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Getting into miniature wargaming can seem daunting, with all the lore books and rulebooks and endless YouTube channels telling you this painting technique and that kitbashing method. Figuring out exactly what hobby tools for a miniature wargamer you need is often confusing.
This guide is going to give you the 8 must-have hobby tools for miniature wargamers.
Note that these are the miniature hobby basics, not the expert tools. There are more things–endless things–that you can buy to get started in the wargaming hobby, but we’re going to focus on the essential miniature wargaming tools.
For each one of these categories, I’m going to give my number one most recommended hobby tool, and also some alternative ideas. I’ll also provide links to where you can purchase these tools if you live in the United States or United Kingdom. Some of these links are affiliates through Amazon, but if there’s a product I love (such as the Red Grass Wet Palette) that aren’t available as affiliates, I’m still 100% going to recommend it.
Paintbrushes
Every miniature wargamer needs paintbrushes, of course. There are generally three paths into wargaming: painting and modeling, lore, and gameplay. Some wargamers may love all three of these things equally, but there are some people who just love the lore, some people who just love the game, and some people who just love to paint.
And while you can definitely play miniature wargames without ever picking up a paintbrush, almost everyone in the hobby tries it at some point, and I’d guess 90% of all wargamers paint their minis to some standard of quality.
(If you look at the Instagram photos at the bottom of this page you’ll see that I am not the best painter, but it’s something that I absolutely love. I know I’ll never win awards and I’m fine with that. But what I do consistently is I paint every. single. day. I follow the #hobbystreak hashtag on Instagram and Twitter where you paint for at least 30 minutes a day and then post a picture online. I haven’t missed a day since January 1st, 2021–I even insisted that I paint the evening after I was in a rollover car accident because I didn’t want to break my streak. It has seriously leveled up my miniature painting.)
I’ve written at length about paintbrushes for miniature painting, so I won’t go into as much length (you can find an entire article here) but I will say that you need the following:
A good basic brush
Truth be told, tiny brushes with only a single hair are typically only used by beginners. Why? Because longtime painter know that what you’re looking for in a paintbrush is not an extremely fine brush, but instead a brush with a good tip and a fully belly (the bulk of the brush that holds the paint in reserve). If you use a brush that is super-fine, odds are good that the paint will dry on the bristles almost immediately, and even if it doesn’t you’re going to need to return to your paint constantly because your brush’s belly just doesn’t hold enough.
For a basic brush, my personal favorite–the essential paintbrush that I absolutely need for any project large or small–is the Army Painter Regiment brush. I have tried fine art brushes and synthetic brushes, and I have found that the Army Painter Regiment brush is by far my favorite. Considering its low price, it holds its tip for an extremely long time, and the belly is just the right size to keep you full of paint.
You can get the Army Painter Regiment brush in the Army Painter Mega Set with 10 brushes. This is a good deal that I have personally purchased and gotten a lot of use out of. (BUY in USA | BUY in UK) But if you don’t want all ten brushes (and honestly, you don’t need all of them) you can get the smaller Army Painter Most Wanted Brush Set, with just three brushes: the Regiment, plus a detail brush and a dry brush. (BUY in USA | BUY in UK)
For these alternatives you could always go with an old standby of mine: the disposable synthetic brush, like this cheap BOSOBO set: 20 brushes for $7. They don’t keep a tip long, but each brush is only like 30 cents so you’re not going to feel bad throwing them out. (BUY in USA | BUY in UK)
On the other hand, you could go up in quality to a Kolinsky Sable Brush. If you do that, my recommendation is the Winsor and Newton Series 7. Yes, that’s not the top of the top-of-the-line brushes, but it’s a standby for many expert painters. (BUY in USA | BUY in UK)
Drybrushes
For drybrushing, there’s nothing better than good, cheap make-up brushes. Not only are they really inexpensive and can be found at any dollar store, they also are a superior drybrush to any of the specially-made drybrushes that you would buy from hobby stores. I personally have purchased this set a couple of times over the years and they’ve served me very well, though any set is fine. (BUY in USA | BUY in UK)
Paint
A good paintbrush is nothing without a good set of paint. We’ve written an entire article on which paints are the cheapest, which have best ratings, and we’ve even compared ratings to price to see which is the best value. You can read that article here.
