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Welcome! Glad to hear you are interested in Malifaux and welcome to the hobby! As another user mentioned check out the "Pullmyfiger" wiki on tactics and how to play. Also take a look at r/minipainting on tips and tricks for painting and inspiration! So since you are brand spanking new and have a lot of questions I'll try to cover all I can. As for my background Malifaux is the only mini game I have ever played and when I first started I was new to the hobby as well.

Lets start with minis and gameplay. Glance over pullmyfinger to check out tactics and looks of models. See who you enjoy. When I first started I picked Resurrectionists because I really enjoyed the thought of having undead minions doing my bidding. Think about what type of tactics you want to play with. Do you want to shoot people from behind cover? Do you want to summon monsters? Do you want to be in an enemies face with melee? Do you enjoy trickery and movement based shenanigans? Each faction is balanced faction to faction and each one harbors a wide variety of gameplay. Some have their specialties, but each faction can do just about anything. For example say you like to summon. Ressurs are king of summons yet other masters can summon as well, like Ramos in the Arcanists (electrical creations and spiders), Leviticus in the Outcasts (undead techno horrors), and Somer Teeth Jones in the Gremlins. There are others but you get the idea. Pick a faction you think is cool or looks cool. Depending on what faction you go with depends on which master is good for beginners. Some of the beginner friendly masters for each faction are
{Faction}:{Masters};{Role in order of masters}

Guild: Lady Justice, Perdita, Sonnia; Melee, Ranged, Magic

Ressurs :Seamus, McMourning, Nicodem; Movement/range, Melee/poison, Summoning (expensive start up cost though)

Arcanists: Rasputina, Kaeris, Ramos; Ice Magic, Fire magic, Electric/summons

Neverborn (slightly more advanced): Lillith, Jacob Lynch; Melee, Card Manipulation

Outcasts: Victoria's, Von Schill; Melee, Ranged

Ten Thunders: Misaki, Jacob Lynch; Hit and run tactics, Card Manip.

Gremlins: not enough knowledge to comment :/ Sorry

To let you know I used to have two masters in each crew other than gremlins, until I sold off many of them to focus on three factions instead of all of them.
These masters listed themselves are pretty straightforward but may have advanced interactions with their crew that you will learn in time and with reading and lots of play and practice. This also just lists what the master does. Like Lady Justice herself is melee but the rest of the crew is versatile with melee or ranged attacks and interactions. The box sets always compliment the master well especially for the beginner crews. In all honesty though pick a faction and master you think is cool. The rest will come with time.

Next lets talk about construction and supplies
Each set of Minis comes in a padded cardboard box on a sprue like this.
This is a link to the instructions Wyrd has wonderfully provided. You can look up individual box sets instruction sheets to decide for yourself how complicated a project may be. Its hard to put a difficulty on construction of the minis because they all use small parts.

Each box set comes with the models on a sprue, simple round bases and character/upgrade cards for each model in the box.
The basic tools you will need are
Hobby Knife/Exacto Knife

Needle nose pliers

Miniature Plastic glue/welder

Gorilla Glue

Green Stuff

Table or work surface

These supplies are for construction only. The cement plastic glue stuff is very sensitive. Literally a drop is all you need to permanently fuse two parts together. It actually melts the plastic ever so slightly into each other. Do not get excess on fingers and use carefully. Do not smash the parts together. This is why I like the kind with a fine point applicator like the one I linked. Always do a dry test fit first when constructing even with instructions it can be difficult to see how they parts go together. The Gorilla glue and green stuff is what I use for basing. Needle nose pliers and knife to cut things out and help hold them. Basing can be as simple or as complicated as needed. Sometime I use a very thin layer of green stuff and paint to simulate earth. Sometime I go get tiny tiny pebble off the side of the road to make rock formations. I once bought clock parts off ebay and got scrap from a plumber friend and I glued them into some green stuff to make a techno junkyard. Get creative.

