Six items, in buying order, each with what it is actually for. Three more worth adding soon after. Nothing here is a bundle, and nothing is on the list twice.
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Ordered by what stops you painting if you do not own it. If your budget runs out at item three, you can still paint — items four to six make it better and easier.
Step 1
Acrylic paint on bare plastic beads up, covers patchily and rubs off with handling. Primer gives it something to key into. Brush-on works in any room on any day; a spray can is faster if you have dry outdoor space.
Our pick: Vallejo Surface Primer
Step 2
You need roughly a dozen colors: two or three armor shades, a metal, a brown, a flesh tone, black, white and one accent. A set costs less per pot than buying individually and removes the which-twelve-colors problem.
Our pick: Citadel Colour: Warhammer 40,000 Paints + Tools Set
Step 3
Not a set of ten. A single size 1 or 2 round that holds a point will paint an entire army, and it teaches you what a good brush feels like so you can tell when one is worn out.
Our pick: Rosemary & Co Series 33 Kolinsky Sable
Step 4
This is the item people buy fourth and should buy third. Thinned paint dies in about two minutes on a dry palette, which is why beginners give up on thinning. A wet palette keeps a mix usable for days.
Our pick: Redgrass Games Everlasting Wet Palette Painter Lite
Step 5
The best value purchase in the hobby. Flowed over flat basecoats it settles in every recess and creates shadow across a whole model in two minutes. It is the single step that makes a model stop looking like a toy.
Our pick: Citadel Shade: Agrax Earthshade
Step 6
Needed at the end of your first model rather than the start, but buy it now so you are not stalled. It protects paint from the abrasion of handling and unifies every different sheen on the model.
Our pick: Mr. Hobby Mr. Super Clear Matt
None of these are needed for your first model. All three noticeably improve the fifth.
Next
Keeps your fingers off wet paint and gives you something to brace against, which is most of what people mean by a steady hand.
Our pick: Citadel Colour Painting Handle
Next
One light source puts your brush hand's shadow on the model. Two lamps at 45 degrees fill each other's shadows.
Our pick: Brightech LightView Pro Flex
Next
Drybrushing destroys brushes. A cheap stiff brush dedicated to it saves your good one.
Our pick: The Army Painter Wargamer: Drybrush
Gunpla and scale kits are a different list, because the kits are engineered to need no paint at all. Three items get you a cleanly built, finished-looking model.
Kit building
The one purchase that transforms kit building. A single blade shears against a flat anvil and leaves a flat cut; a double-blade cutter squeezes the gate and whitens it.
Our pick: Tamiya Sharp Pointed Side Cutter
Kit building
Shaves the remaining nub flush. Keep it sharp — a dull blade tears plastic and leaves a white scar.
Our pick: Olfa Art Knife (AK-4)
Kit building
Ten minutes and one bottle makes the molded surface detail finally read. The highest-impact thing you can do to a bare kit.
Our pick: Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color
Read how to paint miniatures start to finish before your first session, and beginner mistakes after it — the second one will make more sense once you have had a model go wrong. If you want the shopping side laid out as a single order, that is your first army shopping list.