Best money saving tip for all hobbies: stop buying stuff and use what you already have. Paint the minis you already have, use the colors you already have. Hobbyists tend to go on shopping sprees as a stand in for actually doing the hobby. Stop acquiring and start using.
Excellent advice. I always try and finish one project before starting another. I set goals and timelines. Sometimes I fail, but I'm proud of my successes.
I made a few sandbag barricades out of glued together pennies. I called it my aegis defense line. It totally isn’t counterfeit but I still got a disapproving glance from the store manager at a GW store lol. Ironically it was a lot cheaper to use literal money than GW’s plastic…
That's the reason you are literally paying pennies for what they charge you dollars for, and not a few at that. GW corporate greed has killed Warhammer and warmaster. It's too expensive now, just a money grabbing joke. The same kits that cost me 15 GBP (I'm from the UK) 20 years ago will cost me 50-60 today. GW have screwed over their loyal players for corporate greed, they could make the kits way cheaper or at least allow proxies. The best would be to sell the STL files for 3d printing and offer miniatures for those who don't have access to a 3d printer.
These are great! Few add-ons... - Skirmish games are SOOO much cheaper, and let you collect slower. Kill Team is such a fun game. - Learn to mix your paints. GW want to sell you 5 pots of "blue". You can mix so many blues, so easily. - making character models from basic troops is a huge money-saver - Greenstuff, extra bits, size bases up and add drama with rocks and whatnot. Boom. - sand from the road, beach or whatever is superb pro basing material. - you can make wash/shade paint for big projects in bulk using matt medium and calligraphy ink. - texture paint is really good using fine sand, PVA, and cheap poster paint. - deodorant stick grav-tank is the best grav-tank.
I once made 3 Terminator lords and 3 Yerminator Sorcerers for my black legion. Just used a box of regular termies, gave them green stuff capes and polymer rocky bases, Switched their heads for whatever cool heads I had from other kits, and asked around the community for bits. Hands down my favourite models to bring out. Also, you can make a decent wash by darkening any water-based acrylic and just watering it down. That's how we did Agrax Eartshade back in the days.
I have a friend who bought the 'Zombicide Black Plague' and 'Massive Darkness'. He then painted then and orgainised their bases and created movement trays so that he could use them in multiple games. I've since seen him use the undead, orcs and monsters from those games in Zombicide, Massive Darkness, Age of Sigmar, Kings of War, Warlords of Erehwon, Saga age of magic, Frostgrave, Dungeons and Dragons, Mordheim and Warcry. I haven't heard anyone raise an objection yet. In fact, most people just ask where the miniatures are from. Some of those 'miniature boardgames come with hundreds of miniatures
Woah! Now THAT sounds like a good investement. Is there any way you could give some more info on how he used them for Kings of War and Age of Sigmar? Like, are the miniatures you get from the boxes enough to make a complete army, or did he have to add some more units on the side, buy units for heroes etc.
Its so funny I saw your comment. I was just wondering last night if I could use my Zombicide Black Plague zombies to start Soulblight Gravelords army to play with my friend!
@@borna1231 As Adam often says, when you are playing with friends the GW miniature police don't come to your place to force you to use their minis. In fact, the only place I know that does force you to use them is GW stores. The other thing is, the Massive Darkness ocrs look like Kruleboyz. The Zombicide ones just look like undead orcs. Once they are on round bases you use conversion trays to get them to rank up for KoW. Zombicide and Massive Darkness don't care what weapons they hold fo you just convert where needed.
Make friends with someone at your FLGS who plays the army you are interested in. Watch them play a few games. They may even let you "use" their models to get a feel for them. A good way to figure out if you're going to enjoy playing the game and that army in particular.
I quit going to the game store years ago. I played from the start all the way through 3rd edition. When 4th came out, me and my buddies wanted to wait a while before switching. We liked 3rd and had already spent so much money. Well a few weeks passed and the owner only wanted people to play 4th edition to make us buy more stuff and was being a prick about it. We were still buying magic the gathering, dnd, comics, and other things, we just didn't feel the need to change over to a new warhammer edition. We ended up just buying a couple of tables, built sceneries, and just played at each others houses. Never went back to that store.
do have to say, as someone with adhd this hobby is honestly the best, maybe not money wise but the sheer selection of troops and organization it's just so fun building list and fighting my armies, and i get the whole backlog thing but for me personally i feel like i still want at least one of every army because i like playing different styles on different days
I am glad that my local game store don't care about proxies and stuff. The main goal is to have a nice community to play ! And that makes me want to support it
Start at a skirmish/warband level (or in games like Kill Team) and slowly build up to an army only if you want to. Doing that will make tabletop gaming one of the cheapest hobbies for time invested imo.
Age of Sigmar is just now shifting to the Combat Patrols-styled boxes as well. They seem to be aimed at 750 points, which is roughly the smallest amount for playing proper games.
I was interested in 40k and was looking where i could buy a recruit box for 9th edition. My friends told me to check out a shop because the people who worked in the one i was going to buy were kind of dickish. Now that shop became my FLGS and is basically my second home. Friendly owner and customers, kinda active community (both for WH and MtG) with both new and old folks, with ideas, stories and experience into the scene (there are people who are just starting out or simply watch to see if it's of their interest and others that are in the hobby before I was even born). Now I try to support it in every way I can, be it ordering GW products or buying boardgames or getting a booster pack for MtG. Because it's a small store it can't make discount and since it's a small community in a not so large city the variety of game system is a little dry, so the players need to stick to one or two games to play (namely MtG and WH).
@@RSBurgener You, my friend, are completely right. I think the same with "just" 30 years. Although I am a bit sad that I missed the vintage era of MtG...dreamingforablacklotussince2014😅
@@falkenspeergroomofavacyn600 early MTG wasn't great as a game. There were only so many good cards and everyone used the same shit. Some stuff was massively over-powered and most everything was medium power or less. The good cards were really hard to get unless you dropped a ton of money. The stores were always out of the cards and when they did have them, they were one or two packs per customer. Your rares were either a dual land, a black lotus or a crappy non-card nobody used. Then more experienced players would try and cheat beginners out of the good ones in trade. It was actually really ugly and frustrating. You were just a likely to get screwed as you were to get something good. And, I can't stress this enough, *the stores were always out of the cards!* . I'm not joking, in my area, every time the expansions came out, they sold out in the first two hours of the first day the stores had them. The print runs were so small that many never got them again. It was disgusting.
Make your own heroes! Of course, GW heroes look great with their poses and stuff, but a single hero costs sometimes as much as a box of dudes. Put them on a big stone or broken pillar, make them raise their weapon or glue extra bits and heraldry on them and voila - a hero for cheap and plenty more models free for conversion. Thinking back on Warhammer fantasy, many players used filler for their big regiments, like barrels, graves and the stuff, to embiggen their ranks and remove them first as casualties. I had the idea for my trolls/troggoths, to use the extra heads and harms and some greenstuff to make these come out of holes or water on big bases. I mean, they are official GW parts and clearly distinguishable. But I am not sure if this would count as modelling for advantage, because they would have a much smaller sillouette. Kings of War deals with this the best, since each unit has a predetermined footprint and height, regardless on what happens on the bases.
I've seen this with Seraphon. If you buy the SC box, there's an extra dinosaur head (troglodon?) that I've seen a lot of people model like it is swimming or stepping up out of water. I love using leftover bits to kitbash additional models!
Exactly. I'm building a power armoured version of my Chaos Lord, and he's literally put together from scraps I didn't put on other models. The purpose made character models are cool, but especially now with 3d printable and 3rd part accessories, there's no reason why you can't make an even better looking character model with a little work. At the end of the day, a suit of power armour is a suit of power armour. A robo-skeleton is a robo-skeleton. It's a bit different when you get armies like Orks and Tyranids, where the character models are supposed to be physically larger and distinct from other models, but even then there are ways you can pull off some of the mid-tier models and specialty units that cost a fortune.
