Like the title says, I’ve been painting figures with cheap dollar store craft paints (and a few other cheap materials) rather than “proper” hobby paints. Gauging if there is interest among people who might want to try mini painting but are intimidated by price or the idea of complexity.
These minis were printed on a lower quality printer, then primed with some kind of mystery spray paint during bad weather, then given to me. So this would be a guide in making tabletop standard baseline minis, and people following it would probably have better results than me but I’d do a starter guide if there is enough interest for me to take pictures and notes.
I have many Vallejo paints, as well as P3, Tamiya, AK and a few other specialty brands. They are better paints. You can do details, as well as blending they you can’t really accomplish with craft paints. There is a lot of precision value for hobby paints. Except for washes, I make those out of artists inks myself and they are both better and cheaper.
Craft paints do have use in my regular rotation for things like terrain , and as I want to demonstrate, can make minis at least tabletop quality. No blending, no complex patterns- but putting a lot of minis, uniformly completed on a table is possible.
The craft paints are $1 a tube (maybe a little more for metallic colors) and what you’d find at WalMart or a dollar store.
These are hand-me-down 3D minis. My understanding is they were 10mm sculpts printed at 27mm scale which is why they are so chunky and dwarven looking.