It's a lot easier than people think (even myself). Of course I'm still learning - but there are only a handful of techniques you can learn some basic proficiency and your figures will look a lot better.
The problem with this image is that the lighting was sharp when I took the pic, and the sealer looks way too glossy.
The Cost. Yeah it can add up. But as I've gotten back into this hobby, I had the following parameters I set for myself in the learning process:
1) I have a lot of minis from the old days I never painted. Top priority - paint these.
2) If I'm going to paint new minis because I needed to buy some for my specific game - I'm going get Bones minis from Reaper as they're plastic and cheap and I'm painting for heavy use, so if I'm going to learn to be better, make it cost effective.
3) If I'm going to spend money - get my money's worth but don't buy something I won't paint to my own satisfaction.
I did consider doing paper-flats, but my players and I wanted something more substantial. This (un)fortunately led me down a very deep rabbithole. Battlemaps led to breaking out minis, led to getting terrain, led to customizing terrain, led to buying more minis, led to re-learning how to paint, all of which (plus a lot of discussion here) has led me to eyeballing 3d printers and air-brushing... /blinks... yeah.
Anyhow - I'm still polishing my painting game, practice, practice, practice. I'm looking for others here for advice, tips, or just mutual sharing of their minis. Hell - if you do custom flats, put'em out there!