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Hey guys, I apologize if this is in the wrong forum but I didn't see any other place that this might fit into.

First off, I'd just like to link you to another topic (You don't have to read it) but the folks over at spacemarine.com have been really helpful at getting me on my feet with all this, if you'd like a bit more in-depth read at everything I've been doing thus far, feel free to click here.

However, I come to you guys for another enquiry entirely, I was recommended a few sites as to where to buy my Games Workshop items as the prices over here are ridiculous (Looking at paying $170AU for a Blood Angels Battleforce as opposed to just over $80AU from a European website) and was recommended Maelstrom Games and Wayland Games for any products I might need. The prices for both were very comparable and such a great deal as well... However, I then came across this post from Games Workshop, which basically said the following

we took the decision to take legitimate action to restrict European trade accounts from selling the goods they purchase from Games Workshop outside Europe.

So both Maelstrom Games, Wayland Games and Amazon UK are out of the question it seems. So my question is mostly directed at the Australian gamers here - since Games Workshop have put this into place, where do YOU get your miniatures from? Any online sites (Excluding eBay - looking around there now) or any stores? (I live in South-Eastern Victoria)

I just don't think realistically I can spend $170AU on a Battleforce + paints/brushes/washes and perhaps some additional units. Should I be able to find comparable prices such as the previously linked sites I doubt I would not have a problem getting started again in the 40k universe. I had originally intended to pick up the Blood Angels Battleforce, a squad of Devastator's and maybe a Dreadnought/Command Squad/Additional Assault Squad ontop of that, since I think my budget could have afforded it at those prices, however I don't see all of that too likely at the moment - hence me coming here.

Sorry for the long post, but I felt that I should try and get everything I could possibly think of covered instead of raising points later on.
Thank you very much to anyone who can help!

Maelstrom found a loophole, I believe.

And Australia can order off of GW UK. Go figure.

Hello Ahx,

Unfortunetly your best bet is ebay or makes friends with someone in the UK who will buy your stuff then mail it to you.

GW has done it's best to restrict you to buying from other countries despite the MASSIVE price difference.

This embargo took effect at the start of june this year and has casued much disscusion on the Dakka discussion board.

The prices arn't as good as the prices you'd get in the US and UK but these sites are better then RRP if ebay isnt for you.

http://phoenix-forge.com/
http://www.blackcultist.com.au/store/index.php

Good luck.

p.s If your in south east vic you might want to also check out this place to get a few games in. I have noly been there once myself but it looked pretty good. http://www.realmoflegends.com.au/

Pretty much every product I've been seeing on Maelstrom games has delivery restrictions :(

Blood Angels Battleforce

This item may only be sent to the following countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom

And that second suggestion somehow does not surprise me, and seems awfully hypocritical for what they were saying in their article :/

And having a look at the Battleforce on Amazon US I'm not even sure if they can deliver to Australia either. Their shipping rates and policies only seem to mention US related addresses.

EDIT: Thank you Wise Guy Sam for your input! I'll definitely check out those sites, and might see about paying a visit to the store. Once I get started would be great to get in touch with the Victorian community

Chowderhead wrote:Maelstrom found a loophole, I believe.

And Australia can order off of GW UK. Go figure.

With, of course, a modest shipping fee.

Because shipping figures to Australia is soooooooooooooooo expensive.

Wise Guy Sam wrote:http://phoenix-forge.com/

Thanks for the link, I'll be giving these guys a try. Some of their prices are amazing.

GW would never go after Amazon, so you can still get stuff from there, I think.

-Loki- wrote:

Wise Guy Sam wrote:http://phoenix-forge.com/

Thanks for the link, I'll be giving these guys a try. Some of their prices are amazing.

I've yet to use them becasue i'm still angry at GW but the prices are much better then RRP.

I've used the other site before and they were pretty good. Slow delivery though (they probably get it from the UK )

Hmm, well the Amazon UK site won't deliver it according to this page but I might have to ask someone on the Amazon US site.

Both of those links do look nice though compared to the in-store prices they have over here. I'll have to try and figure out how much I can spend on miniatures + paints/washes/brushes if I were to go through one of those sites though, originally I was intending something around $200, getting the Battleforce, Dev squad and a vehicle of command squad or something.

I can't seem to find shipping rates on the Phoenix Forge site though, the Black Cultist shipping rates are $5.00 no matter how big the order is - which I think is very reasonable.

