A couple of months ago I was browsing at my local Warhammer store when I overheard a kid of about 10 come into the store, and ask the proprietor what to start out with. The kid then went on to explain that he was already trying the game with a friend, using LEGO minifigs in place of models. Just precious.
I use LEGO as primary scource for my terrain. it is a great way to vombine my decades old love for the bricks and my relativly new love for tabletop games. A friend and I started our tabletop adventure buy developing rules for our star wars lego. that went on for like 10 years,before we actually started with warhammer, MESBG and SAGA. BTW, SAGA is a a great tabletop system, if you are into historic factions, like Vikings, Huns, Romans and the likes.
@@fursphere2 There are, however, still off-brand not-Lego minifigs that cost much less and are fun to customise. You can often get huge packs of them for not many quids.
Was even thinking about using my lego star wars figures to try out Legion etc. Figures are great but starting out before buying stuff seems great. Especially since I still have figures from my childhood.@@MidwinterMinis
The "rite of passage" bit is so true. My first home game was filled with terrain built from Mega Bloks, and then me and my mom made it into a "Fortress Siege" battlefield!!
"Content creators are supposed to leave the best advice until the end of the video to keep you watching the video for a longer engagement time but I've been doing this for 6 years and I can't be bothered". And just like that, I would follow you into battle ⚔ most wholesome channel ever
I remember how I got into Warhammer 40K. One of my best friends invited me over to his house on my 21st birthday, and he gifted me my very first Space Marines models, and I played those against his Tyranids. I won that first game. Just a few short years later, I have 7 Warhammer 40K armies, 2 Age of Sigmar armies, and many, many smaller warbands and kill teams. In the spirit of getting new players into the hobby, I've gotten two of my friends into Warhammer for free later on, gifting them their first models (one chose Dark Angels, the other Adepta Sororitas). I've made many friends through the hobby. Guy, you've been the biggest inspiration for me during my entire 40K career. Been watching your videos since way back in 2020. It was you who convinced me to choose my first army, Blood Angels, with that Space Hulk Terminators video. Thank you, Guy.
If you haven't already, it's worth investing in a soldering iron or woodburning tool (preferably one that goes down to about 200° C) with a few different tips. You can use this to smooth and reshape the plastic form you've already laid down...
My first and only time using 40k rules I used my massive collection of lego clones and droids as proxies for space marines and necrons, this was before I found out star wars had its own wargame in legion and fell right down that rabbit hole instead 😂 worth noting I spent that entire game going over Guys 8th edition how to play video repeatedly for every rule, so while I didn't stick with 40k I do appreciate the help and still love the videos 😊
OMG I haven't been back to this channel in YEARS and I finally returned, DUDE I LOVED your painting tutorials years ago! I fell out of WH a long time ago (too expensive) but AMAZING to see you're doing so well. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!
@@ZedLeppelin1989 what I actually said was "some people might not enjoy historicals as much as fantasy stuff because it's based on stuff that actually happened, the echoes of which still exist in modern culture" while painting a German tank. I literally said "To be clear, I'm not calling anyone a Nazi"... How much do you want to twist what someone actually said to fit your own narrative?
Guy, this video is so needed. It is the SPIRIT of Warhammer. Scratch building and using proxies is what got me interested in the game in the first place! Thank you, and keep up the good work!!!
Love that you shouted out crooked staff! There’s a UA-camr that I really enjoy that does a lot of fantasy stuff his channel is story craft Society. He’s like the Bob Ross fantasy Terrain for me.
Such a wholesome vid. Despite being at the hobby for 2-3 years now, I still don't have a whole lot of army, and often resort to using the methods you've described. I actually use very small counters for the models, and scale down the movements/measurements approptiately. I don't think a lot of people would appreciate it, but I have no-one to play with anyway so it's not a massive deal, I just play on my own. Been thinking of getting Tabletop Sim for it though.
books and jenga blocks and tins of food used as terrain gave me a funny idea, as an April fools day joke dlc for Space Marine 2 if they add team vs team multiplayer they add a map as free dlc where the landscape is literally a living room coffee table and the terrain is like soda cans, tin food, books and Jenga blocks for terrain (obviously renamed for copyright reasons).
My first try at tabletop wargaming was done with some basic WARZONE rules printed in Polish monthly "Magia i Miecz" (it means "Sword and Magic" in English). My brother made some styrofoam terrain and we used Lego models glued to the cardboard.
If you live in the Leeds-Wakey area there is a second hand model shop called Mirfield Miniatures, the guy there will sell infantry for a pound and has a massive inventory, supplied by people trading minis in and sellling them to him.
In my experience, the free mini of the month is not tied to a purchase at all. I just walk into the store and ask if they have some left, and they have so far always happilly given me one. Ymmv of course, but since it's still an official GW store, I don't think they'd do that if it wasn't meant to be this way ^^ Great video, with actual good advice too :)
@@MidwinterMinis Yeah it's up to the store manager how they run it, some tie it to the purchase, some will only let you take it if you build it there, and some will just practically throw it at you if you ask.
@@captainweekend5276 Kinda rude to throw mini's at customers if you ask me :P ... but yeah I live near Antwerp and when I visit the GW store and ask for the mini of the month, they'll give one even if I am not buying anything. (then again most of the time when I visit, I end up buying stuff :P)
Thanks for all the tips! It's also good advice for indecisive types returning to the hobby after [x] decades of hiatus. Paper models and the like is a good option when exploring what you want to try for your armies next. Also thanks for the tip about Crooked Staff Terrain!
@@MidwinterMinis Case in point: I built an entire Epic space marines army out of some 3d printed marines, paper printed marines, paper crafted tanks just to find out that Epic was too tedious for me :) Now I use these models with One page rules instead.