"Make your own heroes! " I started collecting Warhammer 40.000 at the start of 3rd edition ... back then there wa exactly one !!! Warboss model, and it was made out of metal, so almost every Ork player would konvert or kitbash his own model to use as a Warboss. Meaning no two Warbosses looked the same. Those were some fun times!
I fell into this exact loophole last year, I was just finishing my conquest subscription (which is another cheaper way into the hobby short term - pachow!) When the indomitus boxset came about, I grabbed it like everyone else did, and then about 2 months later I was painting an army for someone and because of financial reasons he no longer wanted it, after already buying the miniatures for me to paint - I asked him that I would buy they off him. I paid him the money and considered it a great deal £300 worth of mini's for £150. The thing is, I'd barely got around to touching my indomitus set, and now I had a huge amount of other mini's as well, plus what was left of conquest and imperium now, and a couple of other boxes besides. And yep I gave myself too big a mountain to climb. I'm slowly beavering away on it, although it'll be a few years before it's painted completely. 🤦
Kitbashing. Needed 4 Tomb Banshees, got 4 Myrmidesh ones, which didn't actually need any kitbashing whatsoever. Pay the price of one, got four. Also kitbashing kind-of stuff: there are boxed characters, again, for fantasy stuff, in Underworlds. Cheap af, full of character. Friend got his warqueen from the Godsworn Hunt box, super cheap, looks great, kind-of unique, cheap, what is not to like there? And he has a bunch of extra guys as material for his kitbashed Spire Tyrants Warcry team. In 40K, there are always extra bitz left from building regular squads, and if you have enough, you can, again, kitbash colourful characters out of regular guys with them. Back in the day, I wanted sternguard, but couldn't afford, so I picked five regular marines, picked the nicest bits from the boxes, gave them robes from tissue paper and thick sewing thread, dipped them in pva glue and went to town. People spend a lot of time sculpting clothes out of GS, but it is faster and more realistic to do it from actual fabric, like tissue paper. Tissue paper clothes are awesome. Some more elaborate clothes are a lot trickier, but there is always a way. While we are at clothes... Ghosts are just extra skulls and hands sticking out from under pva drenched paper on a metal wire. They look as good if not better than any sculpted ghost. The flow of paper as clothing, the texture is just out of this world. Takes paint like crazy.
Sadly, eBay is no longer an option in Canada. Everything comes out of the States, and shipping has increased about 1000-fold. I'm going to end up paying twice for anything I buy from the US, so I might as well just go into a store and get it new. Facebook is also a challenge because everyone is trying to make profit or sell at retail price, which again means you're just better off buying new than saving just a few dollars and inheriting someone's problems.
I don't think theres a single project I don't use the baking soda and super glue trick for. Basing, gap filling and reinforcing cork bases and also as a ground for texture pastes at times so it's not gripping onto bare plastic. I find it works for filling out the underside of the slot in slotta bases for old metal minis and gives a slightly firmer hold if you're not pinning them in.
I don't think I ever have, but then I also have about 2 litres of sand I've had since I was a kid. I did buy a pot of larger rocks because I couldn't find it (I moved about 4 times), but I'll likely use the normal sand for normal basing and a sprinkle of bought rocks for added detail. But then I also don't care for "basing" since it just means putting your model on 3 inches of crap that just makes them easier to hit in cover.
@@ScooterinABA big bag of sand is likely to last you for the best part of forever, I know I've got enough grit, gravel and bark to last me for yonks. As far as basing is concerned I find it one of the funnest parts of the modelling and painting process, draws a whole force together and gives them a bit more flavour as a visual presence. If I had base a horde army they'd definitely get the quick and dirty treatment. I paint more than I play so I don't care personally if I've essentially modelled for disadvantage so long as I've made a model I'm happy with. The models are sitting pretty on a shelf most of the time anyhoo. But I thoroughly appreciate not wanting to kneecap yourself mechanically if you're focused on playing smartly and efficiently.
For age of sigmar, the underworlds warbands make good "counts as " or conversion fodder as leaders for their respective armies. For example , the seraphon warband out of the box has a decent skink priest / star priest option and a saurus old one. And another skink that I converted for use as a priest.
Know the meta chasers / impulse buyers in your local gaming group. Buy their stuff second hand when they move on to the next army, usually every two months or so. Great succes.
I'd say two of my biggest tips are playing small games like Kill Team to keep the actual model cost lower. And the other is if you are going to play a big army game, plan your army out ahead of time so you don't buy extra models. Let more experienced player help you make your list so you don't have to re-buy and paint half of it.
for kill team what I have been doing is whenever I start a new team since they need maybe 2-3 boxes of dudes max I buy one box at a time and don't let myself buy more (with exceptions) until I have the previous box assembled at minimum.
Professional, just means it's done for money rather than a hobby. So they aren't lying or misleading. It doesn't correlate to quality/skill at all. We generally make that assumption though.
I feel very blessed I have little interest in tabletop miniature games especially Warhammer as it's so expensive. Reading Black Library, playing video games and collecting JoyToy figures much cheaper and I can still enjoy the setting.
Pile of shame clear outs are great on ebay for picking up cheap BNIB. Can be cheaper than Indie discounts. However, it always boggles my mind when I see one (freely available) go for more than RRP.
The old necron warriors box. It cost little, and if you are interested in building a cheap army and you like to customize, the necron warriors can be kitbashed to form every kind of unit. You can make flayed ones with them, you can make necron lords, you can make immortals, you can use the necron warrior as a base for a lot of units.
Defineteley agree with supporting FLGS. I play only there, i meet new people there and I like the owner as a person. I had this inner fight at the start because I have found 2 online stores with lower prices, but I decided to buy from FLGS anyway. I think it is a good thing. Also I really agree that sometimes those super value boxes can be a trap. I play only duardin factions in AOS but this includes CoS. Soo when I saw Dominion I immidieteley bought it with a friend and took stormcast for coslition units in CoS. And than I bought some more SCE.... and some more... and never painted more than 4 models. Now I try to sell them and I have a really bad time with it haha. So beaware of vslue boxes. They can trick you in "thinking that you like" things that you do not.
It's definitely good to ask yourself, "do I actually want this? Or am I attracted to it because it seems like a good deal?" If you don't like the models or aren't going to paint them, it is absolutely not a good deal, because you're spending money on stuff that doesn't give you, personally, any value. If it's sitting in your pile of shame because you just don't want to paint or use it, it's wasted money. You're genuinely better off spending a little more money if it's on a model you ARE interested in.
I had wanted to build seraphon and lumineth armies, but I managed to get dominion for exactly 50% in their recent warhammer day promotion combined with wayland games, so £63 for 60 models means my painting needs for 2022 are now sorted
I just spent a shit ton on tyranids, too much really, but i am already more than halfway through painting and building. I guess its because i loved tyranids as a kid, never got the chance to get into them as it was too expensive, so the drooling for years has made me 100% sure i want a huge tyranid army
One company that I've been looking into is Mindtaker Miniatures. They buy and sell used models, and they have a rather good selection. They buy ones in various conditions, from New On Sprue/In Box to partially or completely painted. They even buy bits or broken models, and you can get some of them at a discount if you're willing to do some repair work or source replacements. Honestly, it's been a struggle perusing their catalogue and not just throwing down tons of money, just because the models are a good bargain. Like, do I actually need to start an Ork force? Or a Warcry band of Stormcast Eternals? It's a rabbit hole I could get swept down very easily.
I'd love to proxy but I just know someone will be "that guy" because the true line of sight rule in 40k means the game is anti proxy baked into the rules since model height matters.
You can kind of karma-counter that by adding on all the extraneous doo-das to the official models you do own that are not necessarily going to be to your advantage. Eg. big radio antennae on your tanks, big flags on your commander's backpack, extra stupid big weapon raised over a model's head, etc. Stuff that makes those models easier to see and target over terrain, but you rule of cool it when building them because it looks better. Then if you do run in to that guy you can argue the point for any proxies.
