A guide to Warhammer, without breaking the bank
It is a sad truth that collecting Warhammer can be a somewhat cost-intensive business. While cutting down on new kits and slaying your existing pile of shame is a noble aspiration, let's be honest: none of us are going to actually abstain from buying new additions to our collections this year.
What's a hobbyist to do?!
Fear not, cash-strapped hobby fans! I'm here to help with seven tips to a more frugal hobby lifestyle in 2025, without skimping on actually buying that sweet, sweet plastic.
1: Use third-party retailers
The first, and most important piece of advice - especuially to any newcomer to the Warhammer hobby - is that you don't have to buy from Games Workshop direct. It's lovely to pop in and buy from your friendly local Warhammer store on occasion, of course, but if you're looking to save money, then third party retailers can instead offer a significant discount for exactly the same products new in box. Typival savings can be between 10-20% against GW prices - so shop around! Some of the best sites to try include: Wayland Games, Element Games and Goblin Gaming.
If you’re lucky enough to have a friendly local third-party gaming store selling Warhammer nearby then it’s well worth the effort to pop in! Not only are they a good source of cheap miniatures, they're often the best place to find new opponents (and friends!) in the hobby.
2: Look out for Warhammer magazines
Monthly magazines have long been a staple of thrifty hobbying, reaching all the way back to the seminal Lord of the Rings Magazine produced by DeAngello way back in 2001-2003.*
These magazines, produced most recently in collaboration with GW by publishers Hachette, are a great resource in sourcing cheap Warhammer. An issue will typically cost £8-9 and will include whole units (or parts of one) making for a significant saving on list price. The current 40k run, titled Combat Patrol includes models from GW combat patrols with some bargains to be had: a friend of mine has created an entire terminator assault squad made of the terminator captain model from the first issue, which was originally available for £2.99...
Although usually sold out direct from Hachette, issues can be found online, on the shelves of most newsagents, or the likes of Forbidden Planet in the UK. If you sign up for the whole subscription (either to build a sizable, eclectic collection of your own or to sell most of the kits on) there are further savings to be had and access to reduced prices on centre-piece models.
If you miss issues, including those of previous iterations of the magazines (such as the popular Imperium series from a few years ago) you can often find them on sale on eBay, which likely still represents a major saving against buying kits in boxes. There are guides available online to what issues included which kits, which can be helpful in sourcing the particular models you are after.
This leads us nicely into...
3: Get digging on eBay
The world’s biggest auction site is an absolute treasure trove for pre-loved (and occasionally new) wardollies of all kinds. You might have to do some digging, but there are some incredible finds to be had on both new-on-sprue, grey plastic and painted models in both auctions and at set prices.
In particular, if you are looking for models from bundle boxes like combat patrol, vanguard or spearhead boxes, you are likely find them sold individually on eBay at a much lower cost than buying them in box online or via GW. One top tip I have is to make sure you search for common misspellings of unit names. I once picked up a retro Lileth Hesperax for a pittance because she was listed as Lelith Hasparex. Absolute bargain.
4: Get onto some sell/trade threads
Look, we’ve all made ill-advised hobby purchases that seemed like great ideas, only to languish in our piles of shame forevermore. As a result, there's a plethora of hobby facebook groups, whatsapp chats and discord channels dedicated to those looking to sell or trade parts of their collections they’ve never gotten round to (or which they’ve fallen out of love with), which can be a great place to pick up a bargain.
"There's a plethora of hobby facebook groups, whatsapp chats and discord channels dedicated to those looking to sell or trade parts of their collections they’ve never gotten round to."
If you're lucky, your local gaming group or shop may already have a trade/sell thread set up. Otherwise, try the Facebook Warhammer, 40k and Age of Sigmar pages, or the pages dedicated to particular factions you're interested in buying for.**
5: 3d prints and the wonderful world of resin
Any conversation about cheap miniatures in 2025 will always feature at least one person citing that their "3d printer goes brrrrrt". So let's address resin 3d printing as a cheap source of miniatures.
I’m not going to condone buying knock-off resin recasts from China – that’s IP theft, and pretty lousy – but nor am I going to pretend it doesn’t happen. What I would say instead is that there are some fantastic designers out there making some amazing alternatives to GW miniatures with their own unique flavour. If you're looking to save money and don't mind missing out on the building step of working with plastic kits in favour of resin, there are some really unique and eye-catching alternative models and armies available - often at a reduced cost against GW plastic.
In fact, I'm working on a compilation of some of my favourite third party sculptors to get you started and whet your appetite - featuring space Skaven - here. More on that soon...
Etsy is a great place to start for alternative resin sculpts. It’s a brilliant place to pick up everything from dice, to basing bits, to whole armies of models, to commission-painting services. There are some good-quality 3d printers there, too, so if you have your eye on some sweet STL files but don’t have the inclination, start-up costs or space to print at home, they might just be able to help in getting them out of the digital realm and onto the tabletop.
6: Get creative with kitbashing
If you, like me, find resin to be less your forte, then there are ways to make the most out of GW plastic by getting clever with kitbashing.
This goes hand in hand with purchasing second hand or off-sprue Making use of "bitz" sites - Bits and Kits and Bitzbox are my regular go-tos, although with a bit of luck you can find some gourmet bits on eBay too.
As an example, two units of Eightbound (six models) from Wayland games clocks in at £64. Instead, I bought one box of Khorne Wrathmongers for AOS for £32 (for five models) with the application of some khorne beserker back-packs (£3.50), leftover Eightbound weapons from my previous Exalted Eightbound units and an extra wrathmonger body (£4.50) I managed to make six Eightbound alternatives for £40 - saving £24. Lovely jubbly.***
7: Use Amazon and hobby stores for your hobby supplies
Lastly, lets take a step away from models and look at some alternative ways to source hobby supplies. GW paints, brushes and hobby materials can be expensive, and good alternatives can be sourced from hobby stores and on Amazon. Vallejo and Army Painter paints can be a cost-saving alternative for near GW-quality. For brushes, palettes, brush cleaner, glue and hobby tools, making use of Hobbycraft or Amazon will provide a significant saving against the GW store price. You can pick up a decent pack of acrylic paint brushes from Amazon, for eample - they won't be as exceptional as beautiful sable brushes from Artis Opus, sure, but they'll get the job done for most painters. Likewise, look at using make up brushes as a great replacement for expensive drybrushes.
The likes of Vallejo, Army Painter, Scale 75 and Green Stuff World also produce a range of hobby materials such as texture paint and basing materials at a huge reduction against GW prices. A tub of Vallejo Thick Mud Texture paint retails for £10.80 for 200ml; the GW equivalent, Stirland Mud, for £4.75 for only 24ml. That's a huge difference over the amount of paint needed to get whole armies based and ready for the table.
Hopefully, this guide has been useful in giving you some tips to keep your expenditure low but your pile of shame nice and high in 2025! If you have any other tips or tricks for hobbying that's light on the wallet, drop them down in the comments below.
Until next time,
Alex
* If you’re old enough to remember that true classic, how’s your back doing?
** This does, of course, involve having to stomach going on facebook in 2025. But if it’s for the wardollies, it might be worth the pain.
*** Remember: the best 40k models often start life as Age of Sigmar ones. You just have to get a little persuasive to get them to make the jump over to the 40k universe...
Comments