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I haven't played 40k since 2nd ed, and despite the fact that it takes me 6-8 hours to model/paint each ork boy, I've almost got enough to field an army in 7th. So I'm curious, what do you think is the best format for a first game for someone who is effectively a total 40k noob?
Singles/Doubles?
What point level?
Maelstrom, Eternal War, etc...

Please also estimate how long a game of this format would take given that said noob has never even seen a modern game of 40k played (although I have a rulebook and codex and have studied both pretty extensively).

Cheers!

Probably a 500 pts kill point game to get you comfortable with the mechanics.

I'd agree with Lime, a 500pt game with no objective markers, {Edit} on a 4' x 4' board or kitchen table etc... {/Edit} just going through trying to kill each other. Should take about an hour.

Since you'll have grabbed an opponent, a table and terrain, and if it's at a club or whatever still have plenty of time, have another game - maybe add 2-3 objectives markers (score points at end of game if holding), not too many (you won't have many units left by the end probably). This game might take you about 50 minutes as you speed up.

The good things about playing multiple small games:
They shouldn't take too long, so you're able to get several in in a gaming night.
If you make a really big tactical mistake, it doesn't take long to get to the end of the game and start again (as opposed to making a mistake in a 2000 pt game in turn 1, and regretting it for the rest of the evening).
You get to try different setups for deployment.

yea, just do 500 points.

Doubles games are also very good for new players. You have someone on your side to help keep you up on what’s going on. Plus you don’t need to personally field a large army, yet get the feel of a larger game.

500 point shoot ‘em ups are a good way to get the mechanics down.

When myself and a friend started out we just did small 1000 point games with 3 objective markers worth 3 points each (if held by the end of the game) along with 1 point secondary objectives like slay the warlord, first blood and linebreaker. Anything else just confused matters for us so we stuck to that simple format while we learned the basic rules and mechanics.

Only after doing this for a while did we move onto following the official missions in the rulebook and increasing the army size.