Terrain paint.

[General308]

So I have ordered a bunch of buildings and I have a bunch more coming in.   Seems to me standard hobby paint would be a very expensive way to paint these buildings.   What is your best suggestions on paint for painting buildings?

[Major Headcase]

For terrain, I use cheap water based craft paints, like Apple Barrel. You can get them at pretty much any craft store in large 8-10 oz bottles for just a couple of bucks. Heck even a good general department store like Walmart or Target will usually have some in their parts and crafts section.
Conversely, if you want fast and monochromatic, a cheap can of medium gray spray primer (like Rustoleum) is under $5 and is a great base color for city terrain. Then dark blue or black for the windows, a wash of very thinned black or brown, and bam! Easy street city terrain!

[Mohammed As`Zaman Bey]

 1) NEVER buy "standard hobby paint", as they are overpriced versions of cheaper stuff that's been available at hobby stores for years.
 2) The paints available at discount stores are just as good or better than the stuff sold by your source of minis.
 3) Read as many guides and tips to modelling as possible. Even I don't know everything and I've been building models and painting figures since the 1960s. There is always more to learn and new products appear every year.

[Two Guns Blazing]

For terrain, I always use house paint...doesn't really matter if it is interior or exterior. Where I come from, there are several main manufacturers available, all with online colour charts to select from, and you can also go to the hardware store or paint specialist shop and get colour swatches and also small sample pots. These paints always have a huge range of colours and shades available that you can select from.

...and because they can come in tins from 250ml up to 4ltr or more, you can get whatever size you want...I usually get 1ltr tins of the main base colour, and 250ml or 500ml tins of the stuff that will be used for highlighting.

...and because they give the colour mix ingredients on stickers attached to the tin, you can then very easily get the same mix made up years into the future to perfectly colour match any future projects you want.

I did some fantasy dungeon tiles several years ago, and used three different shades of grey (1 for the base colour, then 2 lighter shades for drybrush highlighting)...and I still have the tins with paint left...but if I didn't have any paint left, and I ever want to make some more dungeon tiles, I could easily take the mix details and get some more perfectly matched colours mixed up at any number of places close to my house...even phone ahead with the order, pay over the phone with credit card and have the paint delivered or just walk in to the shop and pick it up...

[Colt Ward]

I have some House paint for purple foam hill sections- green- but have some gray for buildings, and a few other colors to paint bulk terrain like the hills, street sections, parking lots, or other stuff.  The nice thing is I can go by Home Depot when I am getting stuff to fix the house, I check out their rejected mixes.  You can buy pint-sized containers of a color someone else did not like for clearance price.

I have some of the Apple Barrel stuff for detail work on buildings- see my Moe's Tavern and Dunkin Donuts.  The wife also uses it for art with the toddler (hand prints), so keeping a supply has been fine.