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 Wargaming Miniature (Plastic/Metal)
Choosing the right paint for your wargaming miniature (plastic/metal) comes down to surface prep, finish, and durability. We compared 5 options — including common searches like warhammer, 40k, aos, age of sigmar, dnd miniatures. Here's what actually holds up, and what to skip.
Tabletop miniatures live or die by the primer coat. Spray or airbrush a thin even primer, then pick one of two philosophies: traditional base→shade→layer (more control, slower), or one-coat contrast-style paints (army-scale, table-ready fast). Match the paint line to the primer color — light primer for contrast-style, dark primer for classic zenithal highlighting.
Primary pick
Acrylic primer + one-coat contrast paints
Gets a Warhammer army painted in weekends instead of months
Look: Matte, auto-shaded
Also worth considering
Primer + Base/Shade/Layer acrylics
If you want display-case quality or are painting one showcase model
Look: Matte, painter-controlled contrast
Skip
- Craft-store acrylics on fine detail — pigment too coarse, fills recesses
- No primer at all — paint peels off plastic and metal at the first handling
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.
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.