Restarting in Games Workshop - advice needed

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

TheBigCheese

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2005
Posts
3,783
Hi everyone

I've had a sudden urge to reindulge in some Games Workshop stuff.

Not the gaming mind you, but the collecting models and painting them.

I've been away from it for about 15 years now and things seem to have changed a bit so I would be really interested to hear any advice about the paints, techniques and the best value things to buy!

When I last used to paint you had to spray everything with undercoat first and wait a frustratingly long time for it to dry, is that still the same?

Also I used to have to take the paint out of the pots and mix it with a bit of water, from some of the pictures it seems I can paint straight from the pots now, is that correct?

I'm interested in Warhammer 40,000, my missus in Warhammer (we would both give it a go) and we are both mildly interested in the Lord of the Rings stuff.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :D
 
ive got the limited edition figure that came with the collectors edition of warhammer online ;) still in its packaging
ceminib.jpg


about what price would such a figure retail for ?
46219647.jpg
 
Aod said:
it's ALL expensive. very very very expensive.

:(
Click to expand...

I remember back in the day (well over 10 years ago) my parents paid out £20 to buy me an Ork dreadnought - essentially 8 bits of metal. Stood about 2 inches tall. £20!

The worst thing was it was just crap compared with the other armies had. A well built ant could have an Ork dreadnaught.
 
Yeah I did notice that. :(

But...looking at the main sets they don't seem to be too bad.

I remember I had the original 40K set and it cost £40 then and came with x20 space marines, x20 orks and x40 gretchins.

I see the new version comes with lots of models and vehicles for £50 which seems rather reasonable.
 
Re the spraying, I always use Halfords matt black or white primer to undercoat my models (it's cheaper and the black seems to be miles better than the GW spray, not to mention available much more easily).
It tends to take a couple of hours to dry fully in reasonably warm weather, so I undercoat a lot of models at a go.

You can use the new paints pretty much straight out of the pot, although different people have different methods - my brother uses a wet pallet (basically a clip lock box, with a layer of damp foam, then some grease proof paper) which lets him put some paint out and keeps it from drying out during use), I use a little pallet, and several friends just damp the brush then dip it in the paint a bit.

About the easiest/cheapest way to start is to buy one of the starter sets with the rules and two starter armies - the current W40k box has some pretty good models given they are absolute minimal difficulty to assemble.
 
arknor, hold onto that figure...preferably with all the goodies inc the outer box, some of the GW limited figures go up in price massively (especially some of the ones like the better Games Day, or Subscriber only models).

I've actually got him as well:p

Phog said:
Not a lot according to this :(
Click to expand...

I don't think that's bad, given it's only a couple of years old, and the entire Warhammer online LE only cost £70 with the books and game etc:p
 
Thanks for the tips Werewolf, that's brilliant, really good idea with Halfords spray as well, I bet that's cheaper!

Do you use the Games Workshop brushes or will any old hobby brushes do? I've been looking at what's available on the Hobbycraft website and they are massively cheaper!

Another question regarding glue...I used to have to use something called ......... cement (can't remember the name!) do I still need special glue or will any old Uhu superglue do?


Thanks! :)
 
Phog said:
Not a lot according to this :(
Click to expand...

more than i'd expect to be honest ;) i'd probably take 20 right now :D

might have a trip down to GW one day assuming theres still one in town and try to flog it on one of the nights they have some event going on like the painting evenings if they still do them
 
The halfords spray is about 2/3 the price of GW stuff - £7 for a 500ml can, I think GW spray is about £8 for 400ml and we've found the Halfords stuff is much more consistent.

Brushes are, I think very personal, we use a mix of GW, and other sable brushs (nylon brushes aren't as good in general for most applications with models).
For glue we use Revel liquid poly cement (it comes in a blue/yellow free standing bottle with a needle type tip*) for general plastics, with super glue and epoxy for metals/resin.


*A lighter works wonders to clear the tip if it blocks.
 
Windsor and Newton Series 7 brushes might be worth looking at for painting. Recommended by a lot of people, I'm very happy with the ones I got.

I'll second the Halfords Spray cans.

For the models, try websites like Maelstrom Games, or Gaming Figures, you get pretty decent discounts, loyalty points etc.
You won't find many shops on Ebay selling new stock from GW directly, as they cracked down on that. But of course, loads of second hand/new items going cheap on there.

The big rumour currently though is Games Workshop is planning to stop producing metal models entirely, and replace all such lines with resin versions. Apparently over the last year, metal production has been slowed to nothing, with a surplus in production big enough to last a few months based on typical demand for that item. Meanwhile, all the molds for the metal models will be altered for the input of resin into them, with the new resin versions being 'released' later this year. Very sad if so :(
 
Liquid cement, that was it! :D

Ahhh sable brushes it is, thanks for the tip. :)

Thanks for the brushes tip Gideon Lorr, I'll look into them tonight, I'll certainly check out those websites as well!

Personally I'm not so worried about the metal models disappearing, though it will be a shame as I remember them from way back when. What I remember most about them though was the cost, they were astronomically expensive compared to the plastic versions!

I'm getting quite excited with the thought of resurrecting this old hobby now!

I'm taking a trip with the missus to Hobbycraft and Games Workshop tomorrow to see what's available and we'll be browsing all the sites tonight.

I really want something to do over the weekend, she's going away tomorrow night and won't be back until Monday so I need something to do while she's away...should be fun. :)

Thanks again one and all for the replies I think that's covered all I need to know for now.

One final request, can you post some pictures of the models you've got, it would be really interesting to see!
 
I purchased a starter set when I was 12 years old and found it very hard to paint. My models looked terrible :(
 
arknor said:
because they will no doubt feel very light and cheap :P
Click to expand...

I actually hate the feel of heavy models. Gets on my nerves. :p

I also found that the metal ones tended to appear less detailed, although that might have been because they were older models. I've long been asking for everything to be made of plastic where possible, though, so my views will be somewhat biased on the matter regardless. >.>
 
I still mix my paints with water. Some people add flow improver to the pot.

The GW Foundation Paints can be (And are intended) to be used straight from the pot.
 
Garee said:
I purchased a starter set when I was 12 years old and found it very hard to paint. My models looked terrible :(
Click to expand...

I think that was probably the case with most people.

I was never into it myself, but used to look at the magazines kids would bring into school. I'd be amazed at the level of detail; but then I'd go round to the kids houses, see their collection, and none of them were even remotely close to recreating the artistry seen in those magazines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom