Let’s face it, Warhammer 40K is a big deal. There are countless others fantastic games to discover (and you can explore them all right here), but for a huge number of people 40K will be their entry point into the hobby. As with all entry points though there are hurdles, and for some people one of the biggest can be the idea of picking up a paintbrush for the very first time.

If this sounds like you, we have some suggestions that might make things a little bit easier for you. If you pick the right army to start collecting – one that suits a more beginner-friendly paint scheme – you might just find that painting it up is a lot more fun than you thought. Ease of painting shouldn’t be your only consideration when choosing an army, but if you’re new to the hobby then it should definitely up there.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at our top recommendations for Warhammer 40K armies that are especially good choices for beginner painters.

Space Marines

Are you surprised? Probably not! Of course we’re recommending Space Marines as a good army for newbie painters, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re the poster-boys of Warhammer 40K for a reason, and part of that reason is that they’re very beginner-friendly both to play and paint, or at least they can be. A lot depends on which of the countless Space Marine chapters you choose to collect. Blood Angels, for example, feature almost entirely red armour – even the trim is red in most cases. That means that for 90% of the miniature, all you need to do is apply a base coat of Mephiston Red, give it a wash of Nuln Oil and you can call it done. If you wanted to keep things really simple you could just use this one colour on everything except the marine’s weapon and it would probably still look just about okay (some 40K events will insist on a 3-colour minimum, but if you’re an absolute beginner you’re probably not thinking about those yet, so don’t worry about it – add a third colour later!).

Other major space marine chapters with pretty simple paint schemes include Dark Angels, Iron Hands and, to a slightly lesser extent, Ultramarines. Even Imperial Fists can be a good choice for a new painter these days, since the various yellow options in the Contrast paints range now make this once-dreaded colour easy to apply. Maybe best to stay away from Space Wolves and Black Templars until you’re feeling a bit more confident though – their unique styles mean that they have a lot of details that require a good eye, multiple colours and a steady hand to get a pleasing result. Of course, you can always invent your own chapter and come up with your own simple colour scheme. Regardless of which route you choose, the Combat Patrol: Space Marines box is a great starting place.

Adeptus Custodes

Gold! That’s it. That’s the colour scheme. Okay, so it’s a bit more complicated than that, but the fact remains that Adeptus Custodes miniatures are intended to be painted (and look fantastic) almost entirely in gold, and it can be fairly straightforward to get them looking great with just a few paints and some simple techniques. Yes, the Custodes miniatures have a lot of fine detail, but almost all of it can be painted in the same shade of gold and you should just about get away with it! Your approach can be as simple as spraying the models with Retributor Armour, drybrushing them all over with Stormhost Silver and then applying an all-over wash of Reikland Fleshshade.

That just leaves the non-metallic areas, most notably the Custodes’ power weapons, cloth garments and topknots. You can begin by painting all of these with a base coat of Corax White or Wraithbone, then simply apply the Contrast colour of our choice to each area. Fortunately these areas are quite large, so you shouldn’t have to worry about concentrating on small details. As ever, there are other areas and details that might look even better if you use an additional colour, or if you choose to give them a bit more time and attention, but this basic approach should stand you in good stead regardless. If you’re thinking of starting an Adeptus Custodes force for Warhammer 40K, the Combat Patrol: Adeptus Custodes box set is the way to go.

Chaos Daemons

If you’re looking for an army featuring a riot of bold colours that’s nonetheless easy to paint, Chaos Daemons could be the Warhammer 40K army for you. The army’s units are split between the four chaos gods and – lucky you – each god is associated with a single colour almost to the exclusion of all else. Daemons of Khorne are almost entirely red. Those of Nurgle are predominantly green. Slaanesh miniatures tend towards purple, perhaps with a dash of pink and black. In the lore, Tzeentch is often associated with an ever-shifting spectrum of wild colours, but in the reality of the tabletop his guys tend to be mostly blue.

What this means is that for any given unit in the army, you won’t have to stray far beyond a single colour, or at least a limited palette. To give you an example of how this can make things a little kinder on the beginner painter, let’s look at a Slaanesh unit – Fiends. In the studio colour scheme, these daemonic miniatures basically feature three colours – pale purple-grey, purple and black. The fact that these colours are all very complimentary, coupled with the fact that you’re painting an organic form rather than, say, armour plates, means that you don’t have to be quite as careful about the colour in one area spilling over into another. Daemons are very forgiving in that respect! Nurgle especially so, as his minions are kind of messy by design. Unfortunately there’s no Combat Patrol box specifically for Nurgle just yet, but Combat Patrol: Chaos Daemons gives you a whole bunch of Khorne units that come with similar painting benefits – only in blood-red!

Necrons

Necrons are the epitome of an army that can look great almost regardless of effort or ability. An experienced painter can find lots of details that can really show off their skills if they so choose but, unlike with other armies, those details needn’t present a struggle for the beginner. That’s because, with a few notable exceptions, Necrons can look great with just two colours applied – a bright colour for the various glowing parts and a metallic paint for literally everything else. They’re pretty much designed with this in mind, especially the basic troops like Necron Warriors.

So, if you wanted to get a result that approximates the studio paint scheme in the simplest way possible and with the fewest paints, you might try priming your miniatures with Leadbelcher spray then applying an all-over wash with Agrax Earthshade. Then basecoat any glowing weapons, orbs and so on with Corax White and follow that up with a coat of Tesseract Glow. Tesseract Glow is one of those miracle paints that creates a fantastic-looking yellow-green glow effect with just one coat – you’ll love it! You can substitute an alternative metallic colour or another glow-effect Contrast paint if you’d like your army to look a little different, but the process works just the same. And if you think Necrons might be your thing, the Combat Patrol: Necrons box is a great value set to kick off your collection.