Seeking Advise for a Beginner Painter

[Justin The Critic]

I dabbled in miniature painting a couple years ago after seeing painted Gatefall minis online. I picked out two dnd minis got them mostly painted but never went back to pick up additional colors that I wanted to finish them. With the announcement that Heroscape will be returning and the miniatures will be unpainted I went back to a couple FLGS, bought additional minis and the paints required to finish those first two.

I would love to hear from this community on tips they wish they knew when starting painting or links to articles and videos to assist someone just entering the hobby. Like everything, sometimes advice will contradict and I want to start with one specific question. The first game store I went to was sold out of of white and black citidel paints, and the man behind the counter (who was very helpfull and showed me some of the minis he had painted) told me just to buy cheap apple barrel paints from Walmart and water it down for whites and blacks. After a Google search I was told don't do this, and tracked my desired colors at a different game store. Does anyone use a cheaper white or black paint or is it recommended to stick with the more expensive citidel paints?

Thank you in advance. I'm eagerly awaiting this new era of 'Scape and looking forward to seeing everyone's future paint jobs