Great tips Guy! I think a major misinterpretation of the hobby is that it HAS to be hugely expensive. And while there are certain things that are worth paying the premium for there are so SO many crafty ways to save on costs if you need to. It's all part of the fun of the hobby! 👍
Ooooh the memories this video bring back... My very first games of warhammer 40k featured an entire Tyranids army made of beer bottlecaps... I still smile thinking about my friend's finely painted terminators being overruned by Trappe caps.
Only ever played warhammer fantasy twice and that was at school, and that was in 1987!!! I feel i have left it a bit late to learn the game. I did own a copy of Space Hulk BITD, somehow i won a copy, quite sure it was through White Dwarf magazine but not 100% certain. Never once played it, i did lay out the cardboard corridors now and then, and all the terminators and genestealers got painted up, but that was as far as i got 😆 Have been toying with the idea of creating my own youtube videos, not that i am any good at painting, but i do have an idea for a niche channel, but honestly, i have no idea where to begin! So would love to see a youtube video on how to start a warmhanger (😂) themed painting channel, but i also have some personal internal “blocks” which are preventing me from doing such a thing and its frustrating, and being born with a cleft palette means i have a slightly weird voice anyway, but then im also like, well its 2024, and diversity and all that, so i really dont know, i have such passion for what i do, but im terrified of making that first video, so any advice, however insignificant you think it may be, would be a massive help. Keep doing what your doing Guy, and happy new year to you all! ❤ Robyn
Ive been using liquitex heavy body acrylics and rustoleum/krylon primers for my painting. They can be a little harder to use, but can still look incredible and are more efficient in price with their tubes than most mini-brand pots
Crooked staff print and paste terrain ftw!!! So easy, takes no skill or artistic talent at all! Free or pwyw! Just print a pdf, stick it to some cardboard and cut! So easy and great fun
People used to do that all the time when I was a kid, I had a few models but was invited over to people's house several times and they took out a box full of paper cutouts 😂
I'm part of a group in Nottingham that provides armies for people to play with as well as experienced players, it really helped me learn the ropes after getting back into the hobby after a 20+ year gap
I'm so proud of myself that I already follow all but one of the terrain building UA-camrs that you recommended. And I'm super excited to discover that 1 new one! I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't into this hobby almost exclusively for dreaming up new locations to design and build. My creative inclinations are my "in" to all of this (now I just need to become competent at playing, lol). Guy, I love your content, as always. Please never stop.
In regards to paint; when I was getting back into the hobby and had lost all my official paints, I started with basic art kit acrylics and poundland car spray undercoat. It's not ideal but it is a nice cheaper way in. I also feel like you almost mentioned this, but cheap green army-men packs are a fantastic way of practicing army painting, even if they lack the real detail of Warhammer stuff!
I've actually been looking up green army men and medieval plastic soldiers online to do exactly that. Just trying to get into the spirit of converting on the cheap and seeing where the imagination and ingenuity can take me. Should be fun.
I first started army painting with the cheapo skeletons from Twilight Creations (they make games like Zombies!, and sell the individual minis singly or in bulk), using craft paint. It was tough going, but I learned the fundamentals of brush control and how to bring a model to some semblance of presentibility. Craft paints take way more coats than model paints, but they DO work.
@@jaysunbodaysun3302 eM4 Miniatures have some awesome cheap-and-cheerful plastics; in particular you can packs of 50 dwarves (with either axe, spear or crossbow) or 50 orcs (sword, spear or bow), each pack is £15, or you can get an assorted pack of 48 (16 of each) for less than £11. I've seen some pretty cool conversions just done with these simple monopiece figures... They also have sci-fi troopers, gangers, robots and "space rangers" (each 5 for a fiver), and, I've just discovered, US Civil War infantry; 20 each of either Union or Confederate troops, also for a fiver.
For anyone who may be doing some shopping in Ikea or any other furniture store in which you get everything boxed up, save those boxes and the little separator parts as those can be super useful for terrain building
I know this isn’t relevant to the video but I’ve nominated you as a Warhammer Hero I’ve done this because I think what you do here is amazing and I really hope you win it you would greatly deserve it 😊
The paper cutouts is a PERFECT idea!!! Now i feel like i have a good starting ground for getting into this game outside of only using tabletop sim, thank you so mich for this video
My first game of 40k, was played in '96 with the old 2nd edition box contents. We played on a ping pong table using that Battle Masters PVC mat as "play area", with all the scenery we had from those two games' boxes, plus weird crap we had lying around; taking dividers from a tool carrying case as walls.... thus I can absolutely confirm Guy's statement. If your first game isn't like this, you're doing it wrong!
Can confirm on tabletop sim. Even when most of my friends have armies, we still play mostly on tabletop sim for the convenience. (You can mute that annoying guy anytime)
Eons of Battle covered this topic in one of his painting challenge videos but Apple Barrel brand paint is SHOCKINGLY good for the price. And it's not just the ones he used in the video either. My wife and I bought the big collection of their paint and none of them have disappointed me. The white is bad but 1. So is almost every white paint that isn't Valejo White Ink and 2. Still better than Corvax white.
You'd be surprised how many craft paint brands are actually pretty decent. And for thinning (and wash-making), a big bottle of acrylic floor polish will last you for _ages._
Very cool and instructional video. I am a fan of Wyloch, Black MagicCraft and Crooked Staff terrain (who just started his annual build along - season 3). I'll be checking out some of your other links.
OOHHH!!!!!!! the legendary ork can board!!!!!! I remember to use it just fresh from the box on my fiend floor bedroom full of forestshoes, mountainbooks and barbie beach house fortress. Pal you bring to much good memories, love you lots!!!!!
I have quite the collection of minis that are just printed images glued to little cardboard stands. They were my first ever introduction to actually playing Warhammer, and it was a blast! I have a few real models now, but I'll always keep my old cardboard minis on hand, just in case
I got back into Warhammer thanks to your skitarii painting video. I used to collect and paint way back when 2nd edition was freah. I noticed your video (by absolute chance)and watched out of curiosity. Boom! the addiction began. Couldn't thank you enough guy. Hopefully you inspire more to start this wonderful hobby of ours
Also, one thing to add. GW give away big Warhammer packs to Scout groups and youth groups. Full of AoS/40k marines, plus paints and brushes etc. Some people watching your video may be a part of such groups and are unaware they do this if asked. Another great way to try the hobby for free. As a scout leader myself, I get the boxes as often as I can for the kids
The first top tip is super helpful and you meet lots of nice people that way. It was super hard for me to get into the community aspect due to me being on the autistic spectrum and it took me three trips to my local Warhammer store before I could even talk (other than commerce talk you'd do in every store) to the guys, but, they are super nice and I always enjoy painting and talking to people at the Warhammer Store whenever i eventually get around to visit. I'm not really into playing the game (yet?) but to anyone new to the hobby - go give it a shot, from all experience I had with employees and customers alike, they were all super nice and open.
100% there is someone near you who not only plays 40k, but also has an army for you to use because they painted a second faction on the mere hope of finding someone to play with.
for the paper/card models, I remember that when Hachette did a magazine with the lord of the rings miniature games, with each magazine coming with a sprue (just like the way more recent Imperium magazine), the first magazine came with a card sheet with the whole fellowship, allowing the buyers to play their first game using the method you talked (against the gobbos which were on the first sprue). So there's another precedent.
thanks for this brother! i am scratching my head on how to teach my friend since i only have limited models and the paper cutout is a really great suggestion!
The truest way to befriend a chaos or space marines veteran at your local hobby store is asking if they have too many rhinos and want one or two getting rid of This both made me amazing friends to help me get started in warhammer (I did have a little going by this point) and a good way of finding models for cheap or even free sometimes (shout out to rob who gave me 4!!!! Bloody 4 rhinos)
I still remember seeing someone at Games Day Canada, probably back in 2003 or something? With an army made of playdough, and straws glued to unpainted car kit shells, at the time I felt like it was lazy, maybe even rude, now I feel like that kid was a genius! So long as you're consistent with what is what on the table, who cares what it looks like so long as you're having fun and it means you're getting in more hobby time.
Pro Tip for keeping things cheap, if there is an IKEA store nearby they have paper measuring tapes with cm and inches on them for free in the store, as well as tiny pencils, grab a few of those free paper thingy’s, maybe glue them down on a piece of cardboard, cardstock or thin plywood and Bobs your uncle :)
Sorry, my mom warned me about men offering me things for free the first time (?) Great video, Guy. Starting a hobby is always a bit disorienting, and these tips are really helpful.
If you are anything like me, you bite off more than you can chew and get ahead of yourself. My recommendation is wait to build stuff like terrain and paint miniatures and terrain. PLAY THE GAME! Don’t burn yourself out trying to make the perfect painted army or the amazing terrain. Make sure you enjoy the game and stuff like that will come.
3:17 The person to ask for a measuring tape could as well be the same person that teaches you the game. They're usually geared up an will very likely share their tools and dice for the game.
Kiddos & I are getting into Warcry, with the smaller warbands being a big positive. We spent 2 days making our own terrain out of wood off-cuts & craft supplies. We've definitely got enough now.
Thankfully, my local hobby store keeps terrain, mats, dice trays, and objective markers in the store for people to use whenever they want, so that saves me a TON of time from making terrain. Also, our community was so welcoming, one of them actually gifted me the Heirotek Circle killteam when i was starting out with the game. I still dont play killteam, but it was an amazing gesture, and really helped catapult me into the hobby.
Don't forget the most important skill you can have when you hobby on a budget or no budget, just ask. I had a friend who wanted to play Kill team with me and my friends, so I went to my local games store and asked around. When the cashier (whom I am very good friends with) just handed me four of those Space marine sprues shown at 10:38. Sure I had to modify them a bit so that they didn't look samey, but that was a fun afternoon of hobbying.
Wish I had a video like this years ago. Got my first games in combat patrol a while ago. Actually came second in the tournament. Have been playing Kill Team for a bit longer. People found from local store. Been great playing there.
4:22 Back when I ran a gaming centre/shop ied let people use cardboard templates that were the shape of the model, as long as the model was clearly marked and it was only for a game or two and your opponent was ok with it, I started this when I wanted to try out a full jetbike army for eldar as buying a full army of jetbikes just to see if I liked how it played was a bit much so I spent a day drawing and cutting out templates for each model I was considering.
Thanks! MWM brought me to WH40k :) Some years ago I have started with full Blackstone Fortress game and all painted minies in Guy's style and then the next step was firt Space Marine! Now I dont have much free space in our house where to put additional armies... One other cheap option is to ask your friend with 3D Printer. They are usually willing to print you some free or very very cheap models ...
Rite of passage on the terrain hit home for me. We used a collection of my daughters toys, fruits, vegetables, and books. Having a tyranid shoot from behind a pineapple is a fond memory of mine
Started with buying some Space Wolves back in the day. Never really played with them. I really wanted Death Korps, but I dont want metal. And now you can buy boxes of plastic ones. Oh boy time to pick up this hobby again. Already made some terrain stuffs and wrecks with my 3D printer so I'm quite hyped to start over!
For all of you Ork-curious folks out there, I have saved an IMMENSE amount of money on kitbashes and model conversions. Slapping some corrugated cardboard and cut up gift cards on the hull of a dollar store army tank has given me some of my favorite hobby projects to date! Best of all it’s actively encouraged in the tabletop community to do it, so don’t be discouraged about not running official GW kits.
My cheap way to play: get the images you want from the gw site, use whatever image editor you like to fit it in an appropriately sized circular border, print it, cut it, place it in a coin capsule. Looks pretty good and goes quickly once you have the templates set up. Troop sized coin capsules are pretty cheap. Like 100 for $10-15. Just make sure they come with the foam inserts for a tight fit. You can even use both sides of a capsule if you’re feeling very cheap. Or use a mirrored image on the back so you can point the model in different directions.
This is a brilliant video, tabletop gaming is something that should always be accessible. I read through the first edition rulebook of 40k a while ago, and they provided a bunch of their models as pictures you could photocopy and print out in lieu of actual models. Crazy.
Kill Team is the fastest growing GW game, at skirmish level it’s got a low barrier of entry of cost and time commitment. Free rules are online for the game in general and for the Intercession team. If you didn’t want to go the proxy/token route you’d just need to get 6 intercessors, probably some of the most ubiquitous models around so used/eBay/free is much more attainable than anything approaching a 40K army.
I've heard an idea that you can get most of a Primaris Intercessor Kill team by taking a multi day road trip to all the GW stores in your state, and getting the free sample models.
My first two WH40K games were Necrons (Me) VS Imperial Guard and then Necrons (Me) VS Orks. We used some repurposed fantasy minis, boxes, paper cut-outs and stuff. I can't wait to try the Chaos Marines made out of whatever for my next game!
The original warhammer set came with cardboard cut out slann vs an expeditionary force of colonisers. The images were drawn as there were limited models then, plus photography wasn't as accessible as it is now.
The first warhammer game I played was a game of Killteam with my brother. We had a copy of the rule book, a copy of the army book, and some coins to stand in as models. Orks vs. Tau. We loved it.
I literally teach exactly this with my Learn to Play WarCry class. Standees are a really cheap way to practice with a new model too, not just for beginners. Before I shell out $40 for this new leader, maybe I try a game or 2 using a proxy. After that stage I advise people to get cheaper minis to proxy their warbands, like Reaper, Mantic, or minis from board games. That way they can learn to paint on some cheaper models and see if that is part of the hobby they enjoy or not before throwing down over $100 for an army and then finding they will never paint it or play it again.
The idea of an Ork Gargant made from literal trash and scraps is so perfect to theme. The papercraft minis is a trick I've done for Dungeons and Dragons when I wanted a mini for a monster, but there wasn't one readily available from anywhere. And honestly, if your gaming group is going to be bothered by that kind of thing, you may need to look for a new group.
There are free alternate rules for Warhammer. One Page Rules makes a free system with an army builder. It covers all the main factions for Warhammer Fantasy and SciFi settings at both army scale and skirmish scale.
Many great ideas! There are also some hobby supplies (e.g. painting handles) which are almost free or overlooked - or can be sourced without the usual 'hobby tax'
A couple of months ago I was browsing at my local Warhammer store when I overheard a kid of about 10 come into the store, and ask the proprietor what to start out with. The kid then went on to explain that he was already trying the game with a friend, using LEGO minifigs in place of models. Just precious.
That's awesome! There's so much awesome Lego Warhammer DIY stuff out there too
I use LEGO as primary scource for my terrain. it is a great way to vombine my decades old love for the bricks and my relativly new love for tabletop games. A friend and I started our tabletop adventure buy developing rules for our star wars lego. that went on for like 10 years,before we actually started with warhammer, MESBG and SAGA.
BTW, SAGA is a a great tabletop system, if you are into historic factions, like Vikings, Huns, Romans and the likes.
Lego used to be more expensive than the actual GW models. I think that's flipped now though, since GW have collectively lost their minds with pricing.
@@fursphere2 There are, however, still off-brand not-Lego minifigs that cost much less and are fun to customise. You can often get huge packs of them for not many quids.
Was even thinking about using my lego star wars figures to try out Legion etc. Figures are great but starting out before buying stuff seems great. Especially since I still have figures from my childhood.@@MidwinterMinis
The "rite of passage" bit is so true. My first home game was filled with terrain built from Mega Bloks, and then me and my mom made it into a "Fortress Siege" battlefield!!
How many thousands have died trying to conquer the kitchen table 😭
My first terrain was Tea boxes And candles :)
I definitely used the castle blocks from the old game "Crossbows and Catapults" in my early Warhammer games!
@@MidwinterMinisshit I had that game completely forgot about it
@@MidwinterMinisI had that game too!!! I loved it and then the blocks and castles pulled double duty when I got the 2ed box.
"Content creators are supposed to leave the best advice until the end of the video to keep you watching the video for a longer engagement time but I've been doing this for 6 years and I can't be bothered".
And just like that, I would follow you into battle ⚔ most wholesome channel ever
I remember how I got into Warhammer 40K. One of my best friends invited me over to his house on my 21st birthday, and he gifted me my very first Space Marines models, and I played those against his Tyranids. I won that first game. Just a few short years later, I have 7 Warhammer 40K armies, 2 Age of Sigmar armies, and many, many smaller warbands and kill teams. In the spirit of getting new players into the hobby, I've gotten two of my friends into Warhammer for free later on, gifting them their first models (one chose Dark Angels, the other Adepta Sororitas). I've made many friends through the hobby. Guy, you've been the biggest inspiration for me during my entire 40K career. Been watching your videos since way back in 2020. It was you who convinced me to choose my first army, Blood Angels, with that Space Hulk Terminators video. Thank you, Guy.
🙂Thank you very much for the shout out! 🙂
(it was a bit of a surprise to see my channel listed alongside some of the giants of the crafting community)
Very deserved mate! Your videos are awesome and your dedication to making the hobby affordable and approachable is the stuff of legends.
