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Hey guys, so I'm a noob of a couple of months and my little army is coming along nicely. I popped into my nearby games workshop near uni and had a chat with one of the employees out of general interest as I plan to play the game one day. He was quite pushy to try and get me to just put my army on the table right away and start playing asap... but I want to assemble a larger army than one tactical squad one elite and an HQ before I play... and I also wanted to paint them all. Very nice chap, kept insisting they don't need painting before you play and they won't throw me out the shop for it but I insisted I wanted to have them painted before I played. Just because I'd prefer a properly painted army to play with.

Which brings me to my question. He encouraged me to bring in one or two models I'm painting and to paint with the other guys who paint in the shop because I can learn tips and tricks etc to paint better. this appealed. My question is: can any of you guys who do this and paint/put together your models at the local GW let me know what I should be bringing and what they would provide? I sense there will be little to nothing provided but I've never done this before so I simply don't know. Also, what should I expect as a complete noob when I go there to do this for the first time? It's a little intimidating to be honest.

Finally, what would you guys recommend in regards to transporting the models? The GW guy was naturally quick to start selling the citadel stuff but that's obviously his job and I wanted to know what the seasoned hobbyists think I should be doing about safely transporting the minis.

Thanks in advance!

 DarkNightwing47 wrote:
Hey guys, so I'm a noob of a couple of months and my little army is coming along nicely. I popped into my nearby games workshop near uni and had a chat with one of the employees out of general interest as I plan to play the game one day. He was quite pushy to try and get me to just put my army on the table right away and start playing asap... but I want to assemble a larger army than one tactical squad one elite and an HQ before I play... and I also wanted to paint them all. Very nice chap, kept insisting they don't need painting before you play and they won't throw me out the shop for it but I insisted I wanted to have them painted before I played. Just because I'd prefer a properly painted army to play with.

Which brings me to my question. He encouraged me to bring in one or two models I'm painting and to paint with the other guys who paint in the shop because I can learn tips and tricks etc to paint better. this appealed. My question is: can any of you guys who do this and paint/put together your models at the local GW let me know what I should be bringing and what they would provide? I sense there will be little to nothing provided but I've never done this before so I simply don't know. Also, what should I expect as a complete noob when I go there to do this for the first time? It's a little intimidating to be honest.

Finally, what would you guys recommend in regards to transporting the models? The GW guy was naturally quick to start selling the citadel stuff but that's obviously his job and I wanted to know what the seasoned hobbyists think I should be doing about safely transporting the minis.

Thanks in advance!

Bring a fully cleaned / ready to paint miniature or two, some paint brushes, some paints, some super glue (just in case you need to assemble pieces) a paint pallet if you're using one, and a couple plastic cups for water couldn't hurt (but they probably have those). I have a little tackle-box type thing I got at walmart cheap that I use to transport supplies around.

As for transporting things safely, the best solution is https://us.battlefoam.com/. Expensive, but you can get foam trays cut to fit your models exactly.

The manager at my local GW will let you use whatever you want. He has one of every tool and paint in the store as a loaner which anyone can borrow for working on models in store.

In case you can't count on that, the items Horst recommended are good things to bring.

Back when I used to paint in GW regularly it used to go in cycles. The store would provide everything, but then people started taking the piss, such as using up all of the glue and wrecking brushes. The most extreme example we had was a guy painting Tzeentch Daemons who managed to contaminate both white pots with his slapdash highlighting (though it did create two new colours we dubbed "Baby blue" and "Pony pink").

So they'd clamp down and then relax it again and the process would begin anew.

The moral of this is bring your own stuff, but even then you run the risk of people "borrowing" it.

In the store I worked in, customers were expected to bring everything that they needed, and to use gw products, especially paint and glue. I'd lend out tools and glue occasionally, and paint if it was something I knew they wouldn't need to buy (i.e. if they were doing a character and it was an unusual colour for a small detail, Abaddon black et al they'd have to buy it) or were trialling a colour scheme that might lead to a sale. It worked well, the store wasn't being exploited, and no one got a hard sell effort.

Generally speaking take all your own gear; that way you know what you do and don't have, though honestly best thing is as the manager of the store, he sounds like a keen and enthusiastic person and very supportive of a new player.

Most will, in my experience, have a water pot; but paints and brushes and such are something you'd normally provide yourself - though as noted above sometimes some of that might be provided for you. As a beginner you might even get a freebie if the manager is taking interest - eg you might get a free layer brush or such or they might just encourage you to buy one on site if you don't have one (they are keen hobby players, but they also have a store to run and have to make sales too).


