Vallejo Surface Primer (Airbrush/Brush)
Water-based acrylic-polyurethane primer that sprays from an airbrush without thinning. The tabletop miniature standard for a reason.
Best Paint for 3D-Printed Resin Miniature
Choosing the right paint for your 3d-printed resin miniature comes down to surface prep, finish, and durability. We compared 6 options — including common searches like resin print, sla, msla, miniature, dnd. Here's what actually holds up, and what to skip.
Resin prints need thorough IPA-washing and UV-curing before paint — uncured resin leaches and ruins adhesion. Once cured, they take primer beautifully: finer detail than PLA, so use a hobby-grade primer (airbrush or rattle-can) and any tabletop miniature paint line. For army-scale workflows, one-coat 'contrast'-style paints over a light primer save hours.
Primary pick
Airbrush primer + contrast/speedpaint acrylics
Preserves detail and gets a table-ready mini in one evening per figure
Look: Matte with automatic shading
Also worth considering
Classic base + shade + layer acrylics
More control and blending options if you're painting centerpiece models
Look: Matte, painter's choice of contrast
Skip
- Painting uncured resin — adhesion fails, paint stays tacky
- Heavy primer — fills micro-detail that's the whole point of resin
Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (Spray)
The gold-standard primer for scale modelers. Lays down a glass-smooth surface that preserves rivets, panel lines, and sub-millimeter detail.
Citadel Contrast Paints
Self-shading ink-paint hybrid — pools in recesses while covering raised surfaces, giving instant shading on primed minis. Beginner-friendly, army-scale time-saver.
The Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0
Direct competitor to Citadel Contrast, in eyedropper bottles at a more forgiving price. Many tabletop painters prefer it for large armies.
Vallejo Model Color Acrylic
Matte historical-hobby acrylic range (~200 colors) in a precision eyedropper bottle. Thin with water or Vallejo's own medium.
Citadel Base Paints
Opaque one-coat base paints in Games Workshop's flip-top pots. The tabletop miniature starter standard — if you've painted Space Marines, you've used these.