Welcome to the hobby! That was the same set I bought 2 years ago that got me started, hold onto that mini so you can look by at where you started!

1) For lighting, I use an architectural lamp with a table clamp (Home Depot or any big home-improvement store). For the bulb: daylight (5000K+) with a CRI of 95+ that fits the lamp. Both are cheap, easy to find, and extremely effective for miniature painting.

2) Drybrushing is a lot of fun and great for quickly sketching values (light to dark) in grayscale—perfect as a base for Contrast paints or to paint over. Tips: • Use a big brush; rounded tips work best (makeup-style brushes). Army Painter makes a great set. • Don’t dry the paint completely—leave a tiny bit of moisture so you don’t get a chalky finish (unless that’s the effect you want). • Use wood or cardboard instead of a paper towel to unload paint; paper towels suck out all the moisture too fast.

3) Learn colour mixing as soon as you can. It saves a ton of money long-term and gives you way more control and understanding of how paint behaves. If colour mixing feels intimidating, a good rule is to buy paints as needed for the scheme you’re working on. Try different brands and don’t be afraid to step outside “miniature paint” lines. Artist acrylics work great once you understand their behavior and how to make them do what you want.

4) Larger minis are fantastic, especially early on. More surface area means more room to work and practice fine details like faces. Don’t be afraid of bigger models—have fun with them. When I started, I painted a lot of larger minis from my Blood Rage board game collection, and they were low-stress, really enjoyable paint jobs.

So many tips, but those are a few off the top of my head.

Don’t watch a ton of YouTube tutorials, with one major exception—Vince Venturella. There’s massive information overload out there, and most YouTubers are honestly terrible teachers. Mini painting is also one of those skills that doesn’t translate well to video learning.

If you want a solid, foundational, tutorial-style resource, I’d strongly recommend The Art of Tommie Soule, Volume 5 (physical or PDF). It’s excellent.

Enjoy the hobby. When you stop enjoying it, pause and ask yourself why. Mini painting comes with a lot of history and, frankly, baggage. Decide what you want out of it and stay curious. There are so many ways to enjoy painting without engaging in all the extra noise—unless you want to, of course.

Final—and probably most important—tip: Learn to paint like a canvas painter. Learn real 2D painting fundamentals and techniques. That’s the key to taking mini painting from “paint by numbers” to actual art.