EDIT: Just so I can properly budget myself, I have a question. If I am to pick up the Blood Angels Battleforce, alongside a Devastator squad + the miniatures I currently have (I have 7 tactical marines, a devastator and Mephiston as a HQ) I was told I could do the following
- Use the Death Company jump packs on 5 tactical marines, equipped with CCW + Bolt Pistol making two squads of Assault Marines
- 1 Death Company squad of 5 in the rhino and 5 unused tacticals
- Buying a squad of Devastator's giving me a 10 man devastator squad that could split into 5 man combat squads with 2 heavy weapons each.

Given this, would I be better of buying
1) Another Assault squad
2) A Dreadnought (Furiouso Dreadnought I'd assume?)
3) A Command Squad (I gather for my HQ?)

Sorry for the slightly off-topic question, but this would greatly help me budget myself.

Dice Bucket. Taking away the box saves on shipping, and the money you save is quite impressive. Chaos Orc, who I've ordered from before, is also quite good.

Both are US based, but both have shopping carts and ship overseas.

Brilliant! I'll have a look at both of those sites and just double check to make sure that they can ship to here without any issues from GW.
I'm not saying I don't believe what you've said, so I'm sorry if it came across that way - I just don't want to get my hopes up like I did last time.

Thank you so much!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry to double post, but I'm just confused about something. I haven't painted Warhammer 40K in quite some time now, and I've never played tabletop. I don't know if I will be actually playing, but if I'm painting them up I'd like to better prepare myself.

I've come across quite a few Dreadnoughts, and I just don't know which one I should be getting, given my previous proposed army to start with.

- Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought
- Space Marine Dreadnought
- Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought
- Space Marine Venerable Dreadnought

I just don't know the difference between the 4, and what each one brings to the table compared to the other models :/

Again I know it's slightly off topic, but this will help me with purchasing my army.
Thank you!

The "Space Marine Dreadnought" is the generic washing machine stomper that's been out for quite awhile.

The "Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought" is a pattern that essentially is just for them. If you're doing a Blood Angels force, you will actually want this one as it will let you build a Furioso or a Librarian Dreadnought.

The "Ironclad" and "Venerables" are unique-ish Dreadnoughts which I'm not too familiar with the kit contents. GW's actual site has a better breakdown on them than I could manage.

Kanluwen wrote:The "Space Marine Dreadnought" is the generic washing machine stomper that's been out for quite awhile.

The "Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought" is a pattern that essentially is just for them. If you're doing a Blood Angels force, you will actually want this one as it will let you build a Furioso or a Librarian Dreadnought.

The "Ironclad" and "Venerables" are unique-ish Dreadnoughts which I'm not too familiar with the kit contents. GW's actual site has a better breakdown on them than I could manage.

The venerable is just a fancy version of the normal Dreadnought, same load out in the box I believe, and the Ironclad is a different beast entirely. The ironclad has lots of armor, and I believe all the weapon options.

No, the VenDread has a Plasma Cannon in the box. I'm pretty sure there are other differences, but I can't remember them right now.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Dice Bucket. Taking away the box saves on shipping, and the money you save is quite impressive. Chaos Orc, who I've ordered from before, is also quite good.

Both are US based, but both have shopping carts and ship overseas.

How do they compare to just buying direct from GW UK?

insaniak wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:Dice Bucket. Taking away the box saves on shipping, and the money you save is quite impressive. Chaos Orc, who I've ordered from before, is also quite good.

Both are US based, but both have shopping carts and ship overseas.

How do they compare to just buying direct from GW UK?

Cheaper/faster shipping?

Okay then, thanks very much for the info yet again I'll probably be able to start working out an army. If I have any additional questions regarding miniatures (Let's say worst comes to worst and I can't get it from either of those US websites) Otherwise I will take any more army related questions to the appropriate forum.

You guys are amazing, thanks so much again.

Chowderhead wrote:Maelstrom found a loophole, I believe.

Lies and heresy! Since when? I miss my super-awesome Maelstrom discounts.

Although I havent really made any significant purchases since GW's embargo, Im about to buy more stuff and also been looking around.

I heard good things about Black Cultist, and you should also try out the Combat Company. They seem decent as well.

From looking at their page, I'm almost certain that Dice Bucket would ship to Australia, for (my) purchase I'm looking to spend between $100-200 which would be $35 for shipping.
I'm still waiting on an e-mail back from the ChaosOrc site about their estimated shipping. It might take a bit longer then from an AUS site, but I think I'm pretty much set on going through either of them - so far it just looks like the cheapest solution for me. With ChaosOrc though they have paints/washes listed, so I'll need to figure out what paints and washes I'll be needing. I'll probably try an attempt at subtle highlighting so I'll take that into account too.

