Our Picks

One coat over white primer produces shading, depth, and colour simultaneously. Controversial among purists, beloved by everyone who's tried them. A genuine innovation.

Dropper bottle delivery, excellent coverage, huge colour range. The serious alternative to Citadel for painters who want precise ratios and want to avoid dropper-lid dry-out.

One-coat wonders designed for batch painting armies fast. Not as nuanced as traditional layering but dramatically faster. Perfect for rank-and-file troops.

The single most recommended paint in the hobby. Shade your metallics, recesses, and basecoats with one coat. Every painter has a bottle on their desk.

The brown wash that makes skin, leather, wood, and earth look real with zero effort. Second only to Nuln Oil in community recommendation frequency.

Thins paint without breaking surface tension, extends drying time for blending, and makes washes more controllable. Once you discover medium, you use it constantly.

The detail brush every intermediate painter swears by. Holds a reliable point, picks up the right amount of paint, and lasts for years if cleaned properly. da Vinci Maestro or W&N Series 7.

Keeps paint workable for hours rather than minutes. Reduces wasted paint, enables proper blending, and changes how you work fundamentally. Redgrass Games and Masterson Sta-Wet are community standards.

For removing mould lines, cleaning flash, cutting bases, and a hundred other jobs. The X-Acto #1 handle with #11 blades is the hobby standard. Change blades often.

Flush cutters for removing models from sprues cleanly. The Tamiya thin-blade option leaves almost no nub. Avoid cheap cutters — they crush the plastic and leave a mess.

A dedicated tool for scraping mould lines without scratching surrounding detail. Slower than a knife but far more controlled. The Games Workshop one is surprisingly good.

For gap filling, greenstuff work, and base texture. Even painters who don't sculpt use these for pushing putty into gaps and smoothing things out.

The default primer for dark schemes and most Warhammer armies. Consistent coverage, bonds well to plastic, resin, and metal. The community standard for black primer.

Essential for Contrast paints, light schemes, and Iyanden yellow. White primer requires more care — thin even coats at 30–40cm in cool conditions. The GW version is reliable.

Apply with an old brush or palette knife, let dry, drybrush — instant cobblestone and rubble. The texture paste range makes basing effortless and looks genuinely excellent.

Static grass tufts are the single easiest basing upgrade. Small, medium, large — mix sizes for natural variation. Army Painter and Gamers Grass are community favourites.

Natural cork texture reads as rocky terrain perfectly. Cut with scissors, layer and glue for instant cliff faces and rubble. Buy a pack — you'll use it on every base.

Fine ballast glued to a base and drybrushed creates convincing dirt and stone. The most fundamental basing material — cheap, effective, works at every level.

A proper 6500K daylight lamp reveals shadow and detail your old bulb hides. Your blending improves immediately — not because your skill changed, but because you can finally see what you're doing.

Hands-free magnification that goes over your glasses. Lets you see mould lines and detail you didn't know was there. Especially valuable for fine detail work and eye painting.

The OttLite LED range is specifically designed for detailed work — accurate colour rendering and reduced eye strain. The compact version fits on most desks without hassle.

A handle or holder lets you grip the model without touching the mini and smudging wet paint. The Citadel Painting Handle XL and Redgrass Games Evomini are community standards.