Also don't forget painting before playing is great, but sometimes its good to get some early games under your belt as you are building up your army. Esp for something like Marines which have quite a few options to pick from. IT might show you love close combat so you might go for assault marines first rather than, say, terminators or the like. So it can help you with picking stuff up.
But yeah go at your own pace and build up - your manager is likely trying to have you avoid the trap of endlessly building an army and never getting into the"game" side; which can happen. Which can also lead to a fast burnout as you end up with loads of models half way done and some in the box and not enough gaming to keep you hooked.

 JamesY wrote:
In the store I worked in, customers were expected to bring everything that they needed, and to use gw products, especially paint and glue.

This is actually something you should clarify with your shop owner. I haven't been to a GW in years now (hurrah LGSs), but when I used to, they used to be pretty strict on the "no non-GW tools policy", and that extend to everything (clippers, glue, paints, etc.). Brushes were kind of a tricky one; most of them let that one slide.

I asked my local GW, and he said I could use Vallejo Paints, as long as I'm using a paint pallet and don't have the bottles out all the time. It will vary from store to store.

In my experience in UK stores they didn't care about clippers and such. They are more happy to have you there hobbying as that shows active fun community to draw people in rather than turn you away over a few accessories. Though they will encourage you toward using and buying GW products when there's a suitable tool.

Id say bring your own stuff. the only thing you should be taking away from a GW store is knowledge. and occasionally a kit. (i mean they are a retail store)

depending on the manager be prepared to be pushed all sorts of hobby tools and paints.

paints are fine in general unless you specifically are trying to do something very special or specific. but id steer clear of all the other stuff like clippers drills and especially glues.

 Desubot wrote:
Id say bring your own stuff. the only thing you should be taking away from a GW store is knowledge. and occasionally a kit. (i mean they are a retail store)

depending on the manager be prepared to be pushed all sorts of hobby tools and paints.

paints are fine in general unless you specifically are trying to do something very special or specific. but id steer clear of all the other stuff like clippers drills and especially glues.

Agreed. If the GW manager lets you use some paints or doesn't mind you using non-GW tools and paints then by all means, paint in the store and buy a box of models here and there to show your gratitude. If he tries to hard sell you on a bunch of GW paints and hobby supplies then you're better off painting somewhere else, because you could probably buy third-party stuff and afford Skype lessons from a pro painter for the difference in price!

I remember painting in store as a kid. it was fun because it gave me access to paints I couldn't afford at home, it filled a saturday, gave me a chance to hang out with my pals and got me out of my parents hair. on the flip side I also remember times when some older painters (the ultra nerd neckbeard type) making insulting remarks about the young kids paint jobs. sure, they did suck, but you dont explicitly say that to a 10 year old.

my point is that if you're an adult with the ability to buy your own supplies, you should probably paint at home and leave the table space for younger kids who would benefit more from the materials.

sure, if its a quiet day maybe take an hour or 2 if you feel you might benefit, but most techniques can be found on youtube or other online tutorials, so you'd probably only be going for the socials.

My local GW used to be very flexible with other brands of tools, paints etc until they had a visit from head office and they noticed a customer using non GW stuff. They have now been told to only allow GW items in the store, so the company's policy is strict GW, it just depends on whether they have been given the directive or not.

They also only tend to let you use their kit for a demo painting session now, after that its bring your own. The policy at my local GW to play is that the models must be fully assembled, WYSIWYG and at least undercoated/primed unless they have been bought and built on the day.
I would also like to add that my local are a really good store, they run games nights twice a week, under 16's club all day sundays, have monthly painting competitions and run regular campaigns.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

sure, if its a quiet day maybe take an hour or 2 if you feel you might benefit, but most techniques can be found on youtube or other online tutorials, so you'd probably only be going for the socials.

This. All lighting and comfort aside, we get WAAAAYYY too social at our weekly hobby nights (the LGS is run by our friends, so after hours we close up the shop and the beers come out), so much so that I tend to stick to only building models. Exception being prepping for a tournament, when everyone needs to crunch every hour of painting they can.

As usual DV8 supplying top advice to me. I popped back in again today and spoke to the actual manager. Turns out the guy I met and spoke with before, an employee, had told the manager about me and my interest. So that's a fairly positive sign.

He confirmed they supply nothing except water pots so I've got to bring everything. We had a chat about what I'd got already and he told me how I'd been really inefficient with money XD Maybe I had been to a degree... but I'm satisfied enough and I wanted to invest slowly so that if I decided the hobby wasn't for me, I could pull out with minimal losses.

