Standard Template Answer: Thin your paints and watch lots of tutorials on Youtube (I like Duncan Rhodes). Set the bar low enough and allow yourself to fail.
Oh and most importantly: Have fun!
Take your time putting them together and clean up the mould lines on the plastic, here’s an example tutorial (note that you can use the back of your hobby knife blade too):
https://youtu.be/E4OX6iyoUA0
I followed this type of beginner video when I started last year; these videos are for the assault intercessors + paints set specifically but the technique is good for any first mini:
https://youtu.be/LqGZjqcEZYA
https://youtu.be/asUa0GZH4XU
You’ll want to thin your paints with water and paint using two+ thin coats to avoid a rough texture on your model. Here’s a thorough tutorial on it if you want more detail:
https://youtu.be/sBDVPoNXyVI
Make sure to search Google and YouTube a lot, there’s a ton of great tutorials. Thin your paints and have fun! And remember, the absolute best advice for getting better is: paint another one!
Painting technique on its own is rather subjective in my opinion. Any technique can produce great models with enough practice and forethought.
I'd advise you, in terms of color selection and use of techniques, to consider what makes a miniature look good. In most cases, the answer is contrast and definition.
Contrast is usually a matter of color and lighting. Dark vs bright, desatured vs highly saturated, red vs green and so on. There's contrast *within* a certain colored zone as well, in the form of shades and highlights.
Definition, on the other hand, is simply how well the details of the model stand out. This is (mostly) all shades and highlights. Raised areas should always be highlighted in order to stand out from their surroundings, deepest recesses should have deeper shades and so on.
It’s ok to take 4 hours on a single troop. Your time will get faster. It used to take me about that long for a single guardsman, now I am down to like an hour per guardsmen. Paint similar models with the same color pallet and watch as your skills improve and don’t be afraid to make basic models without shading as your first ones. As you go you will get more brush control and understand the nuances of painting like how much paint to have on your brush.
Keep painting and try new things. Practice brush control.
It also depends what you want to improve. Are you painting an army project? Army painting is a different skill set to say one off model painting. You focus on a handful of colours and a few techniques to get a homogenous look across a wide range of models. This is great for army painting but you only really improve a small set of skills and colours.
I also like to think of painting certain colours as a skill set. Painting blue is very different to painting white for example so practising a wide range colours is important.
Best way to improve I found was to get some models that are not for the army I am painting and every so often, paint those with different techniques and colours.
This way you can improve things on models you don’t really care about ready for the stand out models in your army.
For me I didn’t want the first time painting a particular colour or technique to be on my centrepiece models.
Standard Template Answer: Thin your paints and watch lots of tutorials on Youtube (I like Duncan Rhodes). Set the bar low enough and allow yourself to fail. Oh and most importantly: Have fun!
Take your time putting them together and clean up the mould lines on the plastic, here’s an example tutorial (note that you can use the back of your hobby knife blade too): https://youtu.be/E4OX6iyoUA0 I followed this type of beginner video when I started last year; these videos are for the assault intercessors + paints set specifically but the technique is good for any first mini: https://youtu.be/LqGZjqcEZYA https://youtu.be/asUa0GZH4XU You’ll want to thin your paints with water and paint using two+ thin coats to avoid a rough texture on your model. Here’s a thorough tutorial on it if you want more detail: https://youtu.be/sBDVPoNXyVI Make sure to search Google and YouTube a lot, there’s a ton of great tutorials. Thin your paints and have fun! And remember, the absolute best advice for getting better is: paint another one!
Painting technique on its own is rather subjective in my opinion. Any technique can produce great models with enough practice and forethought. I'd advise you, in terms of color selection and use of techniques, to consider what makes a miniature look good. In most cases, the answer is contrast and definition. Contrast is usually a matter of color and lighting. Dark vs bright, desatured vs highly saturated, red vs green and so on. There's contrast *within* a certain colored zone as well, in the form of shades and highlights. Definition, on the other hand, is simply how well the details of the model stand out. This is (mostly) all shades and highlights. Raised areas should always be highlighted in order to stand out from their surroundings, deepest recesses should have deeper shades and so on.
It’s ok to take 4 hours on a single troop. Your time will get faster. It used to take me about that long for a single guardsman, now I am down to like an hour per guardsmen. Paint similar models with the same color pallet and watch as your skills improve and don’t be afraid to make basic models without shading as your first ones. As you go you will get more brush control and understand the nuances of painting like how much paint to have on your brush.
Keep painting and try new things. Practice brush control. It also depends what you want to improve. Are you painting an army project? Army painting is a different skill set to say one off model painting. You focus on a handful of colours and a few techniques to get a homogenous look across a wide range of models. This is great for army painting but you only really improve a small set of skills and colours. I also like to think of painting certain colours as a skill set. Painting blue is very different to painting white for example so practising a wide range colours is important. Best way to improve I found was to get some models that are not for the army I am painting and every so often, paint those with different techniques and colours. This way you can improve things on models you don’t really care about ready for the stand out models in your army. For me I didn’t want the first time painting a particular colour or technique to be on my centrepiece models.