While the absolute majority of players enjoys painting their MCP models there's definitely a few "Warriors of the Grey Plastic" and while it's fine to do that I want to give a tip for a very easy and comparably cheap way to have your models look better than that.
The most common reasons not to paint your minis are: they won't look good, I'll clog up the details, they are too tiny and my hand too big, it takes too long and painting is too expensive for me. This method should solve all of these (more or less).
What you need and how it's done:
Chaos Black Spray Primer from Citadel (Games Workshop)
I absolutely don't like Citadel paints for their terrible pot design and overinflated prices. But their Primer spray I trust with my life. You barely have to shake it and if works in basically all weather conditions I have encountered here (haven't tried it below 0 degrees Celsius yet). Other sprays can absolutely work fine but need to be shaken a lot to ensure to not clog up any details.
You can look around a bit as prices vary a lot but you should expect about 15€ for it. It will last you for about 200 models if you don't do bigger terrain pieces I'd say. Tips on how to spray paint your Minis can easily be found on YouTube. In short use it as you should use a flame distinguisher: short bursts and do it somewhere outside. Wearing gloves is recommended but not essential. You can just wash the paint on your hands off afterwards. Let the spray paint dry for about 15 to 30 mins (also outside if you can, as they'll be a bit stinky at first).
I got a second Domino for 1€ on eBay (missing her tactical explosion) after spray primer she looked like this:
Next you need a larger brush. A dollar store bigger brush can work fine but I recommend getting a cheap Drybrush set of off Amazon (or somewhere else if you can find it) like this: Amazon Drybrush Set it cost me about 8€ bringing the total up to 23€.
Now you Drybrush your model with greys and a white paint. If you want to do it as cheap as possible you can manage with just a white paint (any model paint brand will work). To drybrush you drop a couple of drops of paints on a plastic surface (I use a pallet I got from 40 cents at Action, which is similar to a Dollar Store) and tap a brush into it. I used the second largest one from the set above here. Than you wipe off almost all the paint on the brush on a paper towel. And then with the almost dry brush you take heavy strokes. The details on the model will catch the paint while the recesses will stay dark. There's once again a lot of YouTube tutorials on this. For specific paints, I personally use and would recommend Army Painter Fanatic Paints:
Deep Grey
Ash Grey
And Matt White
These are about 3€ each for 12 in total bringing to overall total to 35€ so about one two model MCP Box. These tools will likely serve you for your entire collection however (once again not including terrain which is much larger).
The whole process from primed to finished took about 10 minutes.
If you want to you can also get a black Minis paint and a regular brush to clean up the base ring.
If you have a cohesive squad in this scheme it will already look world's better than just grey plastic in my opinion and an entire roster can easily be painted in one evening if you want to. I'll definitely try it with the upcoming X-Men Starter set and show you the full roster in this technique as soon as I get my hands on one...
Update:
As many people who commented on the Reddit post have pointed out an easy next step here is to use a single bright color on a part of all your models for a "Sin City" vibe. And the step after that would be full on slapchop technique where you use your work shown here as base for semi translucent paints like Army Painter Speedpaints (2.0), Vallejo Xpress or Citadel Contrast.
That's it for today.
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