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Hey,

So I'm starting back the hobby of 40k after 17 years off and a lot has changed.

I am looking for a comprehensive starter lot of items. Personally I think the citadel starter kit is a potential waste of money. Would appreciate any help on materials and things such as good but inexpensive glue, brushes, cutters, filers etc.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi mate, I did this recently and wasted a ton of money.

Don't buy anything made by citadel, it is all stupid overpriced.

None of their tools are worth the expense, you can get considerably better stuff for considerably less either online or from your FLGS.

Paints are another thing to consider - GW paints are pretty gak by all accounts, you are better off with Vallejo or whatever else, again, check with what your FLGS stocks.

What kb_lock said.

Spend a little more time and look online for the supplies. Brushes, paint and tools can all be found more cheaply and of better quality, from my experience.

First off, what kind of army do you want to start off with? I really think the Dark Vengeance starter is great if you want to play Dark Angels. Not so much if you want to play Chaos. Still, it's a great value and the models are phenomenal. Easy to find someone to trade bits with, too.

For brushes I would just visit your local craft shop (michaels or hobby lobby in the US are great). Just remember that you pay for what you get when it comes to brushes - if you buy cheap you're going to get cheap brushes.

Hobby Lobby has a great section for model building with good prices on the various tools you'll need: clippers, files, hobby knife, extra blades, etc.

I use Gorilla Glue Super Glue (with a Blue top). You can find it most places for generally the same price anywhere you go.

I really like the 'new' line of GW paints and would suggest getting some of those. There are a lot, but they every paint has a base color and two layer highlights. Get a few washes and you're set.

It's going to take a while to really build up a good supply tools, brushes, paint, etc.

Hope this helps! And welcome back. I recently just started up again after a few years away. It's still a little intimidating how much has changed in even that small of a time frame, so I can only imagine your surprise!

I'm mobile right now so I can't find it for you but there is an article (not on dakka) that covers all citadel tools and some much cheaper options. Basically type the tool name into Amazon and you'll find something better.

As for paints, gw base paints are good, as are their washes and their metallics are great compared to other brands. People mainly dislike gw paints because of the bottles they come in. many people suggest vallejo or army painter or my favorite: Reaper. Reaper had a huge selection and it keeps growing, they have something called the power palette where you upload a picture you have and click on an area and it tells you what paints match. It's amazing really. Also free shipping over $35 which is allot 11 paints which is perfect to start. You can also find them at your flgs sometimes. And they're made in USA which I appreciate.

Thanks all, I really appreciate it.

That article sounds interesting, I'll try searching for it.

I just bought some space wolves from craigslist so will get some wolfy color's.

I'll look in to what you all said and thank you.

Before you jump in, you should establish why you want to get back into 40k: is it because you enjoy the models, do you want to play casually with friends, or do you want to play to win?

If your goal is to play to win, 40k is a not a well-balanced game. Check out house rules of wherever it is you're playing, do your research, and build a min-max army that abuses the rules to the maximum extent possible.

If you want to play casually, figure out what army you identify with, and start from there.

If you just want to paint cool stuff and don't have a strong bias towards one army or another, take a look at what gives the best value in terms of miniatures per dollar.

If value is your concern, Space Marines have the huge (the largest) variation of models are the easiest to mix, match and build on a "budget". There are and always will be box sets that give you a good mix for the price you pay. Imperial Guard (Astra Millitarum) have relatively tiny sections in the hobby shop, and there is no cheap way to acquire neat "must-have" units like Militarum Tempestus ($40 for 5 units). In comparison, there are many ways to get Terminators in box sets. Or, compare with Dark Eldar where you can pick up 10 Hellions, Kabalite, or Wyches in boxes of 10 for under $40. Even the vehicles are a lot cheaper.

On the box sets, I look at four things: cost per model, how interested I am in both armies, the quality of the models, and whether I want or will use the special models (like the Ravenwing, Turmiel, Balthasar, etc.). These are a GREAT value, dollar-per-point-pointwise, but a lousy value if you're going to leave them in a box.

If any of your hobby stores still have it, Stormclaw was an awesome boxed set (I bought 3!). Off the top of my head you'll add 2700-point-ish (maybe more?) to each of your Space Wolves and Ork collections, but the really amazing thing is that everything in the box is a proper multipart plastic rather than pushfit -- meaning that you have your choice of torsos, heads, arms, weapons, and so on. You can have choose to outfit all of your marines with helmets, or heads; your terminator can have lightning claws or an assault cannon. In comparison, Dark Vengeance gives you no option as to what units have equipped; so the beautiful sergeant miniature and one of the terminators will always have a chainsword, even though there is zero reason to equip one.

The casts for Stormclaw are also highly detailed, much more so than Dark Vengeance, and I personally think Orks are more fun to paint and play than Chaos.

That being said, Stormclaw has a sticker price of $150 (my hobby shop sold it for $112), and DV I think is closer to $120 sticker; the old 6th edition DV has exactly the same models and is usually less than $100. And, of course, Stormclaw is a bit hard to find now.

The upcoming Space Hulk gives you some awesome miniatures for $150; they are pushfit, but gorgeous sculpts. Point-value-wise, they're huge (35 models, I think, including 11 terminators and a librarian), but you can't directly insert them into an army, because they're not configured correctly for two squads. It's close, though.

Personally, I no longer play 40k, but I paint them and collect the models, and still try to build them in a playable -- or at least coherent looking -- armies

thanks for that Talys.

I actually took up the hobby again to paint and play but don't really have a local community to play with yet so will paint. If the opportunity comes along to play with people then that will be great too but purely for fun.

Thanks again all


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I found this online that I thought might be useful should anyone else have the same questions I had:

http://www.reapermini.com/Thecraft/32

I did this just yesterday, I did a quick bit of online comparisons/window shopping for potential start up costs for what I consider the basic/essential tools/supplies. This is what I got.
Games Workshop Alternative
Citadel supplies from the GW site, alternatives from either Ebay or Amazon and include P+P.

Hobby Clippers/Side Cutters: £18 £1.79
Hobby Drill/Pin Vice: £16 (6 drill bits) £5.49 (20 drill bits)
Hobby Knife: £15 (5 refills) £7.04 (£4.47 X-Acto Knife + £2.57 5 refill pack)
Hobby Files: £12 (two) £3.55 (ten)
PVA Glue: £5.10 (120ml) £0.99/£1.98 (60ml/120ml)
Super Glue (Thin): £4.10 (5ml) £2.50 (5ml)
Plastic Glue (Thin): £4.10 (20ml) £1.59/£3.18 (12ml/24ml)
Basing Kit: £20 £7.99
Palettes: £4 £1.07

Totals: £98.30 £32.01 - a saving of two thirds and we haven't even touched paints or models yet!

You're paying a premium for the brand name, a premium that far, far outweights any (if at all) increase in quality. Just look at those savings that can now go towards other things such as models, paints, brushes, airbrush supplies, etc.

Thanks for that!