A guy back on the Space Marine forum who was really helpful to me over on the hobby side of things recommended that I do get the GW washes, but go for the Vallejo paints. I'll just quote exactly what was said.

- Double the size of Citadel/GW pots for a cheaper price (I pay £1.75 on average for Vallejo whilst Citadel pots are £2.30)
- Screw top ensues paint pots are sealed when you close them
- 'Dropper' tops to the bottles making measuring amounts a bit easier without having to constantly dunk brushes into pots
- Paint takes a lot longer to dry out compared to GW/Citdael paints and whilst it's drying out on the palette it can be revived by mixing in some water
- Consistancy is superb

He did however mention that the GW metallics would be the way to go.

And he also linked me to a conversion chart which was really good.

So, I might as well ask this now since we're on the subject. What paints/washes would I be looking at? I was recommended Badab Black and Baal Red washes. He said that the Badab Black wash is good for a stand-in, and Baal Red because well... Painting Blood Angels after-all. Would there be any additional washes I'd need? I thought I might need ones for perhaps the Assault/Devastator helmets at least.

As for paints, (I'm just going to name the GW colours) I think I'd need these
- Blood Red
- Boltgun Metal
- Chaos Black
- Sunburst Yellow (Assault Helmets)
-Ultramarines Blue (Devastator Helmets)
- Goblin Green (Base maybe?)
- Scorpion Green (Eyes)
- Skull White (Undercoats? Anything else?)

The only highlight colours I can think of would be Fiery Orange for the reds, but not sure what else I'd need for the other colours.

If this is of any assistance, the miniatures I'd be looking at getting are these. (Links for images)
- Blood Angels Battleforce
- Devastator Squad
- Furioso Dreadnought

Wow, I really rambled there. Also if this would be more suited into another section of the forums please let me know and i'll paste this post there instead. I thought it might be appropriate here though since it does relate to my purchase.
Thanks again to anyone who can help!

insaniak wrote:How do they compare to just buying direct from GW UK?

Well they don't charge a stupid-crazy-make-you-gouge-your-own-eyes-out amount of shipping like GWUK and especially GWUS do. That's a good start.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ahx wrote:From looking at their page, I'm almost certain that Dice Bucket would ship to Australia, for (my) purchase I'm looking to spend between $100-200 which would be $35 for shipping.

Here's what I do, and this should help you out:

1. Put together the order you want at Dicebucket, or Chaos Orc or whoever.
2. Go through the entire order process apart from the 'confirm' part. This is done to work out exactly how much, including shipping, everything should cost you.
3. Leave that window alone, open up a new one, and then go to the GWOZ website and put together the exact same order. Take note of the total price.
4. Compare the two.
5. After you regain consciousness from the shock of seeing how ball-tearing-ly overpriced GWOZ products are, switch the GWOZ site to GWUK. This will clear your shopping cart.
6. Once again, put together the exact same order using GWUK prices, go through the whole process (other than confirming) and see what the total price + shipping is.
7. Again, compare them to Dicebucket/Chaos Orc/whoever.
8. Go with whichever one is cheapest.

As of he past two years I have been using the war store from America, most battleforces are $72 plus $10 shipping, most stuff comes within one a half weeks and they are really good blokes and easy to organise everything with I really recommend checking out their website and forums

=I= White-Wolf wrote:As of he past two years I have been using the war store from America, most battleforces are $72 plus $10 shipping, most stuff comes within one a half weeks and they are really good blokes and easy to organise everything with I really recommend checking out their website and forums

Was weird, had a look at that site and they said "Due to Games Workshop's 'no internet shopping cart' policy we cannot display Games Workshop items for sale on our website, nor offer them for sale in a shopping cart."

H.B.M.C. wrote:Here's what I do, and this should help you out:

1. Put together the order you want at Dicebucket, or Chaos Orc or whoever.
2. Go through the entire order process apart from the 'confirm' part. This is done to work out exactly how much, including shipping, everything should cost you.
3. Leave that window alone, open up a new one, and then go to the GWOZ website and put together the exact same order. Take note of the total price.
4. Compare the two.
5. After you regain consciousness from the shock of seeing how ball-tearing-ly overpriced GWOZ products are, switch the GWOZ site to GWUK. This will clear your shopping cart.
6. Once again, put together the exact same order using GWUK prices, go through the whole process (other than confirming) and see what the total price + shipping is.
7. Again, compare them to Dicebucket/Chaos Orc/whoever.
8. Go with whichever one is cheapest.

