Is the Learn to Paint Kit: Core Skills worth the investment for beginner painters?

After painting the BattleTech miniatures, I wanted to practice on some other miniatures that weren't part of the BattleTech set. I stumbled across the Learn to Paint Kit: Basic Techniques on Amazon and decided to buy it. It comes with three miniatures, two brushes, eleven paints, and a guidebook on how to paint them. The guidebook covers basecoating, washing, and dry brushing. I decided this was a good place to start, ordered it from Amazon, and it arrived quickly.

When I received the kit, I immediately dug in and examined the contents. It included everything it was supposed to have. The three miniatures—Skeleton, Orc, and Knight—were of acceptable quality for practice. The kit also comes with two brushes: a size 2 flat and a size 0 round. While they are good starter brushes, I quickly found myself wanting better ones. I essentially destroyed the size 2 brush using it for dry brushing, which is to be expected.

The paints were the main issue. The lighter pigments, such as desert sand, leather brown, and dragon blue, were borderline unusable. The pigment seemed to separate from the paint, making it super watery and more like a wash than paint. Here are some photos of the paint issue I was having:

Pigment separating from paint?

Super watery paint

This made painting the skeleton very difficult, and I almost gave up. However, mixing the lighter colors with darker ones for the Orc and Knight made the process smoother, and I enjoyed painting them. Here are the finished models.

Took this right after finishing up painting. I think the orc turned out the best.

A more staged photo of them.

Overall, this kit is great for beginners who want some supplies and a guidebook to follow. I would definitely recommend it to a friend starting out. Despite the paint issues, which I assume were a one-off, it's a good starting point for new painters.