I've been attempting to sculpt my own army with a 3d pen, 6 models down 100 more to go, may the Emperor preserve my sanity.
That's some determination!
If you haven't already, it's worth investing in a soldering iron or woodburning tool (preferably one that goes down to about 200° C) with a few different tips. You can use this to smooth and reshape the plastic form you've already laid down...
@@Brickerbrack I already use a soldering iron/wood burner, I usually separate sculpting in to laying down the plastic and then smoothing.
@@deadvillan108 Nice one! Good luck with your project, and may your mental fortitude remain intact! 😂
I really want to play Warmhammer now. The combination of such a friendly word with such a violent one is intriguing.
My first and only time using 40k rules I used my massive collection of lego clones and droids as proxies for space marines and necrons, this was before I found out star wars had its own wargame in legion and fell right down that rabbit hole instead 😂 worth noting I spent that entire game going over Guys 8th edition how to play video repeatedly for every rule, so while I didn't stick with 40k I do appreciate the help and still love the videos 😊
Sounds like the perfect first time!
OMG I haven't been back to this channel in YEARS and I finally returned, DUDE I LOVED your painting tutorials years ago! I fell out of WH a long time ago (too expensive) but AMAZING to see you're doing so well. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!!!!
Welcome back!
Virtual dice is heresy ! Thats pretty bad coming from a heretic lol Love your channel man. God bless you.@@MidwinterMinis
@@ZedLeppelin1989 what I actually said was "some people might not enjoy historicals as much as fantasy stuff because it's based on stuff that actually happened, the echoes of which still exist in modern culture" while painting a German tank. I literally said "To be clear, I'm not calling anyone a Nazi"... How much do you want to twist what someone actually said to fit your own narrative?
Guy, this video is so needed. It is the SPIRIT of Warhammer. Scratch building and using proxies is what got me interested in the game in the first place! Thank you, and keep up the good work!!!
Love that you shouted out crooked staff! There’s a UA-camr that I really enjoy that does a lot of fantasy stuff his channel is story craft Society. He’s like the Bob Ross fantasy Terrain for me.
I'll check it out!
What a kindly welcome to potential new hobbyist. You are doing a great community job through last years with your channel. Keep it up man!!
Such a wholesome vid. Despite being at the hobby for 2-3 years now, I still don't have a whole lot of army, and often resort to using the methods you've described. I actually use very small counters for the models, and scale down the movements/measurements approptiately. I don't think a lot of people would appreciate it, but I have no-one to play with anyway so it's not a massive deal, I just play on my own. Been thinking of getting Tabletop Sim for it though.
books and jenga blocks and tins of food used as terrain gave me a funny idea, as an April fools day joke dlc for Space Marine 2 if they add team vs team multiplayer they add a map as free dlc where the landscape is literally a living room coffee table and the terrain is like soda cans, tin food, books and Jenga blocks for terrain (obviously renamed for copyright reasons).
“Consult a more useful adult” had me laughing. Love it keep up the good work
My first try at tabletop wargaming was done with some basic WARZONE rules printed in Polish monthly "Magia i Miecz" (it means "Sword and Magic" in English). My brother made some styrofoam terrain and we used Lego models glued to the cardboard.
If you live in the Leeds-Wakey area there is a second hand model shop called Mirfield Miniatures, the guy there will sell infantry for a pound and has a massive inventory, supplied by people trading minis in and sellling them to him.
I've heard of it! Definitely one to check out when I'm nearby
In my experience, the free mini of the month is not tied to a purchase at all. I just walk into the store and ask if they have some left, and they have so far always happilly given me one. Ymmv of course, but since it's still an official GW store, I don't think they'd do that if it wasn't meant to be this way ^^
Great video, with actual good advice too :)
Good to know! I think it's up to each store maybe?
@@MidwinterMinis Yeah it's up to the store manager how they run it, some tie it to the purchase, some will only let you take it if you build it there, and some will just practically throw it at you if you ask.
@@captainweekend5276 Kinda rude to throw mini's at customers if you ask me :P ... but yeah I live near Antwerp and when I visit the GW store and ask for the mini of the month, they'll give one even if I am not buying anything. (then again most of the time when I visit, I end up buying stuff :P)
Thanks for all the tips! It's also good advice for indecisive types returning to the hobby after [x] decades of hiatus. Paper models and the like is a good option when exploring what you want to try for your armies next. Also thanks for the tip about Crooked Staff Terrain!
Exactly! A cheap way to proxy as you build up your army
@@MidwinterMinis Case in point: I built an entire Epic space marines army out of some 3d printed marines, paper printed marines, paper crafted tanks just to find out that Epic was too tedious for me :) Now I use these models with One page rules instead.
Great tips Guy! I think a major misinterpretation of the hobby is that it HAS to be hugely expensive. And while there are certain things that are worth paying the premium for there are so SO many crafty ways to save on costs if you need to. It's all part of the fun of the hobby! 👍
Ooooh the memories this video bring back... My very first games of warhammer 40k featured an entire Tyranids army made of beer bottlecaps... I still smile thinking about my friend's finely painted terminators being overruned by Trappe caps.
Only ever played warhammer fantasy twice and that was at school, and that was in 1987!!! I feel i have left it a bit late to learn the game. I did own a copy of Space Hulk BITD, somehow i won a copy, quite sure it was through White Dwarf magazine but not 100% certain. Never once played it, i did lay out the cardboard corridors now and then, and all the terminators and genestealers got painted up, but that was as far as i got 😆
Have been toying with the idea of creating my own youtube videos, not that i am any good at painting, but i do have an idea for a niche channel, but honestly, i have no idea where to begin! So would love to see a youtube video on how to start a warmhanger (😂) themed painting channel, but i also have some personal internal “blocks” which are preventing me from doing such a thing and its frustrating, and being born with a cleft palette means i have a slightly weird voice anyway, but then im also like, well its 2024, and diversity and all that, so i really dont know, i have such passion for what i do, but im terrified of making that first video, so any advice, however insignificant you think it may be, would be a massive help.
