You can get pretty much everything you need at a Michael's, Hobby Lobby, or other craft store. For the soft plastic minis, the Apple Barrel Acryilic paints work pretty well. I personally always like to use Vallejo Miniature Paints or Citadel Paints, but those can be a bit more expensive.

You WILL need to prime them before you start to paint them at all. For the primer, I've heard of people having success with a Krylon Matte Primer, but I personally don't like it at all. I've never had a ton of sucess with my acrylic paints sticking to it. I use Citadel Black Primer.

I agree with Sean but will add.

For your first few (dozen) minis keep it simple and keep it neat. A neat and tidy paint job of 4 colors will look better than a sloppy job with a dozen colors.

Prime the heroes in white. This will make them brighter and more colorful.

Prime the zombies in black. This will make them duller, and more washed out.

Also for the zombies use dry brushing and let your self be a bit (A BIT!) more sloppy. Most of the time I wouldn't suggest dry brushing except for hair, but for a beginner doing zombies it should yield some satisfying results.

If you don't know what it is:
Prime the mini in black. Then get paint on the brush and wipe most of it off onto a paper towel. The lightly drag the brush over the surface of the mini repeatedly. The raised areas will take the paint and the recessed areas will stay dark.

See this thread for more advice on supplies and techniques:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/226201

I would just like to add that you should be sure to wash the plastic figures with soap and water first to remove any left over mold release from them. If you do not, spray primer will make a mess of them (all sticky and nasty) and the paint will tend to rub off anyway once you are done.

Make sure you post pics once you get something going!

- Jason

Jason C. Hill
Flying Frog Productions

Thanks everyone for the tips and links. I probably would have forgot primer, let alone using different primer on the zombies and heroes, and I know I wouldn't have remembered to wash them first. Time to head to craft store and get some paint :)

If it all comes out lovely (or spectacularly awful) I'll post some pictures. Thanks again!

Another quick tip on priming these, Krylon makes a primer called FUSION that is meant to take to plastics better than regular paint. I typically don't like Krylon but this stuff makes a good base for soft plastics and plastics in general. I use it on Plastic minis and resin pieces as a primer. It can be found at Wal-Mart.

Hey Bryan, does that FUSION stuff work on 40k minis?

I wouldn't see why not. Actually with 40k plastics I never had any trouble with just the normal run of the mill spray primers. I'd use the fusion on softer plastics like the LNOE figures or the figures from the DOOM boardgame.

Doh! Nice catch! Sometimes us old timers forget the easy stuff!

I've finished painting the zombies, and as promised, I have pictures.



You can read about my experience here.
You can get all the photos here

I really really appreciate the advice you all have given me. It was seriously invaluable. I couldn't find some of the nicer paints, but in the end it seems to have worked out okay.

Next up, time to paint the heroes :D