Next once your model is constructed and based now it is time to paint! You will need

Brushes of varying size and type

Primer either spray primer or paint on primer

Paint and washes

Water containers

Pallet, Wet or dry. I prefer a wet pallet

Light

Start off by priming your minis by either spraying with a spray primer or a paint on primer. I like spray primer because it is fast BUT it is more finicky. It can ruin a mini if you are not careful. Don't spray too close, don't spray in high humidity. Use nice even coats. Two to three thin coats is much better than one very thick coat. Wait for each coat to dry before doing the next. It doesn't take long if you use thin even coats. Then go ahead and paint!

I am always trying to do miniatures and save money. I cannot break the bank right now BUT one thing I do not skimp on is quality brushes. As long as you keep them clean a great brush will last you ages. Invest in some decent ones and they will treat you well. Miniature paint is not always required and can get very expensive. I actually got most of my acrylic paint from Wal-Mart. The paint from there though is very thick! You want to water it down to be like skim milk. Again many thin layers are better than 1 thick one. If the paint slicks right off the model it is too thin. The other kind of specific paint to pick up is called a wash. It can be put on in large amounts and will dry dark in crevices but not on raised parts of the model. It gets great shadows and detail. Anyways I know it is a lot of information for just starting out but shoot me a reply or a Pm and I would be glad to answer more questions or concerns!

Scissors are no good. I got these clippers from Amazon. They are actually wire clippers, but the $5 is well spent.

All the models in the Misaki box are Ten Thunders, except Misaki and Shang (the totem) who are dual faction. However, Misaki has a special rule that allows her to hire four "Last Blossom" models into her crew regardless of declared faction, so if you declare her as Outcasts you can still hire the whole crew box.

Each boxed set comes with all the bases you need, so don't worry on that front.

For competitive play with the Guild Masters, you'd probably want to have both boxes as the Judge and Francisco are excellent henchmen, and Death Marshals are good minions, and Nino is a good Enforcer.

Ultimately when you get fully competitive (think: Magic the Gathering) you end up having every model in the faction.

Another option is Tamiya plastic glue; it's just as good. This is the stuff you're looking for: https://www.amazon.de/Tamiya-Extra-Thin-Plastikkleber-300087038/dp/B000BMYWYC/

It works by melting the plastic that it touches, so the two parts fuse together into a permanent bond. The best way to use it is to put a little bit on one or both of the surfaces you want to combine, wait a few seconds for it to start dissolving the plastic, then press them together.

It is great on translucent models because it dries perfectly clear.

So... to answer the second part of your question... card protection:

I(and basically everyone around me) uses these: https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Soft-Sleeves-8-Inches/dp/B00CV859XC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501168960&sr=8-1&keywords=ultra+pro+sleeves
They're slightly loose on the cards which I like... makes them easier to get in and out if needed. You can get tighter ones that fit like a glove, but I like the slightly looser ones. Just need to be consistent in loading them so your marks line up on the wound circles.




For organization, I use these binders: https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-PRO-BINDER-Leatherette-Sideloading/dp/B004FVJDV2/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1501168694&sr=8-10&keywords=card+binder

They're available in colors... I can get two complete factions in a binder. So I've got a Green one that houses Rezzers/Neverborn, and a Red one with Guild/Ten Thunders. 9 pockets per page... I tend to group everything by role... so a "page" for masters, a page for totems, then Henchmen, enforcers, minions, etc. I put "page" in quotes because it's really two pages as there's plenty of room to space everything out. For upgrades, I keep them grouped by crew and there's enough room for them to stay seperate and not get mixed together. Dupes I just stack in the same pocket... so things like Rotten Belles only take one slot.

Nice thing about the binders is the pockets are "side loading" so stuff isn't sliding out of the binder. I tried 3 ring binders with the pocket pages in them at the start and the top loading really sucked. Plus these take up less space in my bag... I generally carry two factions with me when I'm playing, but in my bag I keep all my cards (three notebooks) to keep things consistent, so saving space is helpful.