But the gist of the article is that Citadel is by far the easiest paint to use, because of both their Base-Layer-Highlight system, but especially because of the Citadel Colour app. With this app on your phone you can look up any color scheme (there are eleven different shades of red, for example) and when you select that scheme on your phone it will give you the paint recipe for coming up with that–both with traditional paint and with their Citadel Contrast paint.
You can see in the image below on the left the eleven shades of red. Picking the Burgundy shade (in the left middle) you can see that it is created by using Khorne Red, a Nuln Oil Wash to take it to Battle Ready Standard. To take it to Parade Ready, (right middle) add Wazdakka Red layer, and Squig Orange highlight. And on the far right is the Contrast method: basecoating in Wraithbone and the applying Flesh Tearers Red, then picking out the highlights with Squig Orange.
This app is so unbelievably useful as to cause me to make Citadel paint my number one choice of paint, despite the fact that it is also the most expensive of all the standard varieties. You can buy Citadel paint online through Games Workshop’s website (BUY here for USA & UK) but it’s generally cheaper to buy it through your Friendly Local Game Store. ($6.10 per pot of paint vs $4.50)
As an alternative, I definitely recommend Vallejo. It’s cheaper, but the paints are just as good as anything Citadel has, plus Vallejo has a MASSIVE range, more than double the number of paints that Citadel has, and almost three and a half times the paints of Army Painter. Vallejo paints are best bought in sets, and good starters are the Basic USA Colors (BUY in USA | BUY in UK), Medieval Colors (BUY in USA | BUY in UK), and the WWII Allied Forces (BUY in USA | BUY in UK).
Hobby Knife
A good hobby knife is an essential for miniature wargaming. You’ll always find a need for a knife, but especially when it comes to modeling. You can shave off mold lines, you can trim down sprue nubs, you can shape things for kitbashing.
There’s not a lot to really say about the knife except that you’re definitely going to need one, and there’s not a lot of alternatives besides the classic X-Acto. There are, of course, cheap knock offs, but since a good quality X-Acto No 1 Precision Knife is only just over $4, there’s no reason to buy a cheaper brand. Get an X-Acto knife (BUY in USA | BUY in UK) and replacement blades (BUY in USA | BUY in UK).
Sprue Clippers
Clippers are also a necessity, and don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can just use the clippers you buy at the hardware store. I mean, you CAN, but you’ll be doing a lot more clean up with your hobby knife later.
What you want with a set of sprue clippers is something sturdy, with a good grip, and, of course, a mouth that has a flush cutting edge (so that you can get it flat against the part you’re cutting and it won’t leave extra bits).
I’ve tried a variety of Sprue Clippers over the years, from the cheap to the expensive. Almost every hobby company makes their own set, but honestly, I haven’t noticed much difference in any of them. The Tamiya Cutters are the best around, but they’re expensive (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). I personally use Games Workshop’s sprue cutters and like them quite a lot, but they’re also not exactly cheap (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). If you want the basic, get-er-done pair of sprue clippers, go with the Army Painter’s (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). I don’t like the grip and weight as much as the Games Workshop, but the cut is exactly the same.
Water Pot
90% of miniature painters use a mug or a cup or Mason jar for their water pot, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But I cannot stress enough how much I like specialized water pots.
I could go into all the reasons why specialized water pots are so useful (and I have, in this review of Citadel’s Water Pot) but suffice it to say that these water pots make it easier to clean your brush without ruining it: they have a rippled surface to rub against to get the paint out of your brush without just jamming the brush into the side of the pot. Also, the Citadel Water Pot has slots that form your brush into a sharp tip so you don’t need to lick your brush. (Though I still totally do.)
My recommendation is the Citadel Water Pot and surprisingly, given that it’s Games Workshop, it’s pretty cheap (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). There is this extremely over-engineered one from Paint Puck that has some pretty neat features, but you really don’t need to be paying $31 for a water pot (BUY in USA | BUY in UK).
