Warhammer

Warhammer looks, from outside, like two separate hobbies stapled together: painting small plastic figures with absurd patience, and then rolling dice to make them fight. It genuinely is both, and most people who stick with it end up caring more about one half than the other, which is fine — you don't have to love both equally to enjoy either.

What it costs

Bare-minimum start: about $40 — an "Easy to Build" starter kit (~$20, snap-fit, no glue required) and a basic starter paint set (~$20). This is enough to paint one or two models and find out if the hobby side appeals to you before spending real money.

Practical setup: about $140. That's a Combat Patrol box (~$100) — a curated starter army sized for small games, which is the standard entry point Games Workshop itself points beginners toward — plus essential tools: a starter paint set (~$25), a basic brush (~$10), and plastic glue with clippers (~$5). This gets you an actual small army, painted and ready to play a first game, not just a single showcase model.

Optional later: Citadel Contrast paints, which speed up painting considerably for people more interested in playing than in detailed brushwork, additional army expansion boxes, and a hobby knife for cleaning up mold lines.

The main recurring cost is expanding your army once you're hooked, which is genuinely optional — a single Combat Patrol box is a complete, playable force on its own, not a sample of something you're obligated to keep buying into.

What to buy

A Combat Patrol box for your chosen faction — it's specifically designed as the cheapest way into a playable force, not a random assortment. A basic starter paint set covering the core colors most factions need. Plastic glue (for kits that aren't snap-fit) and a pair of clippers for removing pieces from their plastic sprues cleanly. A cheap detail brush; the fancy brushes are a later upgrade, not a starting requirement.

Skip buying a second army or expansion box before finishing your first one — an unpainted backlog is the single most common reason people quietly drop this hobby, and one fully painted small force beats two half-finished ones. You can also borrow paints and brushes at a local game store's hobby night before buying your own set, which many stores host specifically to get new painters started.

How to start

Start with a single Easy to Build model and a starter paint set. You don't need the full Combat Patrol box or the rulebook yet for this first step.

Assemble one model fully before painting anything, following the instructions rather than guessing at part orientation. Paint in thin layers rather than one thick coat — thick paint hides detail and looks worse, not better, which surprises most first-timers. Once you're comfortable painting, learn the core rules using the free introductory rules most factions offer online, and play a small practice game against a friend or at a local game store's beginner night before buying more models.

The most common beginner mistake is trying to paint an entire army before ever playing a game, which delays the actually fun part for weeks or months — painting a handful of models well enough to use, then playing, then coming back to paint more, keeps momentum better than an all-or-nothing approach. A second common mistake is gluing pieces together before painting hard-to-reach spots, which then become nearly impossible to paint cleanly — check which parts are easier to paint separately before final assembly.

Is it for you?

Warhammer suits people who like a hobby with two genuinely different modes — quiet, detailed solo painting, and a social, competitive tabletop game — and who don't mind that the entry cost is real money, not pocket change. It asks for patience with a model that looks worse mid-paint-job before it looks better, and comfort with an unfinished project sitting around for a while. If you want one clean, simple hobby, this is two hobbies in one box; if you want both a craft outlet and a reason to have friends over, it delivers both at once.