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How to Start Painting Miniatures: A Beginner's Guide

Not a theory guide — this is built only from what actually happened across The Pigmentum's own first episodes, mistakes included. If you've never painted a miniature before, start here.

Short answer: prime the miniature, block in base colours from dark shadows up to light highlights, apply your wash to set the shading, then add your final highlights on top — wash before highlight, never after. Expect your first miniature to take a lot longer than the tutorials make it look (hers took three days).

The real order of steps

  1. 01Prime the miniature first

    Every episode starts here. On her Golden Demon copy attempt she primed grey before touching a brush, matching the professional painter she was learning from.

    “I primed the miniature gray, which is what Richard did, too. And then I got straight into painting.” — Episode 03
    Watch Episode 03 →

  2. 02Try zenithal priming early

    Zenithal priming — dark from below, light from above — gives you rough shadows and highlights before you've mixed a single colour. She tried it on her first-ever miniature.

    “Then I practiced my zenithal, which I actually found pretty cool.” — Episode 02
    Watch Episode 02 →

  3. 03Build colour dark-to-light, not flat-then-fix

    Instead of painting the whole model one colour and adding shadows later, mix a run of shades from dark to light first and place them where the light would actually fall.

    “Richard said to start by mixing four colors from the beginning and establish the light and shadows instead of just painting the whole thing in one color and then worrying about the shadows later. So that's exactly what I did.” — Episode 03
    Watch Episode 03 →

  4. 04Wash BEFORE you highlight — never after

    The single most repeated real lesson across her episodes. A wash applied after highlights drags them straight back down.

    “I spent ages putting all these highlights on. And then, as a complete beginner, I put a wash over the whole thing, and just like that, my highlights disappeared. I later learned, wash first, highlight after.”
    Watch the full episode →

  5. 05Wet-blend to soften transitions

    A wet brush pulls colours into each other instead of leaving hard, patchy edges between shades.

    “He used a wet brush technique to blend the colors and I could actually see the colors slowly fading into each other, which was really satisfying.” — Episode 03
    Watch Episode 03 →

  6. 06Thin your paints properly

    Thick paint straight from the pot hides detail and dries patchy. Thinning it is one of the first real skills, alongside highlighting and edge work.

    “I'm already learning the highlights, the shadows, the edge highlighting, the blending, and how to thin my paint properly.” — Episode 03
    Watch Episode 03 →

  7. 07Give it real time — your first mini will not be fast

    Tutorials compress hours into minutes. Her actual first miniature took three days; the two after that took around 20 hours each.

    “It took me three days to paint my first miniature. Okay, he is done. Is he good? I honestly have no idea. But I painted it.” — Episode 02
    Watch Episode 02 →

  8. 08An airbrush is a shortcut, not the starting point

    Once you know the brush basics above, an airbrush can speed up base coats — but it's a separate skill on its own, not how to learn priming and highlighting.

    “So today I have one miniature, one airbrush, one hour... I definitely think there are better ways to speed paint an army and I have a lot to learn.” — Episode 04
    Watch Episode 04 →

Where this started

Before any of the above, there was no plan at all — just a first trip to a Warhammer store that turned into a lot more than one miniature.

“I am going to document everything. Every lesson, every mistake, every tiny little improvement... If you're a beginner, or you just want to see what happens to all the minis, come along for the journey.” — Episode 01

Watch Episode 01, where it all started →

FAQ

Do you wash a miniature before or after highlighting it?
Wash first, highlight after. Applying a wash after your highlights pulls them back down — she learned this the hard way on her first miniature.
What is zenithal priming?
Priming dark from below and light from above, so the model already shows rough shadows and highlights before any paint goes on. A common beginner-friendly shortcut.
Do I need an airbrush to start painting miniatures?
No. The basics — priming, base coats, shading, highlighting, wet blending — are all brush work. Her airbrush episode was a one-hour speed-painting challenge on a later miniature, not how she learned to paint.
How long does painting your first miniature actually take?
Longer than the tutorials suggest. Her first took three days; her next two took around 20 hours each.
What's the actual order of steps for a beginner?
Prime, base coat dark-to-light, wash to set the shading, then final highlights and edge work on top of the wash.
Where can I watch someone actually learn this from zero?
The Pigmentum's YouTube channel (@ThePigmentum) — every episode is real, unedited footage from her first grey sprue onward, mistakes included.
▶ Start with Episode 01