fine detail if you are heavy-handed — it wants thin coats
- Needs a full day to cure hard; handled too early it can peel at contact points
- An airbrush or a lot of patience is really required to get a spray-can-smooth finish
Scored against this page’s criteria
Specs from the manufacturer: Vallejo product page
We do not publish prices. Amazon shows the current one, which is the only one that is ever right. #ad · how this is funded
Rosemary & Co Series 33 Kolinsky Sable
Kolinsky sable at a price that does not make you flinch when one eventually dies. The brush most experienced painters quietly settle on.
What it gets right
- Holds a genuine point and a useful belly of paint — the two things that actually matter
- Cheap enough that replacing one is an annoyance, not an event
- Hair length is cut short for miniature work rather than borrowed from watercolor
Who it is wrong for
- Direct from the maker in the UK, so US delivery is slower than a next-day order
- Sable dies if you let paint dry in the ferrule — these need actual care
- No fancy handle; the grip is a plain wooden taper
Scored against this page’s criteria
Specs from the manufacturer: Rosemary & Co product page
We do not publish prices. Amazon shows the current one, which is the only one that is ever right. #ad · how this is funded
Redgrass Games Everlasting Wet Palette Painter Lite
A sealed, mold-resistant wet palette small enough to live on a crowded desk. It keeps thinned paint usable for days instead of minutes.
What it gets right
- Paint stays workable for days with the lid on, which is the entire point of a wet palette
- Small footprint — it fits beside a model rather than replacing your desk
- Membranes and foam are sold as refills, so the palette itself is a one-time buy
Who it is wrong for
- Too small for batch-painting a whole regiment's worth of colors at once
- Refill membranes are a recurring cost you should price in
- Still molds if you leave paint and water in it for two weeks — nothing fixes neglect
Scored against this page’s criteria
Specs from the manufacturer: Redgrass Games product page
We do not publish prices. Amazon shows the current one, which is the only one that is ever right. #ad · how this is funded
Citadel Shade: Agrax Earthshade
A warm brown wash that flows into recesses and makes almost any color scheme look finished. If you buy a single wash, this is it.
What it gets right
- Flows into panel lines and recesses on its own — no brush control required
- Warm enough to flatter metal, leather, bone, skin and most greens
- An 18 ml pot outlasts several armies because a wash goes on thin
Who it is wrong for
- Browns everything it touches; wrong over cool blue-gray schemes that need Nuln Oil
- Tide-marks if you flood a flat panel instead of letting it sit in recesses
- Matt-dulls metallics slightly, which some painters then have to re-highlight
Scored against this page’s criteria
Specs from the manufacturer: Citadel product page
We do not publish prices. Amazon shows the current one, which is the only one that is ever right. #ad · how this is funded
FAQ
Questions people actually ask
What do I need to start painting miniatures?
How many brushes do I need to start?
Is a paint starter set better than buying individual pots?
Do I need a wet palette straight away?
What should I not buy as a beginner?
More in Painting and Building Guides, or start from the beginning with what to buy first.
Sources
- Games Workshop / Citadel Colour — painting guidance and rangeschecked October 2026
- The Army Painter — Warpaints and Speedpaint rangeschecked October 2026
- Acrylicos Vallejo — Game Color and Surface Primer rangeschecked October 2026