In the name of SCIENCE!

Just been adding to a thread in the AoS section regarding painting.

And some of the discussion got me thinking. In order to expand ones painting skills, one need merely practice.

Right tools for the right job is a good start, and hunting down clear and competent online videos is a second boon to the would be Picassos of 28mm.

Except....as we progress with our painting at our entirely individual rates, we need to try out new fangled and often very tricky techniques. And let's be fair - nobody in their right mind is going to practice on the very centrepiece the new technique is being developed for.

Which brings me to the point of this thread....what kits are best for painting practice? See, the obvious answer of 'the cheaperest!' may in fact be the wrong answer, depending on just what it is you're looking to learn.

For instance - Object Source Lighting. For that, you're really wanting a model with something that be painted glowy, where the glowy will 'light up' other areas of the model. So a simple Guardsman mini probably isn't going to offer those parameters.

Non-Metallic Metals.... These I've typically seen applied to the likes of Tanks and Maureens - nice, smooth plating, ready for that incredibly impressive tromp d'loeil or whatever - so a random model dug out your bitz box that has lots of cloth or capes and that may not be the best.

Seems to me that for the budding maestro, you may want a kit with a real variety of pieces, but one that doesn't break the bank (or at the very least has bits you can add to your army anyway).

So, scene set, let's speak our brainz on this subject...

Chaos Tank?

Cos you get to practise using every single technical pant - rust, slime, verdigris, mud, a figure coming out the hatch to practise non-vehicle minis and the vehicle lights or plasma weapons give you OSL?

Funnily enough I solved this one by accident. When we bought the starter set with the dark eldar figures back in the day, I had a bunch of DE that I really did not know what to do with. I then changed from Ork to Eldar and wanted see how my projected colour scheme would look. Suddenly the DE had a use and that is how I worked out what colours to use and how to paint them. So use those spares and you might end up with a decent disply model.

another option would be ebay space marines, you can get tactical troops dirt cheap, and play around with them. Plus if you get a good look to them, they will always resale. For awhile I would buy ugly marines and clean them up and resale them for a profit. It's amazing what a Pin-Sol bath and a can of primer can do to the value of a mini

Pin-Sol bath? is that good on plastics?

I've not had a problem with using it one bit, soak for no more than 8 hours though, the minis start to get soft.

I practice on extra minis too. All of my new AoS models have 40k color schemes on them...