How Many Paints Do You Actually Need to Start Painting Miniatures?

Quick answer

You can start with about eight to ten paints: a white and a black, one mid skin tone, two or three base colours for your army's main cloth and armour, a brown, a metallic, and one wash or shade. That covers most beginner miniatures. Add colours only when a specific model demands them, not because a set looks complete.

Most beginners buy too many paints before they finish their first squad. The result is a shelf of unopened pots and a half-painted unit. The honest answer to how many paints you need is: enough to cover the colours actually visible on your models, and no more.

This guide breaks the question into the specific decisions that matter, from choosing starter paint colours to knowing when a one-coat paint or a primer replaces half your collection. Every recommendation below uses real products from The Army Painter range so you can see how the choices connect.

What is the true minimum paint count for a beginner?

Eight to ten pots is a realistic minimum for a first army. You need a white for highlights and mixing, a black for shading and basing rims, a skin tone, two main uniform or armour colours, a brown for leather and straps, a metallic for weapons and buckles, and one shade to tie everything together. That is not a random number; it matches the number of distinct materials most 28mm infantry actually show on the table.

If your army is mostly one colour, such as desert troops or a single-chapter space marine force, you can drop to six or seven. If you are painting a colourful character model, you will need more. Start narrow, finish a unit, then decide what the next unit genuinely requires.

• Count the distinct materials on your models, not the colours in a paint range.
• Buy one pot per material before buying a second shade of anything.

Which starter paint colours should I buy first?

Pick a mid-tone for each material: mid brown leather, mid green or blue cloth, mid silver metal, and a mid skin tone. Mid-tones are easier to shade and highlight than very dark or very light colours, so they do more work per pot. A strong yellowish brown like Warpaints Fanatic: Desert Yellow is a good example of a flexible mid-tone that can serve as cloth, leather, or groundwork depending on how you shade it.

Add a white and a black. These are not just colours; they are your mixing tools. White lifts a tone for highlights, black deepens it for shadows, and both let you stretch a small palette much further than buying extra pre-mixed shades.

• Buy mid-tones first, then white and black as mixers.
• Avoid buying three near-identical browns before you have finished one squad.

Can one-coat paints replace a full starter set?

For beginners who want finished models quickly, one-coat paints can replace several conventional pots. Speedpaint: Beowulf Blue is a single-coat solution with intense shading and highlighting effect, so it covers the base, shade, and highlight steps in one application. Speedpaint: Golden Armour does the same job for true metallic metal, which normally takes a base metal, a wash, and a drybrush.

The tradeoff is control. One-coat paints flow consistently across all colours, which makes them predictable, but they give you less room to adjust a specific area after the fact. Use them when speed matters more than fine blending, and keep a few conventional paints for details.

• Use one-coat paints for rank-and-file troops; save layered painting for characters.
• Test a one-coat colour on a spare base before committing a whole unit.

Does a primer count as one of my paints?

Yes, and it can remove a pot from your shopping list. A coloured primer sets the dominant base colour before you open a paint pot. Colour Primer: Matt White has a very fine pigment that makes it a suitable undercoat for all paint jobs, and its precision nozzle and fast-drying acrylic formula give even coverage. Because the 24-colour primer range matches the Warpaint line, your primer and your first paint layer agree instead of fighting.

If your army is mostly one uniform colour, priming in that colour means you can skip its base coat entirely and go straight to shading and detail. That is one fewer pot to buy and one fewer step per model.

• Choose a primer that matches your army's dominant colour.
• Priming in your base colour is the fastest way to reduce your paint count.

When should I add washes, dips, and markers?

Add a shade once your base colours are in place, because shading is what makes a flat paint job look finished. Quickshade Dip: Dark Tone is designed and engineered to work with 10-28mm miniatures and shades an army in one pass, which is useful when you are painting many models to a consistent standard rather than one display piece.

Markers are a different kind of addition. Speedpaint Marker: Pallid Bone gives a pale, warm ivory for bone, parchment, and aged surfaces with natural tone depth in one coat. A marker is worth buying when you repeatedly paint a small, awkward detail and want to avoid loading a brush for it every time.

• Buy a shade before you buy a fourth base colour.
• Add a marker only for details you paint often, not as a substitute for a brush.

Beginner paint collection checklist

How many paints do I need for a first squad?

Eight to ten pots: white, black, one skin tone, two main army colours, a brown, a metallic, and one shade. If you cannot name the material each pot covers, you have bought too many.

Should I buy a large paint set or individual pots?

Individual pots let you match your actual army colours. Sets are better value only when you will genuinely use most of the colours inside. Compare the set contents against your unit's visible materials before buying.

Do one-coat paints reduce the number I need?

Yes. A one-coat colour handles base, shade, and highlight for that colour in a single application, replacing up to three conventional pots. Use them for troops; keep a few conventional paints for characters and blending.

When should I buy more paints?

Only when a specific model has a material your current palette cannot mix. Finish a unit first, then reassess. A finished unit is better evidence than a full shelf.

Product facts that affect your paint count

• Warpaints Fanatic: Desert Yellow: A strong yellowish brown and one of the two middle tones from the Ochres & Tans Flexible Colour Triad, matching the Warpaint Air and Colour Primer of the same name. A flexible mid-tone can cover cloth, leather, or groundwork, so one pot does the work of several narrow colours.
• Speedpaint: Beowulf Blue: A dark purplish blue one-coat painting solution with consistent flow and intense shading and highlighting effect, supplied in 18ml spill-free dropper bottles with mixing balls pre-loaded. One-coat colour replaces a base, shade, and highlight pot for that colour, which directly reduces how many paints you need.
• Colour Primer: Matt White: A very fine pigment undercoat with a precision nozzle and fast-drying acrylic formula, part of a 24-colour range that matches the Warpaint line. Priming in your army's main colour removes a base coat step and one pot from your starter list.
• Speedpaint Marker: Pallid Bone: A pale, warm ivory for bone, parchment, and aged surfaces, with a high-pigment formula that gives natural tone depth in one coat. Useful for repeated small details, but it does not replace the core base colours you still need.

Start with eight to ten well-chosen pots, prime in your army's main colour where you can, and let one-coat paints cover the rank and file. Add colours when a model demands them, not when a catalogue suggests them.