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I wanna start a 40k army but i do not want to build and paint it myself. Does anyone know any reliable sites i can buy 40k figures from? ebay has a good amount of models but i would like more options. Thanks in advance.

UPDATE
Thanks to everyone who tried helping, i'm just gonna wait for dawn of war 3 , editing this post instead of posting a new one since i don't want to bump it back up. Thanks again.

You will not find the models from an already-expensive game selling pre-painted at a reasonable price. Buying a pre-painted army is going to easily double the cost of that army. If you want a really well-done pre-painted army, expect to pay 5 to 10 times the listed cost, because now you are paying for someone's time and skill.

There are a number of studios and commissioned painters who will work with you on both assembly and painting projects. Check the Painting Service thread in the Swap Shop board for some good leads.

Painted models are probably not going to be cheap. You'll need to accept that now.

Either you can buy used, assembled painted models from the likes of Dakka's Swap Shop or eBay and accept that they will probably not all match (fairly inexpensive) or you will need to contract the services of another party to assemble and paint them for you (fairly expensive).

For a good pre-painted army expect to pay minimum double the cost of the parts and thats for tabletop standard. If your looking for something spectacular your looking at spending a lot.

If you really don't want to paint them yourself, then here is what I would do.

Buy and assemble the models yourself, this way you get the poses and actual minis you want. Then, find someone in the area who does commissions. If you like their work, then get them to paint your minis to the color scheme you want. It might be cheaper than pre-painted as well, I don't know I've never done it. That way, you get everything exactly how you want it

He doesn't want to build them either...

 VampireDeLaVega wrote:
I wanna start a 40k army but i do not want to build and paint it myself. Does anyone know any reliable sites i can buy 40k figures from? ebay has a good amount of models but i would like more options. Thanks in advance.

Blue Table Painting! http://bluetablepainting.com/

Keep in mind, no matter where you go, you'll be paying minimum double the model price. 40k is expensive no matter what you do. There is no cutting corners without paying threw the nose.

If I may, I highly recommend doing it yourself. There is no better and rewarding feeling in miniature gaming than fielding a army you did yourself.

 Mark1130 wrote:

 VampireDeLaVega wrote:
I wanna start a 40k army but i do not want to build and paint it myself. Does anyone know any reliable sites i can buy 40k figures from? ebay has a good amount of models but i would like more options. Thanks in advance.

Blue Table Painting! http://bluetablepainting.com/

Keep in mind, no matter where you go, you'll be paying minimum double the model price. 40k is expensive no matter what you do. There is no cutting corners without paying threw the nose.

If I may, I highly recommend doing it yourself. There is no better and rewarding feeling in miniature gaming than fielding a army you did yourself.

If you search around for commission work, you can find much better quality and price than Blue Table Painting. I would advise against using them.

I'd check out the Swapshop comission thread.

I've had very good work done by Bill Kim and by Frontline gaming, and can recommend them both.

 Mark1130 wrote:

 VampireDeLaVega wrote:
I wanna start a 40k army but i do not want to build and paint it myself. Does anyone know any reliable sites i can buy 40k figures from? ebay has a good amount of models but i would like more options. Thanks in advance.

Blue Table Painting! http://bluetablepainting.com/

Keep in mind, no matter where you go, you'll be paying minimum double the model price. 40k is expensive no matter what you do. There is no cutting corners without paying threw the nose.

If I may, I highly recommend doing it yourself. There is no better and rewarding feeling in miniature gaming than fielding a army you did yourself.

Look around the interwebs though, and you'll see that plenty of gak has been dug up about blue table. Brandon Palmer does a mighty fine job in a week or two however.

Shop around. You'll find good deals.

My roommates army is almost entirely bought online from random people. It took him about 3 months to collect over 4000 points.

He's spent about $400 so far... not including what he pays me to paint basic units.

Just be patient.

To be honest, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a massive part of 40k the building and painting of models? I would suggest that if you don't like that side of things, that you play a board game, or a computer game. I can understand the building and getting commissioned painting, but having 0 interest in it what so ever just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

 Rippy wrote:
To be honest, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a massive part of 40k the building and painting of models? I would suggest that if you don't like that side of things, that you play a board game, or a computer game. I can understand the building and getting commissioned painting, but having 0 interest in it what so ever just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

I would rather eat glass than paint models. I do like to assemble and build terrain but I don't paint unless I absolutely have to. Beyond that I love strategy games and war games.. I'm very good at both... I'm partially colorblind and have the painting skills of a rhesus monkey. Not to mention it takes up time I could be playing. My time is far more valuable than my money.


Your "cheapest" option would be to try and find an army for sale on ebay. Get it as close to what you want as possible then commission someone to fill in the gaps for you. You won't likely find exactly what you want but should be able to come close. Then go from there.

