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Hey everyone, New player from the States (Illinois) looking to get into 40k and I have some questions that will dictate the bulk of my purchases and need some veteran advice. I promise, I won't ask anything I haven't tried looking up already, my sincere apologies for any eye rolling that follows, help me get my gene seed implanted correctly <3.

The dollars add up without even discussing equipment like airbrushes, compressors, paints, etc and a lot of these questions really need folks with hands on experience speaking up. I doubt anyone here is a distributor for amazon and willing to hire people to leave tons of good/bad reviews! ALSO, VETERANS, please consider patience dealing with newbies, this hobby has a huge learning curve requiring research across multiple different skill sets and they all connect. Most critically, there's extremely few places to find all the info a new player needs in one place as so much is personal and requires experience based clarification.

Intro: I make enough to support getting into the game but like many people with more money than time, I'm struggling to gain the amount of knowledge needed to get into the game, especially since decisions have a permanence to them like what army I buy and assemble, or what equipment I buy. I might be wrong, but what I've read is that the US environment for 40k is a little different in that many people getting into Warhammer 40K here don't have established groups and might be starting out at local games workshop stores playing with randoms (that's what I'll likely be doing). The game involves a lot of stuff that isn't only fun, but seems useful to keeping a sharp mind (as far as recreation activities go!) and being able to personalize your entry into a global game is kinda cool (Dark Angels robes made of velvet looking material anyone?)

Goal: Assemble 3-4 separate armies so my buddies can play when they're over and to help boost initial interest (it's easier to get into something when you have access to start that interest), and also allow me some flexibility as Meta, balance, and structure changes, I may want to play a different army. I'll never chase the meta too hard (I hate DreadKnights enough I'll crawl over broken glass before I play Grey Knights with more than 1). I've already got a solid start on Tau, Eldar(waiting for new stuff now), and Space marines Armies, just choosing from amongst troops people used in tournaments, only pulling the trigger if I am SURE the troop will either aid my play style specifically, or be useful longterm for when balance changes/a friend's different play style. So I've got some outriders despite being against wheeled vehicles. I've been assembling some stuff to learn best construction practices for priming painting (cover that little chest plate eagles wings with a Bolter gun before painting to ensure a frustrating end to your life lol). So I'm learning and progressing.

The following questions are with regards to tournaments and staying both eligible for tournaments (and the games I'll most commonly play in the US LGS'), and being as respectful as possible (example, if you told me I could play Blood angels painted any color TECHNICALLY, I'd want to know if I'd be rubbing folks the wrong way or annoying veterans if they were painted in Salamanders colors or custom).

Questions;

1. When folks compete, are armies painted religiously according to their GW-listed color set? I'm aware of the concept of custom "chapters/subfactions/successor chapters" but some clarification would help with regards to what is tournament legal.
Example A, was Richard Siegler's Ad Mech army painted religiously according to the faction/subfaction (forge world Mars) he played at Vegas?

Would this be a requirement for the official tournament rulings, and to what degree does the community care? I always prefer to be less obnoxious than more obnoxious and even if most people don't care in relaxed games, I'd want to know if I was annoying pro players I might face for the first time, and most games will be with strangers at the LGS so I want to do right.
Or alternatively, is there another way you'd describe/explain the rules surrounding army colors?

2. Unless answered above, could I play a Space Marines Army painted in custom colors but then use Dark Angels Rules in a Tournament? If allowable, what restrictions or exceptions would apply? If allowable, would the tournament folk be peeved or is that standard/not unheard of?

Following are Equipment based Questions;

3. Has anyone used a tankless compressor for an airbrush (I have the Badger Patriot .5) and been satisfied enough to recommend one? These things seem to be really pricy, everyone who recommends anything else cheaper usually says the Master tanked one for between 70-120 dollars (also has the most reviews on amazon) however they're all made by different companies as an open source design and none of them will likely be responsible should there be an accident (my fear with a tanked compressor). I might be worrying too much, but for something I might only do rarely, but something that must look visually STUNNING, getting an Airbrush seemed to be a requirement for clean sharp lines. However........

4. If my concern is having sharp, clean detail, can you definitively say one method is best with regards to priming? (Can/airbrush/surface).
I will be PAINTING using a brush unless The Patriot converts me just through priming, but the initial priming is my main concern. I continue to watch tutorials with respect to paint types, methods. So I'm aware many answers with regards to paint involve watering down correctly, mixing, having products that synergize well, etc. This week I'll be priming my first figures (got three assault intercessors to experiment on) to test all three primers (these results can't be regarded well as I lack the experience to trust I'm using the products correctly, though I have and will always research best I can. Example, I understand humidity, temperature, and distance effect a spray can). The companies are different and I'll be doing a similar thing with regards to actual paint types, just for brush on paints as well. If there's any interest and I actually can do a good job, I'll post pics and details for anyone else getting started who might find it valuable.

Sorry for the freaking novel, any and all comments, critiques, advice, etc is welcome.

Welcome to dakka! As to your questions I suggest to post them on the relevant 40k/hobby subforums so you can get both more answers and get them quicker

welcome brother! I can't answer your questions on airbrushes because i don't use them, but your other two i can answer.

1. When folks compete, are armies painted religiously according to their GW-listed color set?

2. Unless answered above, could I play a Space Marines Army painted in custom colors but then use Dark Angels Rules in a Tournament? If allowable, what restrictions or exceptions would apply? If allowable, would the tournament folk be peeved or is that standard/not unheard of?

