What paint kits do would you recommend? Specifically for mecha to start, perhaps expand to fantasy later. I hear good things about Vallejo brand.
After a while, you'll find that you prefer some brands over other for certain colors. I don't tend to favor Army Painter because I think it's a little watery, but a lot of people don't like Citadel (Games Workshop) paint because it's fairly thick.
- Army Painter: Good paint and reasonably priced.
- Vallejo: Good paint and reasonably priced. (Vallejo has a line of paints specifically for mecha.)
- Pro-Acryl: Good paint and reasonably priced.
- Games Workshop: A little pricey, but worth it for some colors. Their shades (washes really) are good and I love a few of their gold colors
Here's a secret, no matter which paint you get it won't make you a better painter. But you might find some paint you prefer to others. Don't be in a rush to buy all the paint at once, but give new brands a try once in a while. (For terrain, I also use Apple Barrel paints.)
Emperor Paplatine and his guards from Star Wars: Legion. Painted with Citadel
Brushes: I go with the cheap brushes from hobby shops like Michaels. Just look at their brushes and you can find packs of small brushes for anywhere between $7-12. And keep your bad brushes around for a while, even the bad brushes might be good for stippling, painting special effects, or using certain products that could ruin a good brush.
Have fun. Don't compare yourself to other painters, other than to look at their paint schemes or techniques to get some ideas of how you might apply them to your work. Be realistic about your progress and what you expect to accomplish. My very, very best paint jobs aren't going to win any contest and would be seen as high quality table top standard rather than display and I'm comfortable with that. I try to push myself from time-to-time, but I don't really have high aspirations. Start with basic techniques, get those down, and then start working on more advance techniques (glazing, wet blending, dry brushing, etc., etc.)
There are a wide number of excellent tutorials available on YouTube for free.
Dana Howl has some great videos designed for absolute beginners.
Goobertown Hobby has some good videos for beginners.
52 Miniatures is hosted by a Swedish dude and has some good videos covering the basics and sometimes he just talks about miniatures hobby in general.
Don Suartos has, you guessed it, good videos for beginners but also quite a few advanced techniques.
Base for my Armiger Wardog for Chaos Knights (Games Workshop)
Don't ignore you bases. You can paint the best miniature in the world, but it will look even better if you do a decent job on the base. I used crackle paste (but in the paint section of an art store) applied some GW dark brown, GW light brown, then used some pigments to add a little extra color and finally some little grass tufts. You can't have a base without little grass tufts. It's the law. The wreckage came from a GW Sector Imperialis large base detail kit which means I paid entirely too much for some plastic.
Speaking of paying too much, there are some good places to get miniatures.
Reaper Miniatures makes some decent metal and plastic models that are very reasonably priced. Great for practicing on, and they have a good selecting of larger minis that are fun to paint. Look up CAV, it's their line of mecha.
Star Wars Legion (or Imperial Assault) from Fantasy Flight Games are reasonably priced and they're Star Wars so what's not to love?
Wizkids makes a good selection of unpainted miniatures of various sizes such as the T-Rex below which I'm especially proud of.