Keep doing what your doing Guy, and happy new year to you all!
❤ Robyn
Ive been using liquitex heavy body acrylics and rustoleum/krylon primers for my painting. They can be a little harder to use, but can still look incredible and are more efficient in price with their tubes than most mini-brand pots
Crooked staff print and paste terrain ftw!!! So easy, takes no skill or artistic talent at all! Free or pwyw! Just print a pdf, stick it to some cardboard and cut! So easy and great fun
Can honestly say I've never thought of using paper tokens w/ pictures of the units. Simple but brilliant
People used to do that all the time when I was a kid, I had a few models but was invited over to people's house several times and they took out a box full of paper cutouts 😂
I've done this for years with DnD and Pathfinder. I found the transition to 40k so damn easy
I'm part of a group in Nottingham that provides armies for people to play with as well as experienced players, it really helped me learn the ropes after getting back into the hobby after a 20+ year gap
Crooked staff terrain is one of the best hidden gem channel I've found last year. So glad you give him a shout-out
I'm so proud of myself that I already follow all but one of the terrain building UA-camrs that you recommended. And I'm super excited to discover that 1 new one! I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't into this hobby almost exclusively for dreaming up new locations to design and build. My creative inclinations are my "in" to all of this (now I just need to become competent at playing, lol).
Guy, I love your content, as always. Please never stop.
Great to see a shoutout to other creators, especially smaller ones like Crooked Staff Terrain. I love his stuff
In regards to paint; when I was getting back into the hobby and had lost all my official paints, I started with basic art kit acrylics and poundland car spray undercoat. It's not ideal but it is a nice cheaper way in.
I also feel like you almost mentioned this, but cheap green army-men packs are a fantastic way of practicing army painting, even if they lack the real detail of Warhammer stuff!
I mean, they have about the same detail as some of the older Warhammer models! Haha
Vallejo basic colour set (either model or game) are a fantastic set of paints at an affordable price. I’m still using mine years later
I've actually been looking up green army men and medieval plastic soldiers online to do exactly that. Just trying to get into the spirit of converting on the cheap and seeing where the imagination and ingenuity can take me. Should be fun.
I first started army painting with the cheapo skeletons from Twilight Creations (they make games like Zombies!, and sell the individual minis singly or in bulk), using craft paint. It was tough going, but I learned the fundamentals of brush control and how to bring a model to some semblance of presentibility. Craft paints take way more coats than model paints, but they DO work.
@@jaysunbodaysun3302 eM4 Miniatures have some awesome cheap-and-cheerful plastics; in particular you can packs of 50 dwarves (with either axe, spear or crossbow) or 50 orcs (sword, spear or bow), each pack is £15, or you can get an assorted pack of 48 (16 of each) for less than £11. I've seen some pretty cool conversions just done with these simple monopiece figures...
They also have sci-fi troopers, gangers, robots and "space rangers" (each 5 for a fiver), and, I've just discovered, US Civil War infantry; 20 each of either Union or Confederate troops, also for a fiver.
This video’s lovely. It’s transparent, funny, and incredibly helpful. Amazing work.
Some great shouts here Guy, good job.
I follow Crooked Staff, Wyloch and Black Magic Crafts for their D&D themed builds.
Thanks for the shoutout!! Good tips in this video
Any time!
For anyone who may be doing some shopping in Ikea or any other furniture store in which you get everything boxed up, save those boxes and the little separator parts as those can be super useful for terrain building
Another youtube channel that is a masterclass in junk modelling is Scratch Bashing. His Ork stuff is *chefs kiss* spectacular.
I know this isn’t relevant to the video but I’ve nominated you as a Warhammer Hero I’ve done this because I think what you do here is amazing and I really hope you win it you would greatly deserve it 😊
@MidwinterMinis
Wow, thank you!
The paper cutouts is a PERFECT idea!!! Now i feel like i have a good starting ground for getting into this game outside of only using tabletop sim, thank you so mich for this video
My first game of 40k, was played in '96 with the old 2nd edition box contents. We played on a ping pong table using that Battle Masters PVC mat as "play area", with all the scenery we had from those two games' boxes, plus weird crap we had lying around; taking dividers from a tool carrying case as walls.... thus I can absolutely confirm Guy's statement. If your first game isn't like this, you're doing it wrong!
Didn’t expect to see my cobbled-together dreadnought jumpscare me on a midwinter minies video (even for a second) - quite a nice way to start my day!
Is it the one at 6:13 it looks really good for something made out of random stuff
@@chaoticclonestudios Yeah!
Can confirm on tabletop sim. Even when most of my friends have armies, we still play mostly on tabletop sim for the convenience. (You can mute that annoying guy anytime)
Eons of Battle covered this topic in one of his painting challenge videos but Apple Barrel brand paint is SHOCKINGLY good for the price.
And it's not just the ones he used in the video either. My wife and I bought the big collection of their paint and none of them have disappointed me.
The white is bad but 1. So is almost every white paint that isn't Valejo White Ink and 2. Still better than Corvax white.
You'd be surprised how many craft paint brands are actually pretty decent.
And for thinning (and wash-making), a big bottle of acrylic floor polish will last you for _ages._
Such a feel good video! Keep them coming 😊
I started with the cardboard tokens, and i played on cardboard terrain on a carpet in the tearoom and i enjoyed it!
