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SO i was wondering how people build there armys i started my eldar with a bulk buy then added more and in a month or 2 at my Bday im gonna go warhammer crazy
So how do you build your armys over time?

I have three armies, so what happens is that over a three month period, I alternate between two and leave one out. Then once I use all my money for those three months on those two armies, I get an idea for a conversion/new army, but I'm too poor to afford it. Then I have 20-30 models to paint while I wait to accumulate cash for more models.

I started out buying in bulk.

Never again.

So many guardsmen.

There's no real reason to start bulk buying. The battle forces generally have a throw away unit that you'll never use, so you don't save any money there.
Maybe if an independent store has an offer, that's about the only time since GW discounts are rare.

Its always smart to build up slowly, and take your army through the paces at each point level.

Build a 500 point army to start with, people will play games with you I promise. 500 points lets you get a feel for your basic HQ and 2 troops, and maybe one other unit.

As you slowly build up to 750, then 1000, then 1250, then 1500, then 1850 and finally beyond you'll really get a feel for the units you are building your army around.

Also, If you suddenly discover that you really hate a certain unit, you'll be able to phase them out of your list. you'll sure be glad that you didn't buy a ton of them in a bulk buy. It also gives you more time to paint. But even still lazy people like me end up incredibly deep in backlog of painting.

I only buy off of EBAY nowadays since the prices are so much better than anywhere else - sorry FLGS, it's called capitalism and I work hard for my money.

Usually it's a mix...I'll buy stuff from whoever is offering combined shipping and has the best prices. Usually I'll build to ~1,500 pts then expand from there unit by unit. It really shouldn't take you more than a few months to paint up 1,500 points.

When I was younger, I'd often "get a hair up my ass" and end up buying large armies and never painting them. As long as you're responsible enough to stick with armies you decide upon, you'll be fine. Another habit that has worked very well for me is, "I won't put it on a table unless it's fully painted, based, and sealed". This helps because truth be told, if I didn't follow this rule, I'd never finish an army. Case in point: I have some IG vehicles that I used once and never painted. Other vehicles, bought more recently and finished, have gotten tons of play and are fully painted. It is what it is...nowadays I won't put it on the table unless it's painted, based, and sealed.

I bulk buy when I start new armies. I try to swing 500 points in one purchase. Then from there I browse ebay look for good deals and slowly get the new models. This has helped in some ways with my GK I had them all painted up before I bought more and decided I hated GK. With my Tau though I have all that I used painted, and then acquired some new things. And now need to paint those.

But my orks, don't get me started there. I have over 100 boyz and got 70+ of them from a large ebay lot. I have only painted about 10 of them and decided that I should focus on other armies a bit more because they are manageable.

I've bought everything one unit at a time up until I bought DV, I've ended up very far behind in my painting since then.

I buy one unit at a time, except in rare circumstances. (I found a great deal online for Drop Pods and got five.)

I try to do one box at a time. If I ever got a bulk order I would assemble/paint them one box at a time while pretending the rest don't exist.

I've built all of my 40k armies the same way.

Bit by bit.

One box a month. The SM army took me the better part of 15 years to assemble to its current size (Battle company plus support elements - call it 200 models all up). The Eldar took me about the same time (about the same number of models).
GK took about a year and a half to get to its current size - but it was started in 3rd ed with the DH codex and finished last year with the addition of a dreadknight and a Drizzlepigeon (so totally NOT a "StormRaven".)

Those purchases were, for the most part done before the last few price rises and second hand yoinks. These days, I'd still do it unit by unit, but it would be one unit a quarter (3 months) rather than per month, and it would take a crapload longer to get anything done.

I use ebay mainly for my DE Army (Currently building) I check for mis spelled or mis labled Items, or lots which are simply entitled 40k. Im left in the possition atm where I need to buy a few Venoms seperatly (and probably new) to complete the set, however in the 'lots' I have aquired many other parts of armies (to the point I could make a good 1500 PNTS from Orks or Space marines) as a bonus.

My Tyranid army were pretty much all from ebay also, excluding 1 Tervigon and 4 hive guards. Alot of stripping involved but worth it if your poor .

Its a slow process, been playing for about 6 months, have a good Tyranid force and most of a DE force.

I totalled the price up at some point (Including P&P) can't remember exactly but my Tyranids which cost me around £200/£250 were over £500/£600 if bought new. Went through 2x bottles of Fairy power spray though so add £7 on to that, hah.

Some of the best lots were bag of Tyranid 'Bits' I bought which included 2 Zoans and 2 Tyrant guards (+about 10 each of Terms, Horms & Genes). Seeing what you got is like a mini XMAS.

I buy used when possible, so if I can get deal on bulk I'll take it. As I've gotten older, I've really begun to see the beneift of buying bit by bit and with todays prices, if I was building a new army, it might be the only way to go.

Suffice to say, bit by bit is my ideal, but I just can't seem to stop myself when a deal pops up, as evidenced by the mountain of lead in my house.

When I started my eldar army, I bought the codex, guardians, dire avengers and a farseer to start with (my friends and I were doing a league where you started with HQ and 2 troops then added a unit each round starting with elites, then fast, then heavy, then back to HQ and 2 more troops).

I then splashed out on a Howling Banshee squad and the mega force set they had out at the time.

Since then the only time I have bought loads of models at one time was from ebay. Other than that it has been a unit or vehicle at a time.

My ogres for wfb are mostly second hand so have been bought from ebay already built and painted to save me time. They have been mostly bought in large groups from a single seller.

I am now considering necrons which will be started by buying a couple of second hand bundles (about 1200pts worth) then adding a unit or two at a time to keep it as manageable as possible.

I always start the core of an army in bulk. Then I buy but by bit to flesh it out and get everything looking just how I want.

My marines started with 3 tacticals, a devastator, a dreadnought, a razorback, and a predator that I bought within a week of each other.

My necrons were a battleforce, 2 scythes, and 2 boxes of wraiths. Then I bought a secondhand collection of another battleforce, 2 anni barges, a bunch of scrabs, immortals and lychguard boxes, characters, and 2 spiders.

the only time I've ever bought bulk was when the new DA codex came out, and that was only because I knew that I only wanted to play DW so I just bought like 5 of the new DW boxes + Belial and I was set. Every other army I have (nids, BA, GK) I bough the battleforce + HQ than after that one or two units at a time over a period of several months.

I go by the rule of "never buy more then you can paint in a reasonable amount of time"

I'm far from being a professional painter, but I rarely field unpainted models or unfinished models.

My next project is going to be a bigger one, and thats building up my Ravenwings. For that I need Sammy and 2 of the DA Battleforce. Its going to need to wait for better weather so I can use a nice black primer...

One, maybe two boxes at a time.

I started my first and only army with a single box of tactical marines. I painted and assembled them. Then I bought an AoBR box, and assembled & painted that stuff up. Then I got a couple rhinos etc.

Unless you absolutely want to be able to field an entire new army next friday, I don't see a point in buying in bulk.

If you are good at working through the painting slog bulk is great as you can save yourself a good bit of money.
However if you need a strong motivator for painting buy them one at a time.

i started buying as i went but then with my empire i waited and i saved and studied the rulebook then i brought all at once and i loved it, now i'm waiting for my tau to released