Anyways, friendly and seemed honest and not there to do a hard sell. I decided to grab the smallest citadel case just for convenience so I can get involved. (Not cheap but didn't break the bank either.) If and when I have larger armies to transport I'll look more seriously at battlefoam, but for now that's just too expensive for my meagre needs. Manager seems keen to get me to learn the game and have a small game or two with him. So we'll see what happens. I'm trying to take things as they come without overextending myself.

Oh and for anyone worried I'm taking away space from the kids, this was an afternoon and there were like 4-6 guys and no kids in the store. I suspect I won't be getting in the way of any kids by doing the middle of the day/afternoon thing.

 DarkNightwing47 wrote:
As usual DV8 supplying top advice to me. I popped back in again today and spoke to the actual manager. Turns out the guy I met and spoke with before, an employee, had told the manager about me and my interest. So that's a fairly positive sign.

He confirmed they supply nothing except water pots so I've got to bring everything. We had a chat about what I'd got already and he told me how I'd been really inefficient with money XD Maybe I had been to a degree... but I'm satisfied enough and I wanted to invest slowly so that if I decided the hobby wasn't for me, I could pull out with minimal losses.
.

The last person I'd take advice about money efficiency from is a GW employee. Don't get me wrong, most are awesome, and super friendly, but they're definitely on the sell. Theyre like car salesmen, so don't let them con you into buying overpriced tools, paintbrushes etc. Kit wise, you would do much better not buying gw stuff, except paints.

 DarkNightwing47 wrote:
If and when I have larger armies to transport I'll look more seriously at battlefoam, but for now that's just too expensive for my meagre needs

That's a good way to go too. I still use my small GW citadel case for my kill team, and my Battlefoam 1520XL for carrying 2000 pt armies back and forth to play.

 DarkNightwing47 wrote:
As usual DV8 supplying top advice to me.

Haha! Dude, I just talk/post a lot, and eventually some of the gibberish I post will stick and actually mean something!

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
The last person I'd take advice about money efficiency from is a GW employee. Don't get me wrong, most are awesome, and super friendly, but they're definitely on the sell. Theyre like car salesmen, so don't let them con you into buying overpriced tools, paintbrushes etc. Kit wise, you would do much better not buying gw stuff, except paints.

Yea, and unfortunately it's how GW tends to set unreasonable target goals for their managers, which in turn gets pushed down to their employees, so they basically push or lose their jobs. It's infuriating because the guys who run our LGS now are former employees (one was a former GW manager for 8 years?) and the amount of koolaid he had to drink was insane.

But yes...unfortunately a lot of GW hobby products are just unreasonable (Citadel PVA glue lol is a prime example), and it's almost always geared towards people who are new to the hobby and don't know about alternatives. So when they walk into a GW, they get pushed all these official products as the "best" tools and supplies.

 DV8 wrote:

 JamesY wrote:
In the store I worked in, customers were expected to bring everything that they needed, and to use gw products, especially paint and glue.

This is actually something you should clarify with your shop owner. I haven't been to a GW in years now (hurrah LGSs), but when I used to, they used to be pretty strict on the "no non-GW tools policy", and that extend to everything (clippers, glue, paints, etc.). Brushes were kind of a tricky one; most of them let that one slide.

Heh, heh, I wonder what they'd say over my 20-ish year old Citadel Pin Vise. Most of the early citadel stuff was just re-boxed stuff from other suppliers. "But I bought these at a GW 15 years ago <puppy-dog eyes>"

Probably just best to only paint at GW. I'd be too worried about someone bumping me while using a knife/drill in a GW store. An overpriced brush or two isn't so bad in the grand scheme of things, but you can get a full set of tools for what GW wants for just one of theirs.

Like I said earlier - GW tools are generally good quality products, overpriced but good quality. Heck I love their older scalpel that had a larger handle than most and use it still - whilst their old yellow handled clippers I got what 20ish years ago still work (ok they don't the spring broke and I had to get a new set, but they are still sharp enough to cut plastic easily - and metal).

I think the UK staff tend to be less "pushy" with regard to sales, but yeah they are all there to encourage you to buy GW stuff. It is their job so I don't begrudge them it.