For Warhammer, I know they aren't "meta" right now for either game but if you want to try out two games with one army then play Chaos Daemons since both 40k and AoS use the exact same models for both games.
One of the best ways, I think, to save money on 40k is to search for the used minis. Either already painted, unpainted but assembled, or just still in sprues. The big thing is that typically used models can be obtained for half the price of a new one (GW list price), and if you're not too picky on the paintjob, you save money and time on painting the models, if you're in a bit of luck. But this is my favourite way.
9:14 Relate, went to looking for someone who sell Bladeguard Veterans Body (because I want another 3 of them) and Stumbled into someone who say this are "Pro Painted" Even though is just a basic painting with contrast paint. So I have only 2 option left either bought another box of Bladeguard veterans and have thousand of bits box or 3d Printed
My main warhammer army is orks, and are nearly all second hand. You can save a LOT buying second hand bulk lots, taking what you need, then selling off what you don't piecemeal. Won't apply to all armies, but it is 100% the case for orks!
Well said sir. You've said this before, at different times and in different ways, but to have this all together is very nice. Now I can send this link to new folks coming in to think about. Nicely done!
I buy my models used from a dealer in the UK. If you can get a good shipping rate, models retail for cheaper in the UK than in the US, even after the exchange rate.
3D printers really pay for themselves especially given GW's overpriced models. I'd also recommend that when it comes to painting to look at Vallejo and other cheaper alternatives. Testors model glue is also fantastic and much cheaper than the GW bottles which have a habit of breaking and drying all the glue inside up.
My tip, You can make your own wet palette for cheap. For an upgrade by army painter wet palette sheets and just use a sponge in a Tupperware container.
Flock for terrain is cheap and easy to make yourself out of sawdust - I asked the workers at a building site and got a whole bag of flock for free. At home I ran it through different strainers and baking sieves to get different grains. In an old plastic bowl, I mixed some water and cheap poster-board-paints and added the sawdust. Mix it and let it sit for awhile. Spread it out on some paper towels and let it dry. Repeat until the color is what you want. (I tried drying it in the oven but the whole house stunk!) I ran it though the sieve again to get somer really fine flock as well. I have 8 different colors of flock in 3 different grains which will last me the rest of my life for about 5 bucks.
Pro Tip: If you happen to be taking the advice of this wonderful channel and find yourself collecting sand from a local park, but someone approaches you and says "You can't steal the park's sand!", simply reply "Well, can I have some from your v****a then?"
I was never allowed to get into Warhammer growing up, now that I'm adult I am trying to get into it and explore options. This video has been really helpful in my research. Thank you so much!
Custom building your generic lords/heroes from extra bits is also a great way to save, usually adding a 20 to 30 dollar value to a box of dudes, while creating a cool custom look. Magnetizing/using a bit of putty is a great way to save on special/heavy weapons. Building transports, say a Rhino, with the top panel removable and then building the razorback weapons, magnetized to on its separate top panel, effectively saves you from buying another Rhino/Razorback kit. You can do the same thing with Ogor Beastriders with the heads and top panel. Magnetize the front rider, and you have Huskard/Frostlord/Beastriders on a Thundertusk/Stonehorn. Factions like Chaos Space Marines are dirt cheap to collect if your local game store has a bit box, because you can take used marines, missing appendage marines, horribly kitbashed marines, or just a mishmash of spare marine parts and make a Chaos Space Marine. I built a Chaos spawn from random arms, symbols, and etc from scraps in a cave. Factions like deathwatch can also be cheap. Say you have access to a bit box, an exacto knife, and you bought a Deathwatch upgrade kit. You could pick up one of those three-marines-in-a-box, cut off one pauldron, and attach bits to them. You have a spear? Good, now with two bolters glued together, your 3 dollar marine just became a watch captain(make sure you have the right size bases). Go outside, grab a little dirt, grind it finely for the basing.
You talk about small GW stores and it makes me think of the oldest one on this side of the planet in Geneva Illinois. I think it's going on 25+ years now. The company won't upgrade them to Warhammer and it even still has the original wallpaper and Ultra Smurf on the bathroom door. Anyways, last time I was there they had at least 7 heavy duty old school full size gaming tables that had been made out of wood. I go to the closer store now and they use those little modular tables that can also be used to hobby. The company deffinately pushed for less gaming and more sales.
Most of my Warhammer stuff has been second hand or gifts. Only bought a box of Ork Boys and Gretchin straight from a GW store. I am lucky, though, because the guy who got me interested in Warhammer is a good buddy of mine and is a very very impulsive spender. He also hates using Ebay so he always gives me first dibs on buying his regrets at a crazy deep discount. Right now he's giving me a 1000 points of FEC to build his Skaven army for him.
My local store doesn't hassle anybody about their models and tables are generally first come, first serve, unless they have a scheduled event that night, in which they reserve the tables they need. And they ain't going out of business anytime soon with this model either.
My FLGS had a box of Crypt Ghasts which our local WH store never stocks up on. Ended up getting a 30% discount and had them built and ready for a game that weekend. Def go check out the locals, you might be surprised!
"Games Workshop don't do any kind of sales" - when I was a kid in the 90s they had an annual sale at all brick-and-mortar GW shops where they sold off all the old stock they'd discontinued over the last year at ridiculous prices. Blisters of metal figures for a pound each, boxed games for a tenner, that kind of money. It was in January or February, so my Christmas money went on it every year and in all honesty it kept me in the hobby for years. If it wasn't for that I'd probably never have got heavily into GW gaming in the first place and by the time I could afford to buy hundreds of plastic figures myself I'd have been spending my money elsewhere.
Sometimes buying (or using if you have it already) a cheaper unit and then converting it to a unit that's more expensive to buy. I need some Ravenwing black knights for Dark Angels and what I have are loads (and loads) of the regular Ravenwing bikers from the 6th and 7th edition starter sets. The major difference: plasma pistols (technically plasma talons) mounted on the bike rather than regular bolters. I ebayed and got the some pistols and converted, saved loads. But I could have saved more if I have bought 1 pair, made moulds (with blue stuff) can cast them in . Generally if 95% of the model is the same, a conversion will be overlooked esp with GW parts. Casting GW parts + grimy paint job = cant tell the difference. Converting from starter set models will always be pretty cheap too.
I buy lots of used GW minis at Noble knight games. i dont need full units as I'm buying to play Grimdark Firefight. seems like pretty good prices for used.
Boxed sets. Be it the start collecting style boxes (sometimes multiple like with ironjawz), or the two army sets they bring from time to time. Or save up for the Christmas sets and build all year from that.
Though keep the brakes on like Uncle Atom says! If you just started, get one box and finish it and then expand only at that rate. There's always new stuff right around the corner so save your time and money for that.
Ebay is fantastic for getting individual models that are part of a bigger box. I wanted the Deathwatch Frag Cannon guy from the Killteam Cassius box set and bought just him still on the sprue off Ebay for a decent price.
I've been thinking about purchasing some third party torsos because GW kits usually have extra arms, heads, etc. so purchasing some parts can be cheaper than complete kits. They might even count as conversions at your FLGS because they are at least partly authentic.
If you're worried about them being tournament legal you can usually find the first party torsos and such to turn spare bits into full models on ebay and the like for reasonable prices. I used to do that a lot before I realized that I have no interest in tournaments and can just use whatever reasonable proxies I want with my friends.
@@1tpkdm Thanks for the reply, that's a good idea. Personally I'm not concerned about FLGS compliance, but I figured somebody else might be so I made mention of that.