1) & 2) Nope. The hobby has always been very much of the "its your dudes, your paint job" mindset, and custom space marine chapters have been part of the game since the very start.

Its 100% fine to paint your guys whatever you want and call them dark angels successors, who use basically all the dark angles rules, with the exception of not getting the special named characters (ie Asmodai, etc). At the tournaments level, their is normally rules about paintjobs in the individual tournaments rules packs, but i cant comment on them much. People dont care too much as long as you are clear to them what the relevant rules are (ie, "this are my blood angels successors"). Be advised though, if your planning to run the actual chapter itself (ie, the actual blood angels, complete with Dante at the head), people generally except them to be painted in something close to the "offical" colour schemes (ie with red as the primary colour). people don't sweat the details like highlight or shoulder trim colours, though.


Also, bear in mind that tournament scene and the local gaming store scene are likely to be VERY different. the latter is usually much more relaxed and you will see things that wouldn't fly in a "proper" tournament happen, like someone proxying with spare models form another army, or unpainted plastic being deployed.

Welcome to Dakka, and more importantly to the hobby in general! I love the enthusiasm.

Some general advice first: don't burn yourself out. Start with one army and move onto the other after you have completed the core of it. Maybe get a starter 2nd army for your buddies to paint/play in the meantime. The guys who have 12 armies have been doing this for a long time. On top of that, and given your apparent enthusiasm for the hobby, you may be improving by leaps and bounds. Start small so you don't have multiple armies you want to entirely repaint or toss in the garbage.

Your questions.
1. I would say most people stick to the prescribed paint schemes. However tournaments don't care as long as you stick to one legion/warband/sept and don't try to game it. It is perfectly acceptable to use your own custom scheme and play it as whatever you want (my personal favorite).

2. DA are a bit special because they have many unique units now. As long as your models were WSIWYG I do not think anyone would have a problem. But like I said DA are a distinct army now so people might take issue with not having all the wings, heraldry, robes, etc.

3. Airbrush is not required in the slightest. It will speed things up considerably when you get the hang of it. I like to airbrush tanks and models with a lot of surface area but that's it. I cannot speak to tankless, but I have never been worried about my tiny little tank and motor. The thing that will fail if anything is the airbrush, arguably the most expensive part as well.

4. The painting technique matters far and above more than the priming, assuming you did it right. The main thing is to get a primer (can or airbrush is fine)— not a paint and not a paint + primer. Just primer. This way you don't lose any detail. After that you may want to airbrush on a thin paint layer to get the exact color you want, or just paint the majority of the model with a nice gradient like only an airbrush can do.

My sincere thanks for your time replying, much appreciation fellas. Great advice all around and my paint questions have been definitively answered along with supplying an answer to a question I hadn’t considered regarding characters from the original legions. Of course they can’t be (unless otherwise noted in lore I’m guessing) in a successor chapter/custom chapter. Duh.

I’ll follow up equipment questions in the relevant thread and keep researching reviews (used sparmax tc20000 tankless en route).

I’d heard that the US scene and in general, most relaxed games kinda follow suit from tournaments but I’m more looking to not spend the time on an army to find out I can’t compete with it because I overlooked a paint detail or something.

Thanks again everyone, helped me a ton

 Piglet Bro wrote:
My sincere thanks for your time replying, much appreciation fellas. Great advice all around and my paint questions have been definitively answered along with supplying an answer to a question I hadn’t considered regarding characters from the original legions. Of course they can’t be (unless otherwise noted in lore I’m guessing) in a successor chapter/custom chapter. Duh.

I’ll follow up equipment questions in the relevant thread and keep researching reviews (used sparmax tc20000 tankless en route).

I’d heard that the US scene and in general, most relaxed games kinda follow suit from tournaments but I’m more looking to not spend the time on an army to find out I can’t compete with it because I overlooked a paint detail or something.

Thanks again everyone, helped me a ton

no problems

just a side note, but dont consider paint jobs "one and done". its always possible to modify them later. ive gone back to old models and improved the paintjobs on them before.

also, causal games "following suit form tournaments" basically means "using the matched play rules" here, as opposed to crusade rules, so points costed armies, objectives and missions, etc.

and i would also echo the other commentors statement to concentrate on one army at a time for collection, at least until have a decent enough force. my recommandation would be about 1,000 points, enough to get a good feel for the army while not shelling out TOO much, as the balance at 500points is a little wonky, as the game is basically designed to run at 2,000 points, and at 1k and 500 points you sometimes get scaling issues with units being undercosted/overcosted for that game size.

Generally you want a tank on your air compressor.
Without a tank the airflow will "pulse" a bit, the tank ensures you have even pressure.
It's not the end of the world to be tankless, but if you're buying one I'd definitely get a tank, they're not much more.

There's a few pros and cons to priming methods.
- Brush takes longest and gives the least even coverage, but it doesn't require any ventilation.
- Spraycans provide fast even coverage, but are probably the most expensive and need the most ventilation. Outside is easy to get, but not so much in the winter.
- Airbrushes provide the same even coverage, but you need to own and faff around with an airbrush.

Personally, I own an airbrush but don't have the space to use it atm. Plus I can't be bothered with the faff unless I'm painting a lot at once.
So I spraycan prime and brush paint everything. Works absolutely fine.