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In March I'm moving to a new area where the closest gaming store is a GW store.

My issue is that my army I'm working on has a lot of third party enhancements. The skeletons of the forces are all legit GW product, but I've collected muzzle flares, new banners, and a few weapon/armor upgrades so my little army doesn't look like the same model over and over.

But these additions are not GW. Do you think I'll have any problems, or is this a bad idea for me to use 3rd Party upgrades at an "official " store?

You won't be permitted to use those models in a GW store if it's very obvious.

If its nothing big like Chapter badge shoulders on Marines it might be OK but if it's everywhere and very clearly added on TP stuff and FLGS would be a better option.

OK, so I'm going to have to reign in my ideas.

Hopefully they won't notice that my Valerian (aka the ugly custodes) looks a lot like Henry Cavill.

Depends on the GW staff. As everywhere there are good and bad people. If the models are converted GW models, so just some upgrades on a GW model, I'd say they'll usually allow it. Third party miniatures less so.

I plan on using GW stuff, but using some other stuff to make them stand out.... like bases. I can't find any GW bases that would work with Custodes and Imperial Knights.

I'd use them if I could find decent options.

So bases most stores don't care about, its the models they more care about. That said GW staffers come in all shades - from those who are more open to things to those who follow the company line perfectly.

There's also regional and national variation - eg the US staff appear to be a bit more "salesmen in suits" whilst the UK staff are a touch more "hobbyist that never left the store and now works there".

In general things like this are a case of "ask and find out from the staffer". Because only they can give you the final answer.

Also don't forget even if the store is the only one in the area, there might well be clubs locally too. So go the store and ask around.

Just have a chat with the manager first. Always the best way. Some won't mind, others would. Only one way to find out for sure.

That's honestly a good idea. I should call ahead since I haven't even started the process of moving cities... that begins in March. Ugh.

From my time?

I wasn’t fussed for conversions, as long as the base was obviously a stock model (including out of production earlier ones).

Other companies models were a no-no (such as the guy who insisted he be allowed to use Mantic Ghouls. He was not).

Once had a kid trying to use those tiny fluffy Easter Chicks as a WHFB unit (Zombies, I think?). That was also a no.

Also worth noting that at least in the UK? GW stores aren’t really gaming centres anymore. They’re set up for beginners and intro gaming. So…..it may not be an issue at all, as they may simply not have the space to offer open gaming.

However, any store (GW or FLGS) worth its salt should know where its local clubs are, and signpost folk to them.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
From my time?

I wasn’t fussed for conversions, as long as the base was obviously a stock model (including out of production earlier ones).

Reminds me of a funny story at a GW store event, where it was all based around the Eldar Avatar of Khaine, and the winner would get the really expensive new model that had been released. (I thought it odd that you would win a better model of the one you just painted)

Everyone's (except for the store manager) favorite was a guy who had a full sized base with super detailed flora, and the teeny-tiny Avatar of a long time ago, mostly obscured by the detailed base.

Sorry, for that. Now back to your regularly scheduled forum posts

How do GW and indy stores feel about OOP models these days, since, like 3d prints, they don't sell them.

I don't know about "these days", but pre covid the reaction was always "Wow! Cool!"

If it's still a GW product (and not a very obvious knockoff) then I've never had issues.

I've used all sorts of GW Ork/Orc models back when I played Orks for 40k and everyone (including the staff) always had nice things to say because my army had a huge amount of variety.

I'm sure somewhere there's some tiny store that has a manger who only allows players to play with models they bought at the store itself. It likely only survives by having a tiny cult-like market and the owner likely owning the site and thus having very low overheads.


In most cases GW stores want to see GW models on the table. It doesn't matter if you got them first or secondhand; old or new (though you might find some players want your old greater demon to be a prince not a greater demon due to the size changes for the new models).

So yeah throw some old models on the table and its cool.

 Overread wrote:
I'm sure somewhere there's some tiny store that has a manger who only allows players to play with models they bought at the store itself. It likely only survives by having a tiny cult-like market and the owner likely owning the site and thus having very low overheads.


In most cases GW stores want to see GW models on the table. It doesn't matter if you got them first or secondhand; old or new (though you might find some players want your old greater demon to be a prince not a greater demon due to the size changes for the new models).