This is the brand new tournament deck for this year: http://www.wargamevault.com/product/201615/Gaining-Grounds-2017-Strategy-and-Scheme-Deck?term=strategy+and+scheme&test_epoch=0 (You can print last year's tournament deck and any errata'd or replacement unit cards from this site as well--they come out professional quality just like the ones that come with the minis)

This is the classic one which contains the strategy and schemes from the rulebook (and some other handy reference cards): https://www.amazon.com/Wyrd-Miniatures-Malifaux-Schemes-Strategies/dp/B00NP0VC18

I recommend that each player gets a copy so you can use them for your hidden schemes (and put them in sleeves and use a dry erase to note down target models for certain schemes).

BCW makes an 8 pocket Multi size that fits tarot cards nicely.
https://www.amazon.com/BCW-Pro-8-Pocket-Multiple-Pockets/dp/B01IUG071W/

Or if you don't want those extra pockets, BCW and Ultra Pro makes 3.5 x 5 in 4 pocket pages.
https://www.amazon.com/20-Twenty-Pages-4-Pocket-Postcards/dp/B003AOG42Q
https://www.amazon.com/Ultra-Pro-Twenty-4-Pocket-pockets/dp/B005H7F0RY

I use this case. Fits about 5 masters with accompanying models. Also fit my cards, fate deck and stat, and token/marker case.

Plano Plano 1404 Protector Series Four Pistol Case, X-Large, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TY4AN4G/ref=cm_sw_r_other_awd_yCc9wbBFVJJZ2

Googling "Tarot card sleeves" found plenty of options, including ultra pro on Amazon: Ultra Pro Tarot Board Game Sleeve - 70mmx120mm (50/pk) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012NBY766/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_YgB.Bb61SRJ98

If you only have plastics, then I would really suggest the magnet and metal trays.

I bought 13"x9" brownie pans that had a snap plastic lid, and then put magnets on the bottom of all of my minis.

I did this because the minis I had in the foam cases kept getting caught on the foam and breaking when I was taking them out of the foam, and the foam was rubbing paint off of any sharp points (and Malifaux minis have lots of sharp points)

Basically I found the Target brand of this pan
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCD118/ref=psdc_289684_t1_B0026RHHWO
for about $5 each
and used magnets from https://www.kjmagnetics.com/

Just get a regular 3-ring binder and some of these:
https://www.amazon.com/BCW-4-Pocket-Photo-3-5-Inch-5-25-Inch/dp/B003AOG42Q

I'm at work so I don't have time for a detailed response, but I have been running a TtB game for about two years now, so we're finally nearing end-game. I started a post series here but slowly stopped, but you can read my first two posts here and here

My players have a mix of D&D background/White Wolf background, so a mixture of RPGs. The game is heavier on plot/role playing in style, but there's nothing stopping you from running 2-3 combats a night if you really want and your PCs are prepared for it. Combat in TtB is deadly compared to D&D, though. A D&D character can have 16-20 wounds and 10 damage is generally a lot for a starting character. A starting TtB character, however, will generally have 4 wounds (up to 8 if they min/max for HP), and 1/2/3 damage is typical for an attack, but 4 in a single shot is not unheard of. It's really hard to actually die in this game, however, because you tend to fall unconscious at <0 HP, and the only way to actually die is to take a severe critical effect, so that's how it's somewhat balanced. Every other month, Wyrd produces a Chronicle, and every one since #14 has included a TtB one-shot. The Chronicles are all free on Drive Thru RPG, so this can be another source of content if you aren't interested in making your own.


Regarding Fate Decks, I actually use a regular playing card deck, but I also made my own character sheets that include the conversion. I actually use this plain deck instead of a Wyrd fate deck, and it works very well. Note each PC needs their own deck as well for a twist deck, but it's possible to occasionally share if none of the cards overlap.