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Hi all,

My best friend used to LOVE Warhammer when he was aged 14 - 18 years, so from 2003 - 2007.
He's getting married soon and he's been based in the US for the past 4 years.

He recently mentioned he'd love to paint the models again (excuse my ignorance I don't know much about Warhammer) and get back into it.

Does anyone know what models would have been popular around 2003-2007 in the UK? And does anyone have any advice what to buy - I've seen a few starter kits online.

Many thanks in advance!

I'd ask him what army he used to play. Also, was he into Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Fantasy Battles? And don't feel bad about being ignorant. We all had to start the hobby from somewhere.

Thank you! The issue is I want to buy him Warhammer things as a wedding present (he is getting married in November in Atlanta) so I don't really want to ask him as he'll get suspicious. I guess I could ask him mum she might remember.
But just so I understand, between 2003 - 2007.. he must have played either Warhammer 40k or Warhammer Fantasy Battles ?

Here are some old catalogs:

http://www.solegends.com/citadel/catindex.htm

Anything look familiar?

There are a lot of different warhhamer games/minis/editions. Just knowing they were in the hobby doesn’t really narrow it down. Depending what armies he loved will shape what he would want. While some paints are generally useful, you need different colors to paint an ork vs. a space marine.

Without knowing any specifics, you could just go with a generic starter set with a few starter minis. Even if it’s not for the faction he played, it gets him some of the essentials and a test mini to help knock the rust off his skills.

If you get more specifics we could narrow down to something a little more personal.

If you can't get a good steer on what army he used to play, a reasonable option would be buying him some new 'Primaris' Space Marines.

Space marines are the most popular army in warhammer 40k, so he'll almost certainly be aware of them if he played 40k (as opposed to the fantasy game).
The range has also had a massive refresh, with more 'modern' models. (These are called 'Primaris' marines, for very complex in-game lore reasons).

If that doesn't sound interesting, then buying a mix of older models may be good.
I'd assume that older models are relatively cheap to get on Ebay.
Something like a "Rhino" tank from 40k and a model riding a dragon from fantasy would be fun to paint and not *too* expensive.

You may also want to consider buying paints, but that's beyond my advice.

Without getting any personal info about what he used to like, your safest bet is probably to buy one of the starter boxes for Warhammer 40,000. That will include some Space Marines (which are the poster boys and by far the most popular model range so statistically it's likely he liked them) and another opposing faction. Currently tyranids, which are buglike aliens akin to Alien or Starship Troopers. There are several starter boxes at different price levels.

I'd advise grabbing this box: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/warhammer-40000-starter-set-2023-eng

It's cheap for the amount of minis inside, has iconic SM unit (terminators+captain) in brand new sculpt, lots of new tyranids, guide book/rules, and it's a suitably big box to make appealing present. Just make sure it's the normal starter, not ultimate/introductory, these are much worse value. Also, you can buy it cheaper than this in independent stores, something to have in mind. Or you can look for really big Indomitus box in stores if you want more impressive gift, most of these sold out though and getting one would require some luck.

Alternatively, you can grab him combat patrol of army he likes, but these are smaller/more expensive boxes, and if you don't want suspicions, the above starter is pretty much the only way to go...