Warhammer 40,000 Hobby Guides & Free Tools

Building and painting a Warhammer 40,000 army involves dozens of small decisions: base sizes, colour schemes, primer, highlights, magnets and everything in between. This page brings our independent hobby tools and practical guides into one place so you can jump straight to the part of the project you are working on.

Start Here

Painting your first model? Start with the beginner painting guide. Unsure about the physical model? Check the base size. Planning a whole force? Work out the colour scheme before committing to dozens of miniatures.

Free Warhammer 40,000 Hobby Tools

These tools run directly in the browser and do not require an account.

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Starting and Preparing Your Miniatures

Paint Your First Miniature

A complete beginner workflow from preparation and primer through colour, shading, highlights and basing.

Choose an Army Colour Scheme

Plan dominant colours, accents, value, saturation and metallics before painting the whole army.

Name Your Army

Naming styles by faction, with original example names for chapters, regiments, warbands and dynasties.

Warhammer 40,000 Base Sizes

How base dimensions work, how to measure them and what to check before rebasing older miniatures.

How to Base Miniatures

Beginner basing materials, practical schemes, rim colours and methods for keeping a whole army consistent.

Rebase Miniatures

Move models from old bases to new sizes, with or without adapters, and match the rest of your army.

Snow Bases

Snow materials compared, natural drifts, slush and ice, and how to stop white snow yellowing.

Desert Bases

Sand and crackle textures, colour recipes for sand, red rock and salt flats, and avoiding flat beige.

Urban Rubble Bases

Cork, plasticard and spare bits built into ruined city bases, with concrete and brick colour recipes.

Remove Mould Lines

Clean seams from armour, weapons and organic surfaces before primer makes them impossible to ignore.

Strip Paint

Safely strip old paint from plastic, resin and metal miniatures and start again.

Glue Miniatures

Plastic glue versus superglue, clean joints, clear parts and fixing mistakes.

Fill Gaps

Plastic glue, putty and brush-on filler matched to the gap, plus curing and sanding before primer.

Green Stuff Sculpting Basics

Mixing two-part putty, stopping it sticking and sculpting simple fur, cloth, cables and sandbags.

Pin Miniatures

Drill and rod sizes, lining up holes and pinning heavy metal and resin parts so they stay put.

Painting Guides

These guides are organised roughly in the order the techniques appear during a project. You do not need to master every method at once.

Choosing Brushes

The brush sizes that matter, when natural hair is worth it and how to keep a sharp point.

Wet Palettes

Build a wet palette for pennies and keep paint workable for hours.

Airbrushing for Beginners

Kit, pressure, thinning and cleaning for your first airbrush sessions.

Priming Miniatures Properly

Black, grey and white primer, thin coats and how to avoid rough or grainy surfaces.

How to Thin Paints

Learn paint consistency by behaviour rather than relying on a single water-to-paint ratio.

One-Coat Paints

Translucent paints that colour and shade in one layer, and how to stop them looking blotchy.

Washes & Shading

All-over versus recess washing, choosing a wash colour and avoiding tide marks.

Drybrushing

How much paint to remove, how to build highlights and where drybrushing works best.

Edge Highlighting

Brush control, highlight colour choice and deciding which edges actually need emphasis.

Layering

Paint consistency, how many layers and shrinking each step for smooth, readable volume.

Glazing

Glaze medium ratios, brush loading and using thin coats to smooth transitions and shift colour.

Wet Blending

Slow-dry medium, the two-brush method and seamless gradients on cloaks, banners and wings.

