My first mini painting set was a free starter set that came with some Ral Partha minis I had orders (by mail catalog). Prior to that I would never have considered even trying to paint minis. I didn't want to ruin my prized DragonLance and Draconian sets, so I hit the bargain bin at my local hobby shop and grabbed some Shadowrun minis to practice on first. This also got me started on modding minis (something I prefer not to do often), trying to turn sub machine guns into something resembling a crossbow. I still have those minis, they look alright.
At this point I was all in on the detailed painting of minis. I got decent spread of citadel colors from the hobby shop and set about the task for the next few years. (I still have some, those 90's citadel bottles were way better at preserving paint) Again, those minis are crudely done, but still presentable next to more recently painted items.
Then the great hiatus. My several year break in gaming also resulted in several years away from painting. I briefly got back into it on and off, but found my paint drying out and getting frustrated (citadel had switched to screw on tops).
I finally started up again about 8 years ago, but this time I was determiner not to drop a fortune in mini paints. TO THE CRAFT STORE! Ever since then I have done the majority of painting with standard $1 craft paints (and those 25 year old citadel colors). They have worked wonderfully. I had to go back and pick up some silver and gunmetal metallics, as I have not found craft ones that hold up. Oddly brass, gold, and other "yellow" metals are fine in craft paint. Also I need to pick up some specialized "flesh" tones (another area craft paints seem to be lacking).
But, even if you are a serious painter, I would encourage you to pick up some primary colors, grey, browns, greens, and black to help fill in the gaps and give you more variety of colors on the cheap.
Now I just need to get better at photographing:
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