Starting out.

So here you are looking at the second post in about a week. Well as this is a blog about painting miniatures I had to step away and take some pictures. Then edit them in photoshop. ( it's what i have on my machine. I use what i have.) But, I digress. So you are reading this and possibly thinking that this had better be a good blog. I can tell you that there is better. though not as often updated. Go to www.brushthralls.com. they have some really nice tutorials. Really. I looked at them myself.
Before I begin please allow me to introduce some friends.
Sam, A Hordes palyer. Prefers the Legion of Everblight.

And Cat, a Warmachine player. Prefers the Cygnaran army.

And of course there is me. I am a member of the Khadoran party. he he he he

Now then. Lets begin.
This blog however is actually geared to people that are in fact just starting out with this new thing called miniatures games. Actually its been around for quite some time, but, once again I digress. Needless to say: Lets start at the beginning.
So what will you need? Well a good lamp to see by and a nice table that you can be comfortable at. I assume you have those as well as the chair. Remember I assume that you are just getting started and don't want to spend on the fancy tools that pros use. Well not yet anyway. I mean, we are talking about $30 + brushes and full spectrum lamps etc. I will talk about those, but lets get started with the basics first. That way you can get the most out of your $30-60 dollar brushes later on in time. (I'm not kidding about the brushes, I looked up the prices and asked my friends in the industry)
So back to the things that you will need. Table, chair, lamp ( you can use sunlight if you have it. I live in the Pacific Northwest so I don't have it available all year.)
Above are the tools I commonly use to clean, assemble and paint my miniatures. They are as follows and in to particular order. Two Cups, one for clean water to dilute paint with and one for cleaning brushes with. Honestly you need any container that can hold water. Then there are the brushes. These usually steal the show, for our purposes I will cover two sizes initially. Just to get you started. Then there is the pin vice. Think of this handy little tool as a hand drill. Actually that is exactly what it is. Its makes assemblyn some models a lot easier, and I will cover its use in a later tutorial. Next up we have the files. The ones pictured above are cut steel files. You can also get diamond files as well, I prefer to have both available. For now, I will cover the cut steel ones as they are more versatile. Well at least in my opinion. The files are followed by the pen knife commonly referred to as an X-acto or scalpel and a pair of clippers. Both of these tools are indispensable when it comes to cleaning your models. Not to mention converting them. Speaking of converting and assembly is included, two part epoxy putty is always handy to have. Its useful when you need to add a little extra detail or to fill in gaps. Then i also recommend Sticky tack, it helps in pre-assembling and posing your model before gluing it together. Speaking of which a good glue is important. For the vast majority of projects I use a cyanoacrylide glue. Err its commonly called super glue, just be careful as it was originally formulated to bond human skin.
And that brings us to the primer and paints. There are numerous opinions as to what primer to use as well as paints, for the sake of brevity I recommend Duplicolor or the P3 brand as the formula is identical (or so I hear) and bonds to metal really well. that and it shrinks quite well and is very durable. As for paints I will be using the P3 range. why not anyone else's? Well again its for brevity's sake and i really really like the P3 line. They come out nice, are reasonably priced and with the exception of the metallic set, are liquid pigment. This is very handy when you want to mix or thin them down.
I can hear you asking about the shiny metal rods and the laptop. Well the rods are used for putting a model together. I will cover them in depth later. And the laptop, well its useful to be able to look up a reference picture online for effects purposes.
Now then. You have your table, lamp and comfy chair all set up. Maybe you have some music in playing. Computers are handy that way.
What are you going to paint?
Well I for one got my hands on the Warmachine Khador Box set by Privateer Press.

And here are the contents:

Starter boxes are a great way to start any army. It Just so happens that Privateer doesn't limit new players to two factions, hence my bias. In case you were wondering.
As I proceed to type I assume that you are reading this for the second time. After you happened to purchase a Starter box of the faction of your choice.

There seems to be some question as to what to get. I recommend the faction that you think looks the best. Hey they are your models after all.

Well that's it for this post.

In my next post we will begin with the robot to the right, commonly referred to as a Juggernaut. We will then proceed to the Destroyer next to it and finally finish the set with the warcaster on the left.