So yeah throw some old models on the table and its cool.

Unless the store staff don't recognize the old models as GW products... I've heard a few horror stories, although the stories always seem to end with the location getting closed so take that with the appropriate tonnage of salt.

 Vulcan wrote:

 Overread wrote:
I'm sure somewhere there's some tiny store that has a manger who only allows players to play with models they bought at the store itself. It likely only survives by having a tiny cult-like market and the owner likely owning the site and thus having very low overheads.


In most cases GW stores want to see GW models on the table. It doesn't matter if you got them first or secondhand; old or new (though you might find some players want your old greater demon to be a prince not a greater demon due to the size changes for the new models).

So yeah throw some old models on the table and its cool.

Unless the store staff don't recognize the old models as GW products... I've heard a few horror stories, although the stories always seem to end with the location getting closed so take that with the appropriate tonnage of salt.

Many years ago (2004? 2005?)I was at a con playing a WHFB tourney using my Dwarves.
My 3rd round opponent, a kid barely out of high school, & on the losing end of things mid game, called a judge over & tried to have me DQd for not using GW models.

The judge, a guy a bit older than I was at the time, listened to him, looked at my units,..... And burst into laughter.
Not at all the result the little turd had hoped for.

See, my Dwarf army (or at least the tiny portion I'd brought to the event) was all GW. It just ranged from (then) current stuff all the way back to pre-slotta base lead. Some of my stuff was literally older than this kid.
It was vintage back in 2004/5. Now it's antique!

The kid was informed that it was in fact all GW. And that no, I would not be DQd.

I think the poster is talking about using 3rd party bits & pieces on his GW models in store not using older OOP GW models

 Rolsheen wrote:
I think the poster is talking about using 3rd party bits & pieces on his GW models in store not using older OOP GW models

I asked about OOP stuff. There's been urban legends for a while about people being kick out for not using GW models either because no one recognized them or because the store didn't want stuff they don't sell.

To be fair in the interim days when the internet and smartphones weren't around/much around I could see some super old models getting the "that's not a GW model" from staff. These days it would be pretty swift work to load up lexicanum or a bunch of other sites to prove that they are legit models.


I'm sure it has happened, even up to the whole "you can only play with what you buy here" but they will always be extreme cases. Super niches that ultimately never grow and will often end up closing down

I remember a GW store once that was upset that a lady (yes, I know, but I swear it was not a hallucination) in one our tournaments was using the old Judge Dredd models as Adeptus Arbites... even though those JD guys were cranked out by Citadel back in the day.

So, as of when I was last a regular in a GW shop, and an on-call at that, the "official company line" that I was given was that conversions and models need to be "mostly" GW product. So for the managers I worked for, and hung out with, that meant that 51% of the model should be GW product.

My converted Vostroyans were allowed because, despite using 3rd party parts, all the models were still "mostly" GW stuff. Obviously, I would never, ever in a million years mention that those parts were Victoria miniatures heads, torsos or legs (never on the same model). They were just older models that "I found laying around" somewhere. Plus, there was so much greenstuff in that army, no one ever caught on to the 3rd party stuff.

And that's part of the other piece of it. All 3 of the managers I was around were of similar mindset: so long as you never mentioned 3rd party brands, so long as it wasn't obviously another company's miniature (so, no Warmahordes models), and as long as you could genuinely say your army/models were "mostly" GW product, they were cool with it.

That said, on one rather humorous, and one cringey episode when I was living in Germany, a guy (well, 2 separate guys) was asked quietly by a manager to never bring that army into his store. Guy one was told to pack his army and remove it from store immediately. Guy 2 was allowed to finish his game, but ultimately not bringing that army in. Guy 1 had a full Cadian army, all the infantry were painted in khaki uniforms, and each had a red armband with a white circle. . . and you can see where that description is going, and why it was requested to leave the store immediately.

Guy 2 had a Slaanesh army where his Defiler had a VERY anatomically correct phallus sculpted to the front of it. About half of the Daemonettes had similar, yet "appropriately sized" phalluses sculpted onto them. Other models had more outisized feminine traits sculpted to them. I gotta say, it was a genuinely well made army, painting and the freehand sculpting were all top notch. But alas, it's still a public space, and while there were no kids in the store at the time, its still something the good manager there couldn't allow to keep around.