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I've toyed with getting involved in 40k collecting/gaming on and off for a couple years, recently decided to take the plunge and actually start building a SM army.

They ARE pretty models.
The background stories sound interesting enough.
Various box sets scratch that itch of feeling like you are getting somewhere with your army while the money disappears accordingly.
I would say the money disappears even faster if you are a "completionist": Do you have/want at least one of every unit type in the army list?
To at least mitigate the account erosion, magnets are key for vehicles and large (=expensive) models.
Good luck.
I think I have enough unbuilt models to complete well into nursing home age, unless my wife fully comprehends the situation and I will not live that long.

Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

 Talizvar wrote:
They ARE pretty models.
The background stories sound interesting enough.
Various box sets scratch that itch of feeling like you are getting somewhere with your army while the money disappears accordingly.
I would say the money disappears even faster if you are a "completionist": Do you have/want at least one of every unit type in the army list?
To at least mitigate the account erosion, magnets are key for vehicles and large (=expensive) models.
Good luck.
I think I have enough unbuilt models to complete well into nursing home age, unless my wife fully comprehends the situation and I will not live that long.

The models are actually why I ended up going SM over the other factions, I didn't want to play an army that I don't like the look of (which is also why I'll be doing tons of conversion and tinkering as time goes on).

And no, I'm not planning on having one of everything, both because I couldn't afford that, and because it's be kinda redundant (the SM motor pool is rather prone to "Hey, look, this Rhino variant has a totally different big gun than the other 5 variants" type stuff). Plus there are tons of SM models I just plain don't like (Terminators, for example, along with the entire air wing. Though with some conversion and tinkering I think I can redeem the Stormtalon).

I'm somewhat torn about magnets, they certain help the gaming side, but I can't help but feel they're a bit of a disservice to the actual modeling aspect. Plus my local group isn't too strict about WYSISWGY, so there's not a lot of pressure on that front.

Magnets aren't a disservice at all. Being able to magnetize bits in ways that you can't tell they are magnetized is a great modelling skill to have. You just have to magnetize within reason - vehicle weapons, etc. Aside from a few infantry models (ex: Terminator special weapons), there's not really the space to fully magnetize.

Magnets are indeed a great way of making loadouts on dreadnoughts or tanks interchangeable. I would agree however that they are not that beneficial on infantry which is why I usually have seperate infantry models for different options.

Looking forward to seeing some of your Stuff Battlegrinder!

 AmberWarden wrote:
Magnets are indeed a great way of making loadouts on dreadnoughts or tanks interchangeable. I would agree however that they are not that beneficial on infantry which is why I usually have seperate infantry models for different options.
Looking forward to seeing some of your Stuff Battlegrinder!

I think I agree on all counts.
I found magnets used for special weapon loadouts for the actual soldiers just makes them too fussy to play with: I like them a solid piece.
Now anything as big or bigger than a Centurion I would say is a good candidate: then you can put big magnets in them and everything is held firm.