If you flat out have the cash, you can commission the whole army, but that will be expensive.

I will echo what others have said, Ebay is a good place to find cheap painted stuff but unless you buy a whole army it likely won't match. Furthermore if you ever add to it, it won't match.

So then you are stuck with commision painting. Which is usually pretty pricey. Also in many cases it will be difficult to update a commision painted army quickly. But if you have the cash it is what I would recommend.

That said if you are not really concerned with how your army looks, and don't mind building all that much, you can easily spray paint, wash, dip stuff to get paint on it quickly.

Ebay, dakka swap shop and other such places is where you go. People do sell off whole armies at times, and if you don't mind that they don't match you can just buy any painted models from your chosen army when they come up for sale.

First of all, it's unlikely that it will cost double retail price to get a well-painted army. I see very nicely painted armies going for 75% of retail on ebay all the time.

As others have mentioned, however, with ebay, you get what you get. You can't pick and choose which models you want, and it can be hard to match later models up.

I also recommend against Blue Table Painting. Their prices are nearly 3x the market rate for similar quality. I asked them for a quote once and almost thought it was a typo.

 Rippy wrote:
To be honest, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a massive part of 40k the building and painting of models? I would suggest that if you don't like that side of things, that you play a board game, or a computer game. I can understand the building and getting commissioned painting, but having 0 interest in it what so ever just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

I have nerve damage in my dominant arm, any precise work with it (such as assembly, converting or painting) is a frustrating experience with uncontrollable shaking and trembling. Don't be rushing to judge.

 Rippy wrote:
To be honest, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a massive part of 40k the building and painting of models? I would suggest that if you don't like that side of things, that you play a board game, or a computer game. I can understand the building and getting commissioned painting, but having 0 interest in it what so ever just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

Your wrong and I'm correcting you. Why is it that no criticizes those who paint fabulous miniatures and win painting competitions but never play the game. Yet if you want to play the game but don't like painting someone always chimes up and says you are not 'correctly' partaking of the hobby. I'd rather play a game against someone with a fully painted army that they paid someone else to paint than a player with an unpainted army they glued together themselves.

Swap Shop/Bartertown/Ebay/local craigslist are your friends, really.

Talk to people, get pictures or see them in person.

You can routinely pick up someone's unloved or 'quitting this edition" army for 50% of retail... and painted to boot.

-Porkuslime

BTP copped a bad rap for some dumb stuff he's ago, if you go googling them check the dates, they have been around 7 years or so now and are much improved. I recently had them do some stuff for me as I am slowly working through my own stuff that I made and am painting up. It has to be said though that they are damn good, if there is mistakes they fix them.

As has been said though none of these guys are cheap. You might find a solo painter that's cheap but I can almost bet hat if they are good and cheep then it will take a long time as they will be booked up with work. Unless you are really lucky of course .

Whilst I don't mind the assembling and painting side of things, with all the time at work I'd rather play than paint in the time I have.

As an example though I don't have the time and patience or skill for that matter to paint this, this one is the work of BTP



There is some more of their work in my gallery as well, so yes I'd recommend them but really don't expect overnight it will always take time and money.

Has anybody had any luck with worthypainting? I am considering using them to get a few special characters done for my army

 A GumyBear wrote:
Has anybody had any luck with worthypainting? I am considering using them to get a few special characters done for my army

Worthy painting no longer exists in any real way.. Their old contracts are being completed by BTP.

And to the op. WHAT did you decide?

curran12 wrote:

 Rippy wrote:
To be honest, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a massive part of 40k the building and painting of models? I would suggest that if you don't like that side of things, that you play a board game, or a computer game. I can understand the building and getting commissioned painting, but having 0 interest in it what so ever just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

I have nerve damage in my dominant arm, any precise work with it (such as assembly, converting or painting) is a frustrating experience with uncontrollable shaking and trembling. Don't be rushing to judge.

Okay yes, I apologise, as that does make complete sense!

Solis Luna Astrum wrote:

 Rippy wrote:
To be honest, and correct me if I am wrong, but isn't a massive part of 40k the building and painting of models? I would suggest that if you don't like that side of things, that you play a board game, or a computer game. I can understand the building and getting commissioned painting, but having 0 interest in it what so ever just doesn't seem to ring true to me.

Your wrong and I'm correcting you. Why is it that no criticizes those who paint fabulous miniatures and win painting competitions but never play the game. Yet if you want to play the game but don't like painting someone always chimes up and says you are not 'correctly' partaking of the hobby. I'd rather play a game against someone with a fully painted army that they paid someone else to paint than a player with an unpainted army they glued together themselves.

I am glad you single quoted 'correctly' as I never said that. I never said you had to love the painting and building side of things or that you have to to play, I just don't understand that people don't like this side and play 40k/other games requiring painting and modelling. There are so many other options of similar games that don't require this.