So glad I found this site!

Thanks for the advice. Got myself a cheap lil Iron man figure at a boot fair for 50p.

This is him so far.

Any pointers would be great!

I never do and I've never had paint flake off on me. Give the figure a good wash with washing up liquid first and you should be fine, an old toothbrush works well to really get in there and make sure every crevice is clean. This is to clean all the mould release agent off that factories use to stop the plastic sticking to the mould.

Thank you both for the advice!

I can't wait to go shopping this weekend! I collect Batman memorabilia and a couple of the figures I have are calling out to me, but I don't want to ruin them. So I'm resisting until I've had a good read up through the forum/guides and I've ruined a few pound shop specials!

Im sold on the Dremel. I've asked the other half for one for my birthday in a few weeks. To which she replied with

One other question if I may. Do you primer before using the Citadel paint, or do you go straight over the figure?

Thanks again.

Hi dude and welcome to the realm!!
As far as paints go I've always used games workshop, they're the easiest to get a hold of over here and the quality has really improved since they changed the formula around a year ago. Vallejo paints are pretty good too but I've never seen them in shops only on ebay. For Sculpt I swear by Aves Fixit, it's about 25 quid but lasts for ages, I've only had three batches in five or so years you can get that via Ebay. Milliput is ok and available in most model shops and hobby crafts, it just doesn't hold as much detail as aves and is a bit harder to work with. I've heard about green stuff being fine too but it's pretty expensive and you don't get a lot of it, you can pick that up at games workshop too. For rotary tools I'd recommend you spend a little more and go for a dremmel, there's a reason most people call rotary tools dremmels, because they're the best!! I've had about three lower level rotary tools just die on me but my trusty dremmel 300 has been going great for about 3 years now, it's a wired one but I prefer that, nothing worse than the battery dying half way through a job. Ooooh be sure to pick up some sandpaper too for smoothing out your sculpt work, I tend to go from 150 grit all the way to 600 grit wet and dry paper. For fodder figures yep, boot sales and flea markets or you could pick up a few practice figures from any of the pound shops, sure they're terrible quality but you don't want to mess up a decent figure for practice right?? Also super glue, try to avoid the cheap brands, they tend to be pretty weak and can leave a nasty white residue all over your figure, my personal recommendation is Loctite in a bottle, the tubes tend to crack and get everywhere possibly leading to a trip to A+E to remove that limb stuck to your hand (I didn't discover this through personal experience but I've heard it happen). It's available in most supermarkets, hobby shops etc. Grab yourself some decent sculpting tools too, once again hobbycraft, model shops have these in stock or ebay. Above all else have fun and be patient, you're sure to make a few duffers first (I know I've made some real monstrosities) keep at it and don't be afraid to ask questions, welcome again bud!, great to have another English person on board!!

I use a dremel Stylus, it is a bit expensive but well worth it. It is cordless, has 10 speed settings and the pistol grip gives you a lot of control for the fine details. I think it was around $120, I also have a black and decker rotary tool which works great and was only $50 but it only has 3 speed settings and its a lot for cumbersome in your hand, not really suitable for fine detail.