Kimera paints are a brilliant way to save money and learn color blending, you can blend any paint but they aren’t super pure so you can get odd mixed results, kimera paints are one pigment per paint and you can make any color with 1 60$ set I think. Also I’ve saved tons in primers and clear coat cans by getting an airbrush. Long run it will save money :)
just a heads up for anyone wanting to collect sisters of battle the combat patrol models are all mono loadout meaning they only come with one weapon loadout per model with no extra bits (not counting the rhino's upgrade sprue
How much do people tend to care about that in friendly games though? Like...if I build the box and just tell my opponent "Hey, I took double flail on the Penitent Engine, hand flamers on the Seraphim, and cut the banner from the Sister squad because my list came in 5 points over" won't most decent people say "Cool, let's roll for first turn"
Games workshop don't do black friday but I noticed wayland games were. I managed to get dominion for half price! Not sure if this is warhammer for cheap though as I didn't play aos before. The models are amazing though so I guess I do now!
simply the reason i didn't do any kind of unboxing and review videos on the killteam calnath is because i couldn't talk a friend into co-buying it with me (i wanted the sisters) but then the Australian price is excessive
I have been looking into warhammer for a while. I have a lot of experience painting my own hand made terrain and dnd miniatures. Do you think I’d fare well painting warhammer miniatures
Help me out here don't plan on playing just painting as hobby for display I used to collect high elves from the aos and dark elves where can I find something close to that or those sets cheap in UK
Mordheim is a cheap alternative to 40k, if you like small skirmishes. I have had a lot of fun creating miniatures with plastic models from other games.
tip for if anyone is using clumping clay cat litter do not use watered down pva it simply won't dry in a timely manner, use superglue but make sure you have somewhere ventilated to leave it to set because the fumes from suoerglue is bad for you
Buy used. You can get models for 20-25% of new by scouring FB groups, Ebay, etc. If you are fine with kitbashing characters, you can also save a pile more.
Can you cut out the miniature expenses by just printing or drawings characters on "tokens" and such, or are there issues that exists if a full model is not present? Asking as someone interested mostly in trying the tabletop game part of warhammer primary with friends and family.
I think a method that helped me, and saved me money (as a teen with a delivery route at the time) was the tales of 4 gamers article. It was an old article from white dwarf where they had a £150 budget (this is from around 1998?) They got their money in bits. I think they got 70 then 3 months of 30. Also doing that with some friends was great
@@emeryster it was fantasy but the premise was easy to apply to anything. Also helped me an my friends have weekly games against different opponents. I remember doing eldar I bought a farseer, some standard foot troops and a 3 pack of jet bikes
beware of poorly built models on ebay. you might assume it's just thick paint, but find out it's destroyed with glue when you strip it. with metal models you can remove everything with acetone, otherwise i'd stick to monopose.
For example, in my local auction website ten assault piramanis marines costs 23e, although those are guys from Indomitus. Still, for such a price... Dark Vengeance Dark Angels cost was 51e, but those dudes already goes to me:))). I hope, cause mondays;]....
Bought a really nice Mantic giant from Amazon for 32 bucks. GW's mega gargant is something like 160 dollars, um no thanks. I work way to hard for my money to support those kind of mark ups for some plastic figures. If GW wasn't so anti consumer with so many things they do as a company I would be more likely to support them.
I’m desperate to find mini’s that scale well with AoS… Frostgrave and Oathmark minis are fantastic, but your average human knight or Barbarian looks like a Dwarf compared with GW Steelhelm….
I got mate who use to run a games trader now it from deep i will always buy odds ends and other supplies off him if we went an event including my drinks and snacks
There are some models I’ve been stalking on Etsy, and the shop is having a Labor Day sale and is 20% off my basket, is it worth it? I should I just wait and let it slip?
If I could go back and start all over again I would probably just do Kill Teams. Basically two good sized squads and a commander. You see I don't have a ton of space to play, literally half a kitchen table 3x4-ft space and a 300 to 500 point Army is the perfect size for that. And while I love both my Dark Angel and Tyranid armies a lot of the stuff that I've crafted isn't even going to see full on tabletop play until I have a bigger place in the next 5 years. That means my Deathwing Terminators, Ravenwing, Dreadnought, and 3 HQs aren't going to see regular play....unless of course I want to make smaller squads using just those characters. For example, I could have my five Deathwing Terminators as a squad with my Master Librarian, Ezekiel as the commander. Or for the simple fact that I'm not even playing using official GW rules. I've actually looked into One Page Rules' Grimdark Future and Firefight, the unofficial versions of 40K and Kill Team. A lot simpler rule set that eliminates a lot of the bloat of the latest editions. Roll to attack, roll to defend, remove casualties, THAT'S IT. Now there are modifiers for some of your dice rolls but they're explained clearly for each character/squad right in their stat line. Or the too long to read version: Play using whatever models you like official or not and whatever rule set you want official or not. If it looks like 40K plays like 40K feels like 40K than it must be 40K. Having said all that besides my Dark Angels and my Tyranids, I also have smaller Kill Teams of Marines (Blood Ravens, Imperial Fists, and Ultramarines) that I made using a 3D printed mold and Model Magic, Orks that I kitbashed using Wizkids miniatures and weapons from my bitsbox, and then Dreadnoughts for my Marine squads kitbashed from action figures from the Dollar Store. If you're creative you can have the armies you dream of. No I won't be able to play in an official tournament but that was never my aspiration when I started this hobby. I just wanted to model, paint, play and have fun.
For anyone who has kids that they think would benefit from painting, get cheap water based paints. My 6 y/o son loves the kruleboyz and just orks in general, but instead of him using expensive paints and making a mess of expensive minis, these are water based so will come off with warm soapy water and toothbrush come the day hes older and wants to try painting them properly.
a professional is just someone who sells their craft. If someone says they are a pro and people are buying their things, even if it's not the best job, they're still a pro.
Best money saving tip for all hobbies: stop buying stuff and use what you already have. Paint the minis you already have, use the colors you already have. Hobbyists tend to go on shopping sprees as a stand in for actually doing the hobby. Stop acquiring and start using.
Sadly doesn't work for those of us who don't have anything yet
"Imperial citizen. You have been found guilty of the following crimes, and have been declared a heretic..."
Excellent advice. I always try and finish one project before starting another. I set goals and timelines. Sometimes I fail, but I'm proud of my successes.
100% this.
"How can we save money?!?!"
"Stop buying new models and paint the ones you have."
"NO!"
I made a few sandbag barricades out of glued together pennies. I called it my aegis defense line. It totally isn’t counterfeit but I still got a disapproving glance from the store manager at a GW store lol. Ironically it was a lot cheaper to use literal money than GW’s plastic…
thats awesome and very funny
That's the reason you are literally paying pennies for what they charge you dollars for, and not a few at that. GW corporate greed has killed Warhammer and warmaster. It's too expensive now, just a money grabbing joke. The same kits that cost me 15 GBP (I'm from the UK) 20 years ago will cost me 50-60 today. GW have screwed over their loyal players for corporate greed, they could make the kits way cheaper or at least allow proxies. The best would be to sell the STL files for 3d printing and offer miniatures for those who don't have access to a 3d printer.
@ anything would be an improvement than canceling entire armies
These are great!
Few add-ons...
- Skirmish games are SOOO much cheaper, and let you collect slower. Kill Team is such a fun game.
- Learn to mix your paints. GW want to sell you 5 pots of "blue". You can mix so many blues, so easily.
- making character models from basic troops is a huge money-saver - Greenstuff, extra bits, size bases up and add drama with rocks and whatnot. Boom.
- sand from the road, beach or whatever is superb pro basing material.
- you can make wash/shade paint for big projects in bulk using matt medium and calligraphy ink.
- texture paint is really good using fine sand, PVA, and cheap poster paint.
- deodorant stick grav-tank is the best grav-tank.
I call your deodorant grav tank and raise it with a French Press proxy for an Orc Stompa!!
I once made 3 Terminator lords and 3 Yerminator Sorcerers for my black legion. Just used a box of regular termies, gave them green stuff capes and polymer rocky bases, Switched their heads for whatever cool heads I had from other kits, and asked around the community for bits. Hands down my favourite models to bring out.
Also, you can make a decent wash by darkening any water-based acrylic and just watering it down. That's how we did Agrax Eartshade back in the days.
