Just Start with Miniature Painting
Miniature painting is one of those hobbies that looks intimidating from the outside but rewards you almost immediately once you sit down and try it. You take a small plastic or metal figure, the kind used in Warhammer, Dungeons & Dragons, or any number of board games, and you bring it to life with paint. The core techniques are surprisingly learnable: priming, base coating, washing, dry brushing, and highlighting. Master those five steps and you can produce tabletop-ready miniatures that look great from arm’s length. The rabbit hole goes as deep as you want it to, from speed painting a whole army in a weekend to spending weeks on a single display piece, but the basics will carry you a long way.
Start here
Painting Wargaming Figures
Javier Gomez Valero · 192 pages · 2016 · Easy
Themes: miniature painting basics, dry brushing, ink washing, shading and highlighting, basing techniques
The best first book for someone who wants to paint miniatures but does not know where to begin. Javier Gomez Valero, known in the wargaming community as El Mercenario, is an award-winning figure painter whose work has earned the trust of some of the most respected sculptors in the hobby. He takes that professional knowledge and makes it accessible without dumbing it down.
Why Start Here
Most miniature painting guides either focus on a single game system or jump straight to advanced techniques that leave beginners lost. Valero does neither. He starts with the true fundamentals: choosing and preparing your materials, cleaning and assembling miniatures, and priming them properly. Then he walks through every core technique a beginner needs, including base coating, dry brushing, ink washing, shading, and highlighting, all explained with step-by-step photographs and clear color charts.
What sets this book apart is its breadth. Valero does not limit himself to one era or one style. The case studies cover Medieval heraldry, Napoleonic uniforms, World War II camouflage, realistic flesh tones for different skin types, and even painting horses. Each study teaches the techniques in context, so you see how they apply to real projects rather than abstract exercises.
The book also covers ground that many guides skip entirely: basing your miniatures and photographing your finished work. These are the steps that turn a painted figure into a complete piece, and Valero treats them with the same care as the painting itself.
What to Expect
At 192 pages, this is a thorough book that covers the full journey from raw miniature to finished, based figure. The techniques scale across all the major wargaming sizes, from large 40mm display pieces down to tiny 6mm army-scale figures. Whether you are painting a single hero for a D&D campaign or batch-painting a Warhammer regiment, the methods here apply.
The writing is practical and assumes no prior knowledge. If you have never held a detail brush or thinned a pot of acrylic paint, this book will get you there. By the time you finish, you will have a solid foundation in every technique you need to produce miniatures you are proud to put on the table.
Alternatives
Noxweiler Berf · 176 pages · 2022 · Easy
If your entry point into miniature painting is Dungeons & Dragons or other tabletop RPGs, this is the book that speaks your language. Noxweiler Berf is a professional miniature painter who has worked on projects for Critical Role and Dimension 20, and he writes the way a dungeon master runs a session: with enthusiasm, humor, and a sense of adventure.
Why Start Here
The book is structured as a series of quests rather than traditional chapters. You start by choosing your first miniature and work your way through increasingly ambitious milestones, from understanding color and texture choices to developing scenic bases that tell a story. It is a clever framework that gives beginners a sense of progression and accomplishment, the same kind of leveling-up feeling that makes tabletop RPGs addictive in the first place.
Berf covers all the essential techniques, but he frames them through the lens of creating characters and scenes for the gaming table. When he teaches you about washes and dry brushing, it is in the context of making a dungeon-crawling fighter look battle-worn. When he discusses basing, it is about building a tiny piece of terrain that adds atmosphere to your game night.
The tone is approachable and never takes itself too seriously. Berf is good at making the hobby feel welcoming rather than exclusive, which matters when miniature painting forums and communities can sometimes feel intimidating to newcomers.
What to Expect
At 176 pages, the book moves at a comfortable pace. The quest structure means you always know what to work on next, and each milestone produces a tangible result you can bring to your next gaming session. The focus is firmly on tabletop RPG miniatures rather than army-scale wargaming, so if you are painting individual characters and monsters, this is a better fit than books aimed at Warhammer regiments. If you want a broader, more technique-focused foundation, start with “Painting Wargaming Figures” instead.
Paul Stanley · 176 pages · 2019 · Easy
Paul Stanley brings over forty years of wargaming and model-making experience to this guide, including time working at Games Workshop stores where he ran painting and modelling tutorials. If you want a book that covers not just painting but also the full modelling side of the hobby, from assembly to conversion, this is the one to reach for.
Why Start Here
Where “Painting Wargaming Figures” focuses specifically on painting techniques, Stanley’s book takes a wider view. It covers building, converting, and repairing figures in plastic, resin, and white metal before it even picks up a brush. This makes it especially useful if you are working with older or second-hand miniatures that need some love before they are ready to paint, or if you want to customize your figures beyond what comes in the box.
The painting instruction is solid and clearly explained. Stanley walks through dry brushing, the three-colour method, multilayering, and shading with washes, all illustrated with 274 colour photographs. He also addresses practical concerns that trip up beginners, like how to handle differences in scale between miniatures from different manufacturers and gaming systems.
His background at Games Workshop shows in the fantasy focus. The examples lean toward the kinds of figures you encounter in Warhammer and similar games: warriors, monsters, and fantastical creatures. If that is your world, you will feel right at home.
What to Expect
At 176 pages, the book balances breadth with accessibility. It covers enough ground to be useful whether you are assembling a single warband or tackling an entire army, and the modelling chapters add value that pure painting guides do not offer. If your main interest is learning to paint rather than model, “Painting Wargaming Figures” is a more focused starting point. But if you want the complete picture of the hobby, from sprue to display shelf, Stanley delivers.