Proper introhammer
@@MidwinterMinis yeah and warlord titan was two shishas/hookahs :-D
Very cool and instructional video. I am a fan of Wyloch, Black MagicCraft and Crooked Staff terrain (who just started his annual build along - season 3). I'll be checking out some of your other links.
OOHHH!!!!!!! the legendary ork can board!!!!!! I remember to use it just fresh from the box on my fiend floor bedroom full of forestshoes, mountainbooks and barbie beach house fortress. Pal you bring to much good memories, love you lots!!!!!
I really loved your beginner video. It’s what brought me here. Very nice pacing and easy to follow
I have quite the collection of minis that are just printed images glued to little cardboard stands. They were my first ever introduction to actually playing Warhammer, and it was a blast! I have a few real models now, but I'll always keep my old cardboard minis on hand, just in case
I got back into Warhammer thanks to your skitarii painting video.
I used to collect and paint way back when 2nd edition was freah.
I noticed your video (by absolute chance)and watched out of curiosity. Boom! the addiction began.
Couldn't thank you enough guy. Hopefully you inspire more to start this wonderful hobby of ours
Thanks mate! That means a lot
Also, one thing to add.
GW give away big Warhammer packs to Scout groups and youth groups. Full of AoS/40k marines, plus paints and brushes etc.
Some people watching your video may be a part of such groups and are unaware they do this if asked. Another great way to try the hobby for free.
As a scout leader myself, I get the boxes as often as I can for the kids
This was so wholesome. Reminds me of me and my friends copying our own Magic the Gathering cards from a catalogue using felt tips.
Amazing! Me and my friends used to make our own Top Trumps cards by drawing them too
The first top tip is super helpful and you meet lots of nice people that way. It was super hard for me to get into the community aspect due to me being on the autistic spectrum and it took me three trips to my local Warhammer store before I could even talk (other than commerce talk you'd do in every store) to the guys, but, they are super nice and I always enjoy painting and talking to people at the Warhammer Store whenever i eventually get around to visit. I'm not really into playing the game (yet?) but to anyone new to the hobby - go give it a shot, from all experience I had with employees and customers alike, they were all super nice and open.
100% there is someone near you who not only plays 40k, but also has an army for you to use because they painted a second faction on the mere hope of finding someone to play with.
I remember seeing a meme once of a picture of some US army soldiers playing warhammer in Iraq using a collection of bullets and other gear.
I think my first game, all the terrain was duplo and tinned food! Great video Guy!
for the paper/card models, I remember that when Hachette did a magazine with the lord of the rings miniature games, with each magazine coming with a sprue (just like the way more recent Imperium magazine), the first magazine came with a card sheet with the whole fellowship, allowing the buyers to play their first game using the method you talked (against the gobbos which were on the first sprue). So there's another precedent.
thanks for this brother! i am scratching my head on how to teach my friend since i only have limited models and the paper cutout is a really great suggestion!
The truest way to befriend a chaos or space marines veteran at your local hobby store is asking if they have too many rhinos and want one or two getting rid of
This both made me amazing friends to help me get started in warhammer (I did have a little going by this point) and a good way of finding models for cheap or even free sometimes (shout out to rob who gave me 4!!!! Bloody 4 rhinos)
I still remember seeing someone at Games Day Canada, probably back in 2003 or something? With an army made of playdough, and straws glued to unpainted car kit shells, at the time I felt like it was lazy, maybe even rude, now I feel like that kid was a genius! So long as you're consistent with what is what on the table, who cares what it looks like so long as you're having fun and it means you're getting in more hobby time.
Pro Tip for keeping things cheap, if there is an IKEA store nearby they have paper measuring tapes with cm and inches on them for free in the store, as well as tiny pencils, grab a few of those free paper thingy’s, maybe glue them down on a piece of cardboard, cardstock or thin plywood and Bobs your uncle :)
Sorry, my mom warned me about men offering me things for free the first time (?)
Great video, Guy. Starting a hobby is always a bit disorienting, and these tips are really helpful.
If you are anything like me, you bite off more than you can chew and get ahead of yourself. My recommendation is wait to build stuff like terrain and paint miniatures and terrain. PLAY THE GAME! Don’t burn yourself out trying to make the perfect painted army or the amazing terrain. Make sure you enjoy the game and stuff like that will come.
3:17 The person to ask for a measuring tape could as well be the same person that teaches you the game. They're usually geared up an will very likely share their tools and dice for the game.
Kiddos & I are getting into Warcry, with the smaller warbands being a big positive. We spent 2 days making our own terrain out of wood off-cuts & craft supplies. We've definitely got enough now.
I remember fighting my brother's Gondor humans with my uruk hais on a fort made out of lego and other toys!
Thankfully, my local hobby store keeps terrain, mats, dice trays, and objective markers in the store for people to use whenever they want, so that saves me a TON of time from making terrain. Also, our community was so welcoming, one of them actually gifted me the Heirotek Circle killteam when i was starting out with the game. I still dont play killteam, but it was an amazing gesture, and really helped catapult me into the hobby.
Don't forget the most important skill you can have when you hobby on a budget or no budget, just ask. I had a friend who wanted to play Kill team with me and my friends, so I went to my local games store and asked around. When the cashier (whom I am very good friends with) just handed me four of those Space marine sprues shown at 10:38. Sure I had to modify them a bit so that they didn't look samey, but that was a fun afternoon of hobbying.
I enjoyed the unironically wholesome energy of this video! ❤
00:44 hey it's Simon Clark. Still wearing the pineapple shirt from his Ork battle with Lewis I see
Wish I had a video like this years ago. Got my first games in combat patrol a while ago. Actually came second in the tournament. Have been playing Kill Team for a bit longer. People found from local store. Been great playing there.