@@tbrizius put googly eyes on it, no one will notice
I have a friend who bought the 'Zombicide Black Plague' and 'Massive Darkness'. He then painted then and orgainised their bases and created movement trays so that he could use them in multiple games. I've since seen him use the undead, orcs and monsters from those games in Zombicide, Massive Darkness, Age of Sigmar, Kings of War, Warlords of Erehwon, Saga age of magic, Frostgrave, Dungeons and Dragons, Mordheim and Warcry. I haven't heard anyone raise an objection yet. In fact, most people just ask where the miniatures are from. Some of those 'miniature boardgames come with hundreds of miniatures
Woah! Now THAT sounds like a good investement. Is there any way you could give some more info on how he used them for Kings of War and Age of Sigmar? Like, are the miniatures you get from the boxes enough to make a complete army, or did he have to add some more units on the side, buy units for heroes etc.
This is why I plan on getting Skeleton warrior army to be used in many different rulesets.
Its so funny I saw your comment. I was just wondering last night if I could use my Zombicide Black Plague zombies to start Soulblight Gravelords army to play with my friend!
@@borna1231 As Adam often says, when you are playing with friends the GW miniature police don't come to your place to force you to use their minis. In fact, the only place I know that does force you to use them is GW stores. The other thing is, the Massive Darkness ocrs look like Kruleboyz. The Zombicide ones just look like undead orcs. Once they are on round bases you use conversion trays to get them to rank up for KoW. Zombicide and Massive Darkness don't care what weapons they hold fo you just convert where needed.
@@horusthewarmaster7 GW stores for some people are the only place where they can play, everyone is just assuming that everyone have friends involved
Make friends with someone at your FLGS who plays the army you are interested in. Watch them play a few games. They may even let you "use" their models to get a feel for them. A good way to figure out if you're going to enjoy playing the game and that army in particular.
I quit going to the game store years ago. I played from the start all the way through 3rd edition. When 4th came out, me and my buddies wanted to wait a while before switching. We liked 3rd and had already spent so much money. Well a few weeks passed and the owner only wanted people to play 4th edition to make us buy more stuff and was being a prick about it. We were still buying magic the gathering, dnd, comics, and other things, we just didn't feel the need to change over to a new warhammer edition. We ended up just buying a couple of tables, built sceneries, and just played at each others houses. Never went back to that store.
do have to say, as someone with adhd this hobby is honestly the best, maybe not money wise but the sheer selection of troops and organization it's just so fun building list and fighting my armies, and i get the whole backlog thing but for me personally i feel like i still want at least one of every army because i like playing different styles on different days
I am glad that my local game store don't care about proxies and stuff. The main goal is to have a nice community to play !
And that makes me want to support it
Start at a skirmish/warband level (or in games like Kill Team) and slowly build up to an army only if you want to. Doing that will make tabletop gaming one of the cheapest hobbies for time invested imo.
Age of Sigmar is just now shifting to the Combat Patrols-styled boxes as well. They seem to be aimed at 750 points, which is roughly the smallest amount for playing proper games.
I was interested in 40k and was looking where i could buy a recruit box for 9th edition. My friends told me to check out a shop because the people who worked in the one i was going to buy were kind of dickish.
Now that shop became my FLGS and is basically my second home. Friendly owner and customers, kinda active community (both for WH and MtG) with both new and old folks, with ideas, stories and experience into the scene (there are people who are just starting out or simply watch to see if it's of their interest and others that are in the hobby before I was even born).
Now I try to support it in every way I can, be it ordering GW products or buying boardgames or getting a booster pack for MtG.
Because it's a small store it can't make discount and since it's a small community in a not so large city the variety of game system is a little dry, so the players need to stick to one or two games to play (namely MtG and WH).
Actually, 40k and mtg are having a crossover in 2023. Personally I'm hoping for an orks deck.
@@mylesmanore6197 meh, i don't really play mtg and I have the deck so that I can play with friends, tho it sounds cool
Between WH and MtG, I don't think you'd ever need another game system. I'm 42 and they've carried me through the decades since the mid 90s.
@@RSBurgener You, my friend, are completely right. I think the same with "just" 30 years. Although I am a bit sad that I missed the vintage era of MtG...dreamingforablacklotussince2014😅
@@falkenspeergroomofavacyn600 early MTG wasn't great as a game. There were only so many good cards and everyone used the same shit. Some stuff was massively over-powered and most everything was medium power or less. The good cards were really hard to get unless you dropped a ton of money. The stores were always out of the cards and when they did have them, they were one or two packs per customer. Your rares were either a dual land, a black lotus or a crappy non-card nobody used. Then more experienced players would try and cheat beginners out of the good ones in trade. It was actually really ugly and frustrating. You were just a likely to get screwed as you were to get something good. And, I can't stress this enough, *the stores were always out of the cards!* . I'm not joking, in my area, every time the expansions came out, they sold out in the first two hours of the first day the stores had them. The print runs were so small that many never got them again. It was disgusting.
Make your own heroes! Of course, GW heroes look great with their poses and stuff, but a single hero costs sometimes as much as a box of dudes. Put them on a big stone or broken pillar, make them raise their weapon or glue extra bits and heraldry on them and voila - a hero for cheap and plenty more models free for conversion.
Thinking back on Warhammer fantasy, many players used filler for their big regiments, like barrels, graves and the stuff, to embiggen their ranks and remove them first as casualties. I had the idea for my trolls/troggoths, to use the extra heads and harms and some greenstuff to make these come out of holes or water on big bases. I mean, they are official GW parts and clearly distinguishable. But I am not sure if this would count as modelling for advantage, because they would have a much smaller sillouette. Kings of War deals with this the best, since each unit has a predetermined footprint and height, regardless on what happens on the bases.
The assault intercessor box can be built as 10 primaris lieutenants.
@@briochepanda This is just half as many lieutenants as I need for my next list.
I've seen this with Seraphon. If you buy the SC box, there's an extra dinosaur head (troglodon?) that I've seen a lot of people model like it is swimming or stepping up out of water. I love using leftover bits to kitbash additional models!
Exactly. I'm building a power armoured version of my Chaos Lord, and he's literally put together from scraps I didn't put on other models. The purpose made character models are cool, but especially now with 3d printable and 3rd part accessories, there's no reason why you can't make an even better looking character model with a little work. At the end of the day, a suit of power armour is a suit of power armour. A robo-skeleton is a robo-skeleton. It's a bit different when you get armies like Orks and Tyranids, where the character models are supposed to be physically larger and distinct from other models, but even then there are ways you can pull off some of the mid-tier models and specialty units that cost a fortune.
"Make your own heroes! "
I started collecting Warhammer 40.000 at the start of 3rd edition ... back then there wa exactly one !!! Warboss model, and it was made out of metal, so almost every Ork player would konvert or kitbash his own model to use as a Warboss. Meaning no two Warbosses looked the same. Those were some fun times!
I fell into this exact loophole last year, I was just finishing my conquest subscription (which is another cheaper way into the hobby short term - pachow!) When the indomitus boxset came about, I grabbed it like everyone else did, and then about 2 months later I was painting an army for someone and because of financial reasons he no longer wanted it, after already buying the miniatures for me to paint - I asked him that I would buy they off him. I paid him the money and considered it a great deal £300 worth of mini's for £150.
The thing is, I'd barely got around to touching my indomitus set, and now I had a huge amount of other mini's as well, plus what was left of conquest and imperium now, and a couple of other boxes besides. And yep I gave myself too big a mountain to climb. I'm slowly beavering away on it, although it'll be a few years before it's painted completely. 🤦
"How to save money playing GW? I'll tell you how to do that!" Listen to Uncle Atom. Well balanced, sensible advice. The eponymous Quiet American.
Kitbashing. Needed 4 Tomb Banshees, got 4 Myrmidesh ones, which didn't actually need any kitbashing whatsoever. Pay the price of one, got four.