Glues and Activator
Depending on the kind of models you’re working with, you’re going to need different kinds of glue.
For starters, resin and metal miniatures work best with cyanoacrylate glue, also known as CA glue or super glue. Super glue is about what you’d expect it to be: it bonds quickly and strong. It also can be a mess to work with if you get it on your fingers (I once drove to the store with my thumb and forefinger glued together to buy acetone). Depending on your preference, you can get super glue as a liquid or a gel. The gel tends to work slower but is easier to control than the liquid. For either, I recommend Loc-tite brand, either their gel (BUY in USA | BUY in UK) or their liquid (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). If you’re looking for an alternative, Gorilla Glue is always an option (BUY in USA | BUY in UK).
Either way, if you’re using super glue you’re going to want an activator, also called “kicker”. This is typically a spray that you spritz onto the glue once you’ve attached the parts and it will cause the glue to immediately harden. I cannot emphasize enough how useful super glue activator is, especially when you’re working with metal and especially when the pieces are small. The brand I keep on my desk is Mitre Apel (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). Another alternative would be Starbond (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). (And honestly, the first kicker I ever used was baking soda. It works exactly the same, but it does create a little white clump that you’ll need to shave down.)
The next kind of glue you’re going to need is plastic glue. This is different from super glue because while super glue simply sticks things together, plastic glue melts the plastic and literally welds the two pieces of plastic to each other. For this reason plastic glue is really easy to work with (it won’t make your hands the least bit sticky) and it also forms a really strong bond. (There are tricks you can do to unstick two pieces that have been super glued, but not so with plastic glue.) My favorite brand of plastic glue is Tamiya Extra Thin (BUY in USA | BUY in UK), as it’s a great glue with an extremely handy brush built in. As an alternative, I keep a bottle of Citadel Plastic Glue (BUY in USA | BUY in UK) around when I want to lay down more than a thin line.
Wet Palette
You can use anything as a palette–any plate or piece of wax paper or tile. You can even use paint straight from the pot if you’re using Citadel. (Citadel pots open so you can get at the paint without squirting it out like dropper bottles require. But, I wouldn’t recommend going straight from the pot.)
But a wet palette is one of those few things in miniature wargame hobbying that will level you up. I don’t say that about many products, but I was really blown away when I started using a wet palette–it made my painting so much better so immediately. The concept is basically this: you have a sponge full of water and a semi-porous piece of paper on top of it. The sponge keeps the paper wet, which keeps your paint wet, which means that you’re not only able to blend and thin your paint with ease, but once you close the lid your paint will stay wet for as long as a couple of days. This all gives you an enormous amount of flexibility with a wet palette that you don’t get from a dry palette.
But this is one time when you’re going to want to buy the name brand, because the cheap alternative is REALLY BAD. The good wet palette is from Red Grass Games. They make two different sizes, the Painter Book Edition and the Studio XL (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). These are excellent wet palettes with good sponges, good paper, and sturdy bodies. The cheap alternative is the Sta-Wet Palette (BUY in USA | BUY in UK), which is indeed cheap, but the paper it comes with is terrible and you have to buy parchment paper to use instead, on top of which I have twice had to throw away Sta-Wet Palettes because they have molded. (The Red Grass Games palette is mold resistant.)
Hobby Handle
A hobby handle is, simply, something big to hold onto when you’re trying to paint a miniature. Many people find that the easiest hobby handle is a cut-up dowel, a cork, or a medicine bottle with a bit of poster putty on top to hold the model on. And those are fine solutions, and they’re even great solutions if you have a model with an odd-sized base (or is not on a base at all).
But I have found that dedicated, specially-designed hobby handles are definitely an investment worth the price. My favorite hobby handle is Citadel’s old Painting Handle (BUY in USA | BUY in UK). I personally think the older style was better, with the chubbier grip, but the new one works well, too. If you’re looking for an alternative, Red Grass Games makes a good handle (but it still uses poster putty, so you’re basically just paying for a slightly-better ergonomic grip (BUY in USA | BUY in UK).
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