4:22 Back when I ran a gaming centre/shop ied let people use cardboard templates that were the shape of the model, as long as the model was clearly marked and it was only for a game or two and your opponent was ok with it, I started this when I wanted to try out a full jetbike army for eldar as buying a full army of jetbikes just to see if I liked how it played was a bit much so I spent a day drawing and cutting out templates for each model I was considering.
Thanks! MWM brought me to WH40k :) Some years ago I have started with full Blackstone Fortress game and all painted minies in Guy's style and then the next step was firt Space Marine! Now I dont have much free space in our house where to put additional armies... One other cheap option is to ask your friend with 3D Printer. They are usually willing to print you some free or very very cheap models ...
I played blood bowl and used the minis for necromunda surgeon bowl and several other games
Skirmish games are great for sharing models!
@@MidwinterMinis thought me how to build custom games
What a champ, can't be bothered too lengthen the video time
Fantastic video, lots in here no matter where you are on the Warhammer journey.
Rite of passage on the terrain hit home for me. We used a collection of my daughters toys, fruits, vegetables, and books. Having a tyranid shoot from behind a pineapple is a fond memory of mine
Thank you for what you do. Love your bat rep combat patrols lol. Watch them all though, really appreciate your content
I still remember my rite of passage games from 10 years back. We got half the rules wrong and nothing was painted but man we're they so fun!!
Started with buying some Space Wolves back in the day. Never really played with them. I really wanted Death Korps, but I dont want metal. And now you can buy boxes of plastic ones. Oh boy time to pick up this hobby again. Already made some terrain stuffs and wrecks with my 3D printer so I'm quite hyped to start over!
Will you guys ever cover kill team? I think it’s cheaper barrier to entry would be a good thing to expose to new coming players.
When i was getting into warhammer i drew all my death guards on paper
For all of you Ork-curious folks out there, I have saved an IMMENSE amount of money on kitbashes and model conversions. Slapping some corrugated cardboard and cut up gift cards on the hull of a dollar store army tank has given me some of my favorite hobby projects to date! Best of all it’s actively encouraged in the tabletop community to do it, so don’t be discouraged about not running official GW kits.
True 40k tabletop players know that the best Ork models are the DIY ones made from junk. After all, that's how the Orks do it!
This video was great and encourages me to go out to my local stores to see more
My cheap way to play: get the images you want from the gw site, use whatever image editor you like to fit it in an appropriately sized circular border, print it, cut it, place it in a coin capsule. Looks pretty good and goes quickly once you have the templates set up. Troop sized coin capsules are pretty cheap. Like 100 for $10-15. Just make sure they come with the foam inserts for a tight fit. You can even use both sides of a capsule if you’re feeling very cheap. Or use a mirrored image on the back so you can point the model in different directions.
Coin capsules! That's genius
Love your videos Guy. So wholesome and well produced.
The figurines at 8:10 hit me right in the nostalgia.
Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy! There's a blast from early childhood 👍
My first wh game has been lego “orks” vs duplo “space marines” . Priceless
This is a brilliant video, tabletop gaming is something that should always be accessible.
I read through the first edition rulebook of 40k a while ago, and they provided a bunch of their models as pictures you could photocopy and print out in lieu of actual models. Crazy.
Yeah, that's one of the last points I mention in this video. Such a nice touch!
@@MidwinterMinis it's amazing what happens when a company goes on the stock exchange.
Kill Team is the fastest growing GW game, at skirmish level it’s got a low barrier of entry of cost and time commitment.
Free rules are online for the game in general and for the Intercession team. If you didn’t want to go the proxy/token route you’d just need to get 6 intercessors, probably some of the most ubiquitous models around so used/eBay/free is much more attainable than anything approaching a 40K army.
Keep up the great work guy
I've heard an idea that you can get most of a Primaris Intercessor Kill team by taking a multi day road trip to all the GW stores in your state, and getting the free sample models.
SOOOOOOOOOO wholesome
My first two WH40K games were Necrons (Me) VS Imperial Guard and then Necrons (Me) VS Orks. We used some repurposed fantasy minis, boxes, paper cut-outs and stuff. I can't wait to try the Chaos Marines made out of whatever for my next game!
The original warhammer set came with cardboard cut out slann vs an expeditionary force of colonisers. The images were drawn as there were limited models then, plus photography wasn't as accessible as it is now.
Fantastic video with great advice. It had classic white dwarf ‘how to build a cardboard Rhino’ vibes
The first warhammer game I played was a game of Killteam with my brother. We had a copy of the rule book, a copy of the army book, and some coins to stand in as models. Orks vs. Tau. We loved it.
if you have a 3d printer you can print minis for a cheaper price like 68 cents for a 15 dollar mini
I literally teach exactly this with my Learn to Play WarCry class. Standees are a really cheap way to practice with a new model too, not just for beginners. Before I shell out $40 for this new leader, maybe I try a game or 2 using a proxy. After that stage I advise people to get cheaper minis to proxy their warbands, like Reaper, Mantic, or minis from board games. That way they can learn to paint on some cheaper models and see if that is part of the hobby they enjoy or not before throwing down over $100 for an army and then finding they will never paint it or play it again.
The idea of an Ork Gargant made from literal trash and scraps is so perfect to theme.
The papercraft minis is a trick I've done for Dungeons and Dragons when I wanted a mini for a monster, but there wasn't one readily available from anywhere. And honestly, if your gaming group is going to be bothered by that kind of thing, you may need to look for a new group.
There are free alternate rules for Warhammer. One Page Rules makes a free system with an army builder. It covers all the main factions for Warhammer Fantasy and SciFi settings at both army scale and skirmish scale.
Many great ideas! There are also some hobby supplies (e.g. painting handles) which are almost free or overlooked - or can be sourced without the usual 'hobby tax'