While the dipping method you mention personally horrifies me, I will acknowledge that it is a valid method of speed painting, both for adding detail, and getting an army to have a unified look. I would recommend hitting them with a matte sealer afterward to cut the high shine that such methods can leave.
What we need to know before we can answer your question is, just what is your painting budget?
Almost all miniature paints are water based acrylics, the paints usually I work with are Games Workshop:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/ca...e=paints-tools
They have a Starter paint Set for about $30 which is kinda the Crayola basic 8 of painting, they also have a Hobby Starter Set for $50 which comes with a brush, clippers and some glue, and is a bit of a rip off in my book. They used to sell a massive paint set with all of their colors for about $150 which was actually a pretty good value.
I began painting minis with Partha Paints, but they don't make those any more, but most of mine are still good, even after all these years.
Most "miniature paints" ARE superior to what you will find on the shelves of the arts and crafts store, and you will pay for that, they are typically much smoother, have more pigment, and take to the mini much better than crafts paint. They also will cost you at least 2-3x as much. if you are just starting out, and on a budget, try the cheaper option just to get your feet wet.
For priming, yes, you use spray paint, while most mini paint companies have their own brand of Miniature primer, here you can skimp without noticeable effect. Usually you won't find "Black Primer" in most spray paint displays, it's pretty much white and rusty brown, what you are looking for is flat or ultra flat black. This will do the trick, remember that multiple light coats are preferable to one heavy coat, and watch out for the humidity, wait until it is nice and dry outside, high humidity can cause a rough pebbled finish that you don't want.
For brushes, again, this comes down again to price, for a really nice single fine tipped brush, you can expect to pay $5-10, but, for that same $5, you can go to the Wal-Mart crafts section and get a variety pack of brushes which will work just fine. You are looking for natural fibers, short, fine tips for detail work, as well as some flat brushes for broader areas and drybrushing. I've been painting for a long time, and have tons of brushes, but I still picked up a couple of these multi packs just last week.
Other basics are a roll of paper towels, I always paint over a pad of paper towels about 4 layers thick, it gives me something to remove excess paint from my brush on, a place to dry my brushes after cleaning them, as well as a cushion for when I inevitably drop the mini I am working on.
You also need at least 2 cups of brush water that you are willing to sacrifice to the cause, I use disposable red party cups. Why at least 2? One is for the basic cleaning of the paint covered brush, and it gets dirty pretty fast, the second one is for a second rinsing of the brush before drying it on the paper towel. Also if you are working with Metallic Paints you want a separate cup for that so the tiny flecks don't contaminate your other waters and transfer.
There are tons of tutorials online for painting minis, just Google it to your hearts content, or, if I may suggest, check my sig for the thread I just started, it's a bit hit or miss, and not a real tutorial, I'm more or less covering all kinds of related subjects as they come to me.
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