Don't know why I just didn't do this in the first place haha. ChaosOrc looks by far the cheapest for me (Saving a good $20 compared to Dice Bucket and even more compared to GW)
EDIT: I just got an e-mail back, turns out that my order would have cost an additional $32US that would have been invoiced through PayPal, AFTER the transaction had been made, he said the site is designed for US customers. Anyway, Dice Bucket and ChaosOrc are both very comparable

I think I might be able to throw an additional Assault squad in there. Apparently they don't have a command squad though (Which I was recommended - I'll be perfectly honest, I have no idea why as I haven't played tabletop yet... But I assume it'd be for my HQ?)
Also pretty beneficial since I can order the paints/washes off of them too.

Thank you!

Ahx wrote:

=I= White-Wolf wrote:As of he past two years I have been using the war store from America, most battleforces are $72 plus $10 shipping, most stuff comes within one a half weeks and they are really good blokes and easy to organise everything with I really recommend checking out their website and forums

Was weird, had a look at that site and they said "Due to Games Workshop's 'no internet shopping cart' policy we cannot display Games Workshop items for sale on our website, nor offer them for sale in a shopping cart."

Sorry forgot to mention you have to send them an email to get a price spreadsheet for models

Canadians also took a hit with the price differences, nowhere as bad as Aussies gets, but still enough for me to look for alternative place to buy....

The discounts from dice bucket looks soso... but i suppose them out of the box means less chance of getting picked on by customs?

As far as I know they'll just wrap 'em in bubble-wrap and maybe put them in a zip bag and then put them into a box for shipping. It should make things smaller, and you still get the bases/instructions/transfers etc., so they're not holding anything back from you.

Out of curiosity too, just having a look through Dice Bucket again and I'm seeing Space Marine _____ On Sprue. Heres an example. What is the difference between that and the regular box? I know you said Dice Bucket removes the boxes anyway but it does state that these came from a bigger set though.
I don't know, I might just be overlooking things thinking that there is a catch to it, but it looks as if by buying that you're saving $3-4 for the exact same product.

EDIT: Aha, I think I've already found the catch to it

everything that normally comes with said item (like bases, decals etc) should be included

That should part is what gets me...

Battalions i think?

Dont buy a green paint..
Yellow + blue = green + white/brown~black= lighter/darker green.

Also you dont undercoat in skull white unless the white you mean is the spray, then thats 26$.... skull white underneath yellow or green will lighten the colors, Yellow to paint will take MANY MANY coats to look perfect and not crap. If you are painting anything big be prepared to paint alot of coats. Just a heads up.

If you are going to paint them like the battleforce box colors you linked, maybe undercoat in skull white spray paint, paint red, wash in badab black, then go paint the little details. White first for helmet, then paint over yellow(however many coats).

Also, take into account, Even though buying something cheaper online and from another country, It may take weeks and weeks to get here. It may take 2 or 8. If you wanted to buy a box or two of your "add-on" to the battleforce from GW you can paint and practise with those whilst your main full force is being shipped. I know its expensive, but if you dont want to wait it might give you something to paint with whilst you wait...






Ps.
Try
http://www.warpuppy.com/Miniatures-&-Wargames-Warhammer-40K-Space-Marines-Codex-&-Sets/c21_341_390_397/index.html
They are from brisbane(where i am) and they are cheap. They give discounts for big orders if you ring them and chat to them. They have beautiful bases(i have the steampunk ones for my sisters army and the desert style ones for my chaos.) and paints and all that other stuff.

Thanks very much for the tips! I was mostly thinking the scorpion green for the eyes, and I just assumed Goblin Green for the bases, but yeah I'll give it a shot Saves me some money.
Also I doubt I'll be getting a spray unfortunately. Is it absolutely necessary to undercoat with a spray, or do I have other options?

Also I really don't mind waiting either, I have a few miniatures here I could paint up while I wait for them should I feel the need, and assuming I just go out and buy the paints here (A little more expensive, but I'd probably be happier doing it that way)

Um, in my personal experence, spray then paint.
You can buy the foundation paints which i think you can use instead of spraying but id say thats not their intended use. Im just a cheapskake and do it that way.