Also kitbashing kind-of stuff: there are boxed characters, again, for fantasy stuff, in Underworlds. Cheap af, full of character. Friend got his warqueen from the Godsworn Hunt box, super cheap, looks great, kind-of unique, cheap, what is not to like there? And he has a bunch of extra guys as material for his kitbashed Spire Tyrants Warcry team.
In 40K, there are always extra bitz left from building regular squads, and if you have enough, you can, again, kitbash colourful characters out of regular guys with them. Back in the day, I wanted sternguard, but couldn't afford, so I picked five regular marines, picked the nicest bits from the boxes, gave them robes from tissue paper and thick sewing thread, dipped them in pva glue and went to town. People spend a lot of time sculpting clothes out of GS, but it is faster and more realistic to do it from actual fabric, like tissue paper. Tissue paper clothes are awesome. Some more elaborate clothes are a lot trickier, but there is always a way.
While we are at clothes... Ghosts are just extra skulls and hands sticking out from under pva drenched paper on a metal wire. They look as good if not better than any sculpted ghost. The flow of paper as clothing, the texture is just out of this world. Takes paint like crazy.
I really enjoy buying half or badly painted minis from eBay and “rescuing” them.
Sadly, eBay is no longer an option in Canada. Everything comes out of the States, and shipping has increased about 1000-fold. I'm going to end up paying twice for anything I buy from the US, so I might as well just go into a store and get it new. Facebook is also a challenge because everyone is trying to make profit or sell at retail price, which again means you're just better off buying new than saving just a few dollars and inheriting someone's problems.
@@ScooterinAB Yeah exactly. I found some cheapers model in a small local store than on ebay and most facebook ads.
Thats genius, i think im gonna follow suit
I don't think theres a single project I don't use the baking soda and super glue trick for. Basing, gap filling and reinforcing cork bases and also as a ground for texture pastes at times so it's not gripping onto bare plastic.
I find it works for filling out the underside of the slot in slotta bases for old metal minis and gives a slightly firmer hold if you're not pinning them in.
I don't think I ever have, but then I also have about 2 litres of sand I've had since I was a kid. I did buy a pot of larger rocks because I couldn't find it (I moved about 4 times), but I'll likely use the normal sand for normal basing and a sprinkle of bought rocks for added detail. But then I also don't care for "basing" since it just means putting your model on 3 inches of crap that just makes them easier to hit in cover.
@@ScooterinABA big bag of sand is likely to last you for the best part of forever, I know I've got enough grit, gravel and bark to last me for yonks.
As far as basing is concerned I find it one of the funnest parts of the modelling and painting process, draws a whole force together and gives them a bit more flavour as a visual presence.
If I had base a horde army they'd definitely get the quick and dirty treatment.
I paint more than I play so I don't care personally if I've essentially modelled for disadvantage so long as I've made a model I'm happy with. The models are sitting pretty on a shelf most of the time anyhoo. But I thoroughly appreciate not wanting to kneecap yourself mechanically if you're focused on playing smartly and efficiently.
For age of sigmar, the underworlds warbands make good "counts as " or conversion fodder as leaders for their respective armies. For example , the seraphon warband out of the box has a decent skink priest / star priest option and a saurus old one. And another skink that I converted for use as a priest.
Know the meta chasers / impulse buyers in your local gaming group.
Buy their stuff second hand when they move on to the next army, usually every two months or so.
Great succes.
I'd say two of my biggest tips are playing small games like Kill Team to keep the actual model cost lower. And the other is if you are going to play a big army game, plan your army out ahead of time so you don't buy extra models. Let more experienced player help you make your list so you don't have to re-buy and paint half of it.
for kill team what I have been doing is whenever I start a new team since they need maybe 2-3 boxes of dudes max I buy one box at a time and don't let myself buy more (with exceptions) until I have the previous box assembled at minimum.
i love seeing this "pro painted" on ebay and then all it was is just a very "basic run of the mill" paint job and charge you 5x
The trick is they don't tell you what kind of professional painted it.
Professional, just means it's done for money rather than a hobby. So they aren't lying or misleading. It doesn't correlate to quality/skill at all. We generally make that assumption though.
@@jordan1985hartl i'll be damned if i want to hire someone professional and they deliver half assed shit quality
@@Mutsume82as someone whos worked in blue collar contract work all my life, thats about everybody nowadays.
I feel very blessed I have little interest in tabletop miniature games especially Warhammer as it's so expensive. Reading Black Library, playing video games and collecting JoyToy figures much cheaper and I can still enjoy the setting.
Pile of shame clear outs are great on ebay for picking up cheap BNIB. Can be cheaper than Indie discounts. However, it always boggles my mind when I see one (freely available) go for more than RRP.
The old necron warriors box.
It cost little, and if you are interested in building a cheap army and you like to customize, the necron warriors can be kitbashed to form every kind of unit. You can make flayed ones with them, you can make necron lords, you can make immortals, you can use the necron warrior as a base for a lot of units.
Defineteley agree with supporting FLGS. I play only there, i meet new people there and I like the owner as a person. I had this inner fight at the start because I have found 2 online stores with lower prices, but I decided to buy from FLGS anyway. I think it is a good thing.
Also I really agree that sometimes those super value boxes can be a trap. I play only duardin factions in AOS but this includes CoS. Soo when I saw Dominion I immidieteley bought it with a friend and took stormcast for coslition units in CoS. And than I bought some more SCE.... and some more... and never painted more than 4 models. Now I try to sell them and I have a really bad time with it haha.
So beaware of vslue boxes. They can trick you in "thinking that you like" things that you do not.
It's definitely good to ask yourself, "do I actually want this? Or am I attracted to it because it seems like a good deal?"
If you don't like the models or aren't going to paint them, it is absolutely not a good deal, because you're spending money on stuff that doesn't give you, personally, any value. If it's sitting in your pile of shame because you just don't want to paint or use it, it's wasted money. You're genuinely better off spending a little more money if it's on a model you ARE interested in.
I had wanted to build seraphon and lumineth armies, but I managed to get dominion for exactly 50% in their recent warhammer day promotion combined with wayland games, so £63 for 60 models means my painting needs for 2022 are now sorted
Second-hand market is usually well supplied by folks discovering their old armies from when they used to play or exiting for another system.
FLGS: Table hire free with purchase.
Just get 1/72 scale Dark Alliance figures and Caesar Fantasy plus some of the historical figures for Bretonnia and the Empire.
If you guys don't want some thing on box set just do this very simple thing
*Sell it* or keeping it for The Big Pile of shame/ Bits box
been watching your videos since 2018. love em. during hard times i know i can come here and always feel consistently better about life
I just spent a shit ton on tyranids, too much really, but i am already more than halfway through painting and building. I guess its because i loved tyranids as a kid, never got the chance to get into them as it was too expensive, so the drooling for years has made me 100% sure i want a huge tyranid army
One company that I've been looking into is Mindtaker Miniatures. They buy and sell used models, and they have a rather good selection. They buy ones in various conditions, from New On Sprue/In Box to partially or completely painted. They even buy bits or broken models, and you can get some of them at a discount if you're willing to do some repair work or source replacements.
Honestly, it's been a struggle perusing their catalogue and not just throwing down tons of money, just because the models are a good bargain. Like, do I actually need to start an Ork force? Or a Warcry band of Stormcast Eternals? It's a rabbit hole I could get swept down very easily.
Our local store here in Buffalo is great, helpful and friendly. I try to everything from them, to keep them and the hobby going.
Great video
I'd love to proxy but I just know someone will be "that guy" because the true line of sight rule in 40k means the game is anti proxy baked into the rules since model height matters.
You can kind of karma-counter that by adding on all the extraneous doo-das to the official models you do own that are not necessarily going to be to your advantage. Eg. big radio antennae on your tanks, big flags on your commander's backpack, extra stupid big weapon raised over a model's head, etc. Stuff that makes those models easier to see and target over terrain, but you rule of cool it when building them because it looks better. Then if you do run in to that guy you can argue the point for any proxies.
For Warhammer, I know they aren't "meta" right now for either game but if you want to try out two games with one army then play Chaos Daemons since both 40k and AoS use the exact same models for both games.
