pardon the question

For figurines have a look at Verlinden or Andreas Minatures(??).

Alternatively you could let her paint a few wargaming figures aka Games Workshop or similar.

Most figurines seem to be either cast in white metal or resin, there are plastic and vinyl kits too, but ,IMHO, not suited for a beginner. Stay away from cold-casts or similar for now.
Cast figures often have few parts and don't need that much cleanup prior to assembly.

What you will need is a good primer, 2 part epoxy glue, 2 part epoxy putty and a selection of basic paint colours liquitex, golden or similar acrylics will work well.
In Figure painting most colours are mixed to match and than darkened or lightened for shading and dry-brushing.

Technique wise pretty much the same as any other form of modelling, with the exception that you often have hard to reach places and thus need more masking.
Also the larger you go in scale the better/flawless your finish/paintjob has to be.

Pegaso is another manufacturer of figures in that genre.

thanks for the suggestions. i will be looking at them in the next few days.

joe

For figures you can go to http://www.redlancer.com and do a search for the period or go to http://www.sentinelminiatures.com and cruise around. Both are excellent dealers.
You should realize that the figures you're going to be looking at start at $20 or so for 54mm (1/32 approx) and rise sharpply and rapidly from there.
Hobby quality super glue works well and you can get her started with whatever paints you're already comfortable with.

ajlafleche, you bring up a good point that i did not ask. i use enamels, switching to acrilics, for my a/c. i have heard oil based paints are better for figurines is this true? if yes which brands work best. as she will be just beginning to do these i do not want to overwhelm her with blending paints to achieve desired results. i want to allow her every chance to succeed, yet to be challenged with the process. thanks again for the help.

joe

I use oils for my skin tones and some shading and highlighting. The Brothers in Arms vignette is painted with some of each type of paint, sometimes one over the other. Grumbacher and Windsor Newton are two commonly available oils if you go that route but I wouldn't advise a beginner to do that. If you have a choice of student or artist on the tube, go with artist since this has finer pigments and will give a nicer finish. Oils dry very slowly which is good news for blending but bad news if you want to move on with a project. You can achieve good results with both enamels and acrylics to start with.

I would recommend against the models that are cast in blocks, I have been doing figures for almost 5 yrs and they still look hard to me. but if u want to, I suppose u could try those kind and get good results if u take ur time.