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I never played tabletop before and thought I'd ask out of curiosity, how much does it cost to maintain a big tabletop army, complete with vehicles and other heavy equipment? Let's use a Loyalist Space Marine army for the question. I don't intend to go into tabletop anytime soon, first off I can't afford it, and second I'll be moving out to basic training in San Diego, so I can become a real-life Marine.

Most of the price is in the purchase, unless you go really hardcore tourney happy. Rules don't really degrade, especially for historicals, foam is pretty long lasting, mostly its a bit of touch up paint and glue from handling or dropping. Continuing costs are pretty much all shiny-syndrome related. GW is a bit of an exception, but even then you're talking like 100 bucks every few years--more than I want to deal with, but honestly like 2-3 kits equivalent.

If you handle your models with care, plastic models will probably outlive you without ever needing touch ups. You may find metal models not quite as forgiving, but the main danger to them is still handling and proper storage won't harm them.

The cost of maintenance is pretty much front loaded. You want to buy a good primer so your paint adheres to the models properly, you may wish to varnish them for additional protection after painting, and you should look into foam trays and a bag or box for storage and transportation. Kept out of direct sunlight (and I guess excessively high or low temperatures, but I have no experience with desert or arctic climes), you won't have any problems.

As mentioned, long term costs are mostly related to getting addicted to plasticrack and wanting new shinies for your collection. That is, as long as don't view the game as a competition in which you have to have the best units. These change from time to time, especially with GW's games, and with an attitude like that you will frequently have to spend money and time to chase the new top units or armies. In a more casual environment, if you do some research ahead of buying an army and play some games to find out what you like, you can build up a collection that you'll be happy with without ever needing to invest in another model again if you don't feel like it.

I was under the impression that there were a good number of warhammer fans within the armed forces - though the practicalities of transporting ones army with ones self might well make it hard to carry them around.


As for maintaining it really depends what you want from the hobby in general. First up wargames split down into different scales and sizes. You've got games like Malifaux and Infinity which can operate with a handful of models - 6 or so and you've got a whole force. Each model you add is a major adjustment to the group and what it can do. These are typically called skirmish games because they focus on far fewer models on the table.
Warhammer 40K now has Killteam pushed as its own product which does similar and Age of Sigmar is also trying out its own approach though its not quite its own product yet (its got some skirmish rules in white dwarf at present, though there's also ShadSpire which has handfuls of models)

From that point there's an escalation into larger and larger armies until you reach things like 40K and Age of Sigmar as well as historical armies which have far more models on the table. These are, of course, more expensive and larger games that take longer to play and collect. However even there you can scale up.
40K right now you can easily start with killteam - get a few more boxes to vary your killteam and before you know it you've got a 500 point force you could use for the main game. Steady adding and you can build up to 1K and beyond.



Furthermore within the larger games there's more variety in army size. For example an army like Tyranids can run a swarm where you might put over 200 models onto the table in a 2K point game. However you could run a Custodes army and put only a few dozen models onto the table at 2K points. Big difference in model counts.
Some armies also do this within themselves - eg the Tyranids could also put far fewer models down, but they'd all be bigger monstrous creatures.


The running costs as such, once you've got an army, are really your own choice. You can either stick to your guns and keep one army composition; or you can steadily add things as you like. For games like Warhammer you can also get more milage if you magnetize major weapon options on key models. Some nuts people can do it for anything; but most stick to larger easier to work with models. Eg you could magnetize the guns on a tank quite easily and that lets you swap between different loadouts - a single model thus can swap over to several configurations as you desire.
Otherwise there's "new shiny things" ergo new models. There's expanding your army into a niche - eg you might really like the theme of swarming tyranids for a while then get bored and shift to monsters and thus whilst you've got a functional army you'd expand it in a different way.
Most companies will also revise sculpts over time as new materials and technologies and sculpting methods/skills come around. So they might update an older sculpt to a new appearance. In most games this does not invalidate the old model in any way, however many active gamers will get the newer models to add because they are often better or the design is new and interesting.


Note GW has had a few that do invalidate the old models. This is honestly rare and the exception and mostly constrained to the updates they've done to Chaos Greater Demons where the early models were quite a lot smaller than their new plastic giant sized ones. However nothing stops you using the old ones as a stand in for something like a Chaos Prince.

it only costs you as mutch as the rule books does. there will allways be new versions and addons, but the models remains for the moust part the same.
tabletop miniature games are extremly expensive in the beginning, but then the curve flattens more and more you the sooner you approach "completion". (some never complete their army and for thouse there is a constant cost that dont realy go down)
it is like any other hobby when you are new to it, you have nothing and need allmoust everything, HOWEVER, this is overall a bloody expensive hobby!

I think if US Marines basic training is anything like British Army basic training, you will have many other issues impinging on your time. I would suggest finishing basic training first before worrying about hobbies, when you will have a little more spare time and not so much stress.

 filbert wrote:
I think if US Marines basic training is anything like British Army basic training, you will have many other issues impinging on your time. I would suggest finishing basic training first before worrying about hobbies, when you will have a little more spare time and not so much stress.