One of the best ways, I think, to save money on 40k is to search for the used minis.
Either already painted, unpainted but assembled, or just still in sprues. The big thing is that typically used models can be obtained for half the price of a new one (GW list price), and if you're not too picky on the paintjob, you save money and time on painting the models, if you're in a bit of luck.
But this is my favourite way.
9:14 Relate, went to looking for someone who sell Bladeguard Veterans Body (because I want another 3 of them) and Stumbled into someone who say this are "Pro Painted" Even though is just a basic painting with contrast paint.
So I have only 2 option left either bought another box of Bladeguard veterans and have thousand of bits box or 3d Printed
My main warhammer army is orks, and are nearly all second hand. You can save a LOT buying second hand bulk lots, taking what you need, then selling off what you don't piecemeal.
Won't apply to all armies, but it is 100% the case for orks!
I mean, with orks you can get away proxying a warboss using an apple just because it's orks
I've been slowly building an ork army and that's how I'm doing it. Great tip
Well said sir.
You've said this before, at different times and in different ways, but to have this all together is very nice.
Now I can send this link to new folks coming in to think about.
Nicely done!
The easiest way to save money on Warhammer is to not play Warhammer hurr hurr hurr hurr
I buy my models used from a dealer in the UK. If you can get a good shipping rate, models retail for cheaper in the UK than in the US, even after the exchange rate.
3D printers really pay for themselves especially given GW's overpriced models. I'd also recommend that when it comes to painting to look at Vallejo and other cheaper alternatives. Testors model glue is also fantastic and much cheaper than the GW bottles which have a habit of breaking and drying all the glue inside up.
My tip, You can make your own wet palette for cheap. For an upgrade by army painter wet palette sheets and just use a sponge in a Tupperware container.
You can even get away with just using parchment paper from the grocery store. (Make sure to buy the non-waxed kind).
ua-cam.com/video/96mjmqWTPfM/v-deo.html
Pa-chow!
Flock for terrain is cheap and easy to make yourself out of sawdust - I asked the workers at a building site and got a whole bag of flock for free. At home I ran it through different strainers and baking sieves to get different grains. In an old plastic bowl, I mixed some water and cheap poster-board-paints and added the sawdust. Mix it and let it sit for awhile. Spread it out on some paper towels and let it dry. Repeat until the color is what you want. (I tried drying it in the oven but the whole house stunk!) I ran it though the sieve again to get somer really fine flock as well. I have 8 different colors of flock in 3 different grains which will last me the rest of my life for about 5 bucks.
Pro Tip: If you happen to be taking the advice of this wonderful channel and find yourself collecting sand from a local park, but someone approaches you and says "You can't steal the park's sand!", simply reply "Well, can I have some from your v****a then?"
I try to double the yield from each box by using all the bits and doing a lot of sculpture
I was never allowed to get into Warhammer growing up, now that I'm adult I am trying to get into it and explore options. This video has been really helpful in my research. Thank you so much!
Custom building your generic lords/heroes from extra bits is also a great way to save, usually adding a 20 to 30 dollar value to a box of dudes, while creating a cool custom look.
Magnetizing/using a bit of putty is a great way to save on special/heavy weapons. Building transports, say a Rhino, with the top panel removable and then building the razorback weapons, magnetized to on its separate top panel, effectively saves you from buying another Rhino/Razorback kit. You can do the same thing with Ogor Beastriders with the heads and top panel. Magnetize the front rider, and you have Huskard/Frostlord/Beastriders on a Thundertusk/Stonehorn.
Factions like Chaos Space Marines are dirt cheap to collect if your local game store has a bit box, because you can take used marines, missing appendage marines, horribly kitbashed marines, or just a mishmash of spare marine parts and make a Chaos Space Marine. I built a Chaos spawn from random arms, symbols, and etc from scraps in a cave.
Factions like deathwatch can also be cheap. Say you have access to a bit box, an exacto knife, and you bought a Deathwatch upgrade kit. You could pick up one of those three-marines-in-a-box, cut off one pauldron, and attach bits to them. You have a spear? Good, now with two bolters glued together, your 3 dollar marine just became a watch captain(make sure you have the right size bases). Go outside, grab a little dirt, grind it finely for the basing.
Army Painter is releasing their version of Contrast Paints in the next couple months. Probably about half the price of GWs.
You talk about small GW stores and it makes me think of the oldest one on this side of the planet in Geneva Illinois. I think it's going on 25+ years now. The company won't upgrade them to Warhammer and it even still has the original wallpaper and Ultra Smurf on the bathroom door. Anyways, last time I was there they had at least 7 heavy duty old school full size gaming tables that had been made out of wood. I go to the closer store now and they use those little modular tables that can also be used to hobby. The company deffinately pushed for less gaming and more sales.
Most of my Warhammer stuff has been second hand or gifts. Only bought a box of Ork Boys and Gretchin straight from a GW store. I am lucky, though, because the guy who got me interested in Warhammer is a good buddy of mine and is a very very impulsive spender. He also hates using Ebay so he always gives me first dibs on buying his regrets at a crazy deep discount. Right now he's giving me a 1000 points of FEC to build his Skaven army for him.
My local store doesn't hassle anybody about their models and tables are generally first come, first serve, unless they have a scheduled event that night, in which they reserve the tables they need. And they ain't going out of business anytime soon with this model either.
My FLGS had a box of Crypt Ghasts which our local WH store never stocks up on. Ended up getting a 30% discount and had them built and ready for a game that weekend. Def go check out the locals, you might be surprised!
2:50 I would like to, but I already bought all Ork models of the shelf I want XD
(They mainly sell board games and Trading Cards)
"Games Workshop don't do any kind of sales" - when I was a kid in the 90s they had an annual sale at all brick-and-mortar GW shops where they sold off all the old stock they'd discontinued over the last year at ridiculous prices. Blisters of metal figures for a pound each, boxed games for a tenner, that kind of money. It was in January or February, so my Christmas money went on it every year and in all honesty it kept me in the hobby for years. If it wasn't for that I'd probably never have got heavily into GW gaming in the first place and by the time I could afford to buy hundreds of plastic figures myself I'd have been spending my money elsewhere.
Sometimes buying (or using if you have it already) a cheaper unit and then converting it to a unit that's more expensive to buy. I need some Ravenwing black knights for Dark Angels and what I have are loads (and loads) of the regular Ravenwing bikers from the 6th and 7th edition starter sets. The major difference: plasma pistols (technically plasma talons) mounted on the bike rather than regular bolters. I ebayed and got the some pistols and converted, saved loads. But I could have saved more if I have bought 1 pair, made moulds (with blue stuff) can cast them in . Generally if 95% of the model is the same, a conversion will be overlooked esp with GW parts. Casting GW parts + grimy paint job = cant tell the difference. Converting from starter set models will always be pretty cheap too.
I buy lots of used GW minis at Noble knight games. i dont need full units as I'm buying to play Grimdark Firefight. seems like pretty good prices for used.
Stumbled across this. Not sure why the Masters of algorithm wanted me to find out about this thing you guys do, but good on you nerds.
Boxed sets. Be it the start collecting style boxes (sometimes multiple like with ironjawz), or the two army sets they bring from time to time. Or save up for the Christmas sets and build all year from that.
Though keep the brakes on like Uncle Atom says! If you just started, get one box and finish it and then expand only at that rate. There's always new stuff right around the corner so save your time and money for that.
The Games Workshop business model seems to be exactly the same as your Friendly Local Drug Dealer. Except with plastic.
There are some really good colors in the acrylic box from Walmart the dark purple in there looks great
About the combat patrol its a pretty good idea because the sets of Warhammer models alone cost more
Coffee grinder plus dried oregano leads to a nice dried grass flocking material. It smells good too.
Ebay is fantastic for getting individual models that are part of a bigger box. I wanted the Deathwatch Frag Cannon guy from the Killteam Cassius box set and bought just him still on the sprue off Ebay for a decent price.
