The cheapest place I've found for paints is Defiant Gaming. They're cheap for a lot of things, actually, and their service is excellent. I linked directly to the main paints I and many others use. You don't need to buy many to start out with as you can just mix different ones to make your own colours. Grab the primary colours, a few key others, some decent brushes and a cheap palette and you're ready to go. The only other thing needed is a primer, I use this type, which comes in different sizes and colours with the main ones being white, black and grey.
As for the steady hands thing, it's all practice and technique. I'm not even close to being there and I don't know if I ever will be. When you're on stimulants all day, every day, it makes having a steady hand rather difficult and hard to control though. At least that's my excuse, haha.
If you want cheap (and good, this combo totally exists!) minis to paint, have a look at the Reaper Bones range. Orders over $100 get free shipping and I'm quite likely to put in an order that qualifies, because I must have Cthulhu! Screw it, I'm posting a photo of it painted by some amazing person because it's just so great.
Here it is on a scale that all Australians understand.
You're welcome to piggyback on this order if you like. Otherwise a place local to me, Tabletop Empires also sells them at a very reasonable price and how could you say no to a Cyber-gorilla? He looks rad painted (not mine) and I may have to buy another
I jumped on the latest Reaper Bones Kickstarter because it's just such great value. Be sure to scroll down and have a look at Khanjira, it's essentially a Tarrasque, which I'm sure you're well aware of what that is. I wasn't until one came up near the end of my D&D campaign. All the other players jaws dropped and I was like "What? What is it?" and then they told me... So awesome. I can add extras on to my Kickstarter pledge until the end of the year, so if you or any other people here want something, just let me know and it can be arranged. Stuff won't ship until this time next year though, which will surely dull the enthusiasm of many.
If you don't care that much, that's cool too. I'm just pretty excited about this whole thing and gushing to my gaming mates is like preaching to the choir; with them I'm like 25+ years late to the party.
These two things are most likely to spark a SydGAF meetup. A new person and an out-of-town visitor are surefire catalysts. If not, I'll certainly be up for it. We can be introverted together – I'm an ambivert so I can go both ways! No alcohol for me though, it doesn't mix well with dex at all.
If it weren't for this post and the replies to it, I would not have even known it was on today. Now I can knowingly not give a shit about it. It's like the least interesting version of a rich person fight there could possibly be.
EDIT: I totally didn't try and snype this new page, but at least there's some cool (to me) stuff to see.