Also I think most are genuine in when they offer advice, however asking a manager what to buy from 1 army of perhaps 50 or 70 armies over all the ranges they stock; they won't be giving you the online-meta-competitive advice on what to buy. They'll likely push you toward standard models - start collecting kits and also big stuff too. Sometimes though, it good solid advice when they encourage people to get some really awesome kits even if they might not be the "metas best choice" (the online competitive meta is not the be-all and end-all of purchase choices)

I should probably clarify, the manager wasn't talking about tools when he said I'd been inefficient with money. He was talking about number of models and army in general, suggesting I should have a grabbed a bigger box for about £85 because it had more models and a different army too.

I can appreciate that and I see what he was saying. I'm still satisfied with the direction I've taken things and I did joke about how "I'd made terrible decisions" which made him backpeddle a bit. He does not seem to be trying to push GW tools on me at all. I don't have an issue paying a few quid more to buy some models in his store to say thanks for the advice he's giving for free.

In my estimation the priority of theirs appears to be getting me into the store to engage with the community which is there. Getting me into a game or two to get familiar with the rules. Generally getting me social with the community, which I think is the right sort of step at this stage.

Back in the day lol maybe mid 90s, my local GW would always have a mega paint set open and free to use for the paint table, tools and pinning rod too.

lately I had been to my nearest GW in Wigan to buy a couple of pots I didnt have, the nice lady working there was setting up a table and tried to get me to play a game, I have a feeling that if I did play I would have been conned in buying a bit more than the 4 pots of paint

 Rybrook wrote:
Back in the day lol maybe mid 90s, my local GW would always have a mega paint set open and free to use for the paint table, tools and pinning rod too.

lately I had been to my nearest GW in Wigan to buy a couple of pots I didnt have, the nice lady working there was setting up a table and tried to get me to play a game, I have a feeling that if I did play I would have been conned in buying a bit more than the 4 pots of paint

In fairness in the 90s:
1) GW had far less competition on the market - heck PP wasn't even out - in the UK GW was pretty much all there was barring a few fringe games and historicals

2) The highstreet wasn't anywhere near as heavily taxed as it is now - although the recession of that era certainly hit many hard. But in general you could run a highstreet shop and profit and have 3 or 4 staff.

3) Online just wasn't around. It just wasn't there, there was mail order, but no competition between online and highstreet stores. If you wanted a GW miniature it was mail order or head to your local store and get it.

So I think a lot of stores, esp ones like GW who didn't have strong competition, just didn't have to be as "strong" at selling as they are today. Because back then if you were a gamer the knew you'd likely be getting your stuff from them. Meanwhile today they are competing with a lot of other games; online prices; internet discount prices from 3rd parties; fast home delivery (14 days delivery is a thing of the past); much higher rate and rents on highstreet stores.


That said the UK store staff I've encountered were never "hard" pressure sellers. They encourage, entice and do their best to get you to spend, but they are not twisting your arm hard.

I would say bring in everything yourself. That way if they don't have it or wont loan it out your not totally ill equipped for what your planning on doing.

Also don't be afraid to talk to the other guys around you, make some small talk, learn their humor and makes some jokes. I used to have a ton of friends at 2 different GW stores; but one of them was closed and the other downsized and we all moved on.

They should be encouraging painting not just trying to sell you things.

I paint at my local GW semi-regularly, I "pay" them for the space by buying models there rather than online. I use a variety of tools and paints, but don't flaunt non-gw stuff around or generally be a douchecanoe by recommending non-gw stuff.

I'd literally bring everything you would usually need as it's store dependant.

GW portsmouth for example, you just bring the models.
The guys there quite literally supply paint, brushes, pallets etc.
But to be fair, the manager there (Lee) is a great guy and one of the best GW staff I've met.
Best to take everything though until you know.

So I popped into the store yesterday. Took everything along. Was quiet and friendly enough. I did a little painting, wasn't really disturbed at all. Essentially I just joined in conversations here and there but was never really actively encouraged to. Manager had a look at a few of my models and suggested I'm insane for priming them grey. Thinks I should have been priming them green or black. Said I was a neat painter and also advised I use an extra paint to transition my edge highlights more.

Not really much else to say. They don't stock any Dark Angels stuff because it doesn't sell apparently. Guess I'll have to order if I wanted to buy anything from them. Still, pleasant people and I learned a little something to approach the feathery bits.

Chaos black by any chance? I prime everything grey. I'm not a fan of priming black. It gives you less chance to tone down to shadow.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry abaddon black

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Chaos black by any chance? I prime everything grey. I'm not a fan of priming black. It gives you less chance to tone down to shadow.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry abaddon black

Chaos Black is the black spray can paint. Abaddon Black is only available in paint pots.