I've been thinking about purchasing some third party torsos because GW kits usually have extra arms, heads, etc. so purchasing some parts can be cheaper than complete kits. They might even count as conversions at your FLGS because they are at least partly authentic.
If you're worried about them being tournament legal you can usually find the first party torsos and such to turn spare bits into full models on ebay and the like for reasonable prices. I used to do that a lot before I realized that I have no interest in tournaments and can just use whatever reasonable proxies I want with my friends.
@@1tpkdm Thanks for the reply, that's a good idea. Personally I'm not concerned about FLGS compliance, but I figured somebody else might be so I made mention of that.
Kimera paints are a brilliant way to save money and learn color blending, you can blend any paint but they aren’t super pure so you can get odd mixed results, kimera paints are one pigment per paint and you can make any color with 1 60$ set I think. Also I’ve saved tons in primers and clear coat cans by getting an airbrush. Long run it will save money :)
just a heads up for anyone wanting to collect sisters of battle the combat patrol models are all mono loadout meaning they only come with one weapon loadout per model with no extra bits (not counting the rhino's upgrade sprue
How much do people tend to care about that in friendly games though? Like...if I build the box and just tell my opponent "Hey, I took double flail on the Penitent Engine, hand flamers on the Seraphim, and cut the banner from the Sister squad because my list came in 5 points over" won't most decent people say "Cool, let's roll for first turn"
Games workshop don't do black friday but I noticed wayland games were. I managed to get dominion for half price! Not sure if this is warhammer for cheap though as I didn't play aos before. The models are amazing though so I guess I do now!
Dominion is already super cheep for what comes in the box, and getting if for 50% is just amazing! Glad for You Man:)
simply the reason i didn't do any kind of unboxing and review videos on the killteam calnath is because i couldn't talk a friend into co-buying it with me (i wanted the sisters) but then the Australian price is excessive
I have been looking into warhammer for a while. I have a lot of experience painting my own hand made terrain and dnd miniatures. Do you think I’d fare well painting warhammer miniatures
Help me out here don't plan on playing just painting as hobby for display I used to collect high elves from the aos and dark elves where can I find something close to that or those sets cheap in UK
3:40 at that moment Uncle Atom knew he was never going to get another advanced product from GW lol
Painting and basing cheap five dollar DnD wizkid minis is a good soft entry to the hobby.
Mordheim is a cheap alternative to 40k, if you like small skirmishes. I have had a lot of fun creating miniatures with plastic models from other games.
tip for if anyone is using clumping clay cat litter do not use watered down pva it simply won't dry in a timely manner, use superglue but make sure you have somewhere ventilated to leave it to set because the fumes from suoerglue is bad for you
I try to bu;y some things from the local stores to keep them open. I do also buy online as things are expensive in this valley
I like to use my 3d prints as tester for paint schemes. Its a good idea to paint one concept by attempting a whole expensive army
Buy used. You can get models for 20-25% of new by scouring FB groups, Ebay, etc. If you are fine with kitbashing characters, you can also save a pile more.
Excellent info as always! Thanks Uncle Atom!
Can you cut out the miniature expenses by just printing or drawings characters on "tokens" and such, or are there issues that exists if a full model is not present? Asking as someone interested mostly in trying the tabletop game part of warhammer primary with friends and family.
If you and your friends are okay with it, then it should be fine. Thanks for watching!
Some stuff in the pet stores for aquariums would probably work great for bases and terrain
I developed a sudden nervous War-stammer when I saw WH40K prices at the shop !
Lots of ebay sellers also have GW product new in box at a reduced price!
I’m not looking to save money. But I want to paint a lot of miniatures. What’s the biggest box I can buy?
I think a method that helped me, and saved me money (as a teen with a delivery route at the time) was the tales of 4 gamers article.
It was an old article from white dwarf where they had a £150 budget (this is from around 1998?)
They got their money in bits. I think they got 70 then 3 months of 30.
Also doing that with some friends was great
Oh wow, I remember this. It was for Warhammer Fantasy right? Those were great articles.
@@emeryster it was fantasy but the premise was easy to apply to anything.
Also helped me an my friends have weekly games against different opponents.
I remember doing eldar I bought a farseer, some standard foot troops and a 3 pack of jet bikes
Dollar Tree has some great artsy stuff, to just burn through to save monies. (paint for surroudings, paintbrushes, other fun stuff)
beware of poorly built models on ebay. you might assume it's just thick paint, but find out it's destroyed with glue when you strip it. with metal models you can remove everything with acetone, otherwise i'd stick to monopose.
And it's really depressing how many of those sausage-fingered dimwits used plastic glue rather than superglue.
Hey I’m about to learn and play space weirdos! Love the shirt.
For example, in my local auction website ten assault piramanis marines costs 23e, although those are guys from Indomitus. Still, for such a price... Dark Vengeance Dark Angels cost was 51e, but those dudes already goes to me:))). I hope, cause mondays;]....
That's a good game you got on your tshirt
Bought a really nice Mantic giant from Amazon for 32 bucks. GW's mega gargant is something like 160 dollars, um no thanks. I work way to hard for my money to support those kind of mark ups for some plastic figures. If GW wasn't so anti consumer with so many things they do as a company I would be more likely to support them.
I’m desperate to find mini’s that scale well with AoS…
Frostgrave and Oathmark minis are fantastic, but your average human knight or Barbarian looks like a Dwarf compared with GW Steelhelm….
I got mate who use to run a games trader now it from deep i will always buy odds ends and other supplies off him if we went an event including my drinks and snacks
my local gamestore as 16% discorund if you over get over 100 euro in game workshop stuff and if you get over 200 euro even 20%
There are some models I’ve been stalking on Etsy, and the shop is having a Labor Day sale and is 20% off my basket, is it worth it? I should I just wait and let it slip?
If I could go back and start all over again I would probably just do Kill Teams. Basically two good sized squads and a commander. You see I don't have a ton of space to play, literally half a kitchen table 3x4-ft space and a 300 to 500 point Army is the perfect size for that. And while I love both my Dark Angel and Tyranid armies a lot of the stuff that I've crafted isn't even going to see full on tabletop play until I have a bigger place in the next 5 years. That means my Deathwing Terminators, Ravenwing, Dreadnought, and 3 HQs aren't going to see regular play....unless of course I want to make smaller squads using just those characters. For example, I could have my five Deathwing Terminators as a squad with my Master Librarian, Ezekiel as the commander. Or for the simple fact that I'm not even playing using official GW rules. I've actually looked into One Page Rules' Grimdark Future and Firefight, the unofficial versions of 40K and Kill Team. A lot simpler rule set that eliminates a lot of the bloat of the latest editions. Roll to attack, roll to defend, remove casualties, THAT'S IT. Now there are modifiers for some of your dice rolls but they're explained clearly for each character/squad right in their stat line. Or the too long to read version: Play using whatever models you like official or not and whatever rule set you want official or not. If it looks like 40K plays like 40K feels like 40K than it must be 40K. Having said all that besides my Dark Angels and my Tyranids, I also have smaller Kill Teams of Marines (Blood Ravens, Imperial Fists, and Ultramarines) that I made using a 3D printed mold and Model Magic, Orks that I kitbashed using Wizkids miniatures and weapons from my bitsbox, and then Dreadnoughts for my Marine squads kitbashed from action figures from the Dollar Store. If you're creative you can have the armies you dream of. No I won't be able to play in an official tournament but that was never my aspiration when I started this hobby. I just wanted to model, paint, play and have fun.
For anyone who has kids that they think would benefit from painting, get cheap water based paints. My 6 y/o son loves the kruleboyz and just orks in general, but instead of him using expensive paints and making a mess of expensive minis, these are water based so will come off with warm soapy water and toothbrush come the day hes older and wants to try painting them properly.
What are the minis at 8:10? Thxs
a professional is just someone who sells their craft. If someone says they are a pro and people are buying their things, even if it's not the best job, they're still a pro.