Apparently you didn't understand my OP, all I was asking is what you guys go through to keep your minis in good shape and how much it costs, I WON'T be painting any minis in the future or during basic training, I was just curious.

 Jazzylee wrote:

 filbert wrote:
I think if US Marines basic training is anything like British Army basic training, you will have many other issues impinging on your time. I would suggest finishing basic training first before worrying about hobbies, when you will have a little more spare time and not so much stress.

Apparently you didn't understand my OP, all I was asking is what you guys go through to keep your minis in good shape and how much it costs, I WON'T be painting any minis in the future or during basic training, I was just curious.

There is effectively no maintenance costs. I'm curious what costs you think there might be?

The only potential ongoing costs would be canned air to blow the dust off. And a thing of superglue in cast bits snap off.

If you just keep you minis rattling around loose in a shoebox, you might need paint for some touch up work. But even unvarnished/sealcoated, as long as you don’t scrape them up, normal wear and tear is not going to be noticeable as long as you put down a decent coat of primer and make sure they are dry and cured before playing.

Other “costs” would be space for storage. And if you are moving them around, the cost for transportation cases.

Once you buy a mini, that’s pretty much it for upkeep. I still put RT era marines down on the table on a regular basis. The only additional money I’ve spent on them is when I decided to base my army, so tossed some rocks/tufts/flock down on them. And a little glue one and a while when an arm/backpack fell off.

The long term costs are all rules. And shiny model syndrome.

Very rarely the rules change to make a model obsolete. Wargear no longer available, options restricted, etc. In those cases you might need to take a knife and do a weapon swap, or change up something similar. Or just have old stuff ride the shelf. More often what was good in one edition is lackluster in the next. So while you could field it, you would be better served choosing another unit. Taken to the extreme, this leads to chasing the meta and replacing half your army every time a FAQ comes out. But for normal FLGS play, you just shrug and field your old stuff, even if it’s not the latest hotness. Odds are your opponent is doing the same. And sometimes things come around full circle, and what once was good, then was crap, becomes good again.

Jazzylee wrote:

 filbert wrote:
I think if US Marines basic training is anything like British Army basic training, you will have many other issues impinging on your time. I would suggest finishing basic training first before worrying about hobbies, when you will have a little more spare time and not so much stress.

Apparently you didn't understand my OP, all I was asking is what you guys go through to keep your minis in good shape and how much it costs, I WON'T be painting any minis in the future or during basic training, I was just curious.

A more precise answer: I have 5 armies, Grey Knights, Black Legion, Deathwatch, Imperial Guard, and Khorne Daemons.

Each one is stored in it's own carrying case, the cases take up some room, and there's wear and tear from using the minis themselves.

The cost is mostly a matter of time. The Chaos armies have a lot of small bits that sometimes break off during games. I spend a fair amount of time pinning / gluing pieces back into old models. The Imperial armies have a lot of tanks with fine details on the paint job that sometimes get screwed up. I spend a fair amount of time touching them up.

I probably spend $50 a year keeping them nice. For example, CSM troops moved up to a new base size. It cost me about $20 to get new bases for the models and $10 on hobby materials to make the bases look nice.

There's always a temptation to buy new models, which is the real cost. Don't underestimate that when considering costs.

Yeah, I don't really consider it a "maintenance cost", but I have about $150 of Battlefoam trays to keep my dudespeople in when they aren't being used.

Some glue and potentially some paint for chips is all you need to "maintain" them, and I already have those so there are no extra costs.

I keep my kill team in a pistol case. Cost $11 and took no modification, real nice. With the interlocking foam, it can get tossed around and they survive. The other real marines wouldn't question a random pistol case. They'd never have to know.

Once a miniature is varnished, the only wear and tear will come from impacts, and then it's either a touch of glue to put it back together or a small amount of paint to disguise a chip (mostly metal models). It's pretty negligible. I suppose if you needed a storage locker to keep your stuff in, that would count as maintenance costs.

You also need to think about garrison and upkeep for your army. Depending on the size of your army, you will need to find a way to feed and house all of your troops.

There's also a common misconception that techpriests are conscripted into Astartes' ranks from Mars. You'll be surprised to find that they are actually salary based and will be expecting to be compensated according to its experiences.

While not as sadistic as its Heretic counter part, the machine spirit also needs to be maintained sane by continuously engaging in combat to satiate its desire for gore. There has been historical precedents that machine spirit failed to function properly due to not being satisfactorily 'entertained' in the arts of war. This of course, would mean you'd need to constantly wage war against others to fuel its needs - which comes with a hefty price tag.

These are your just basic upkeep you should be expecting while maintaining a 40k army. You will need to keep them content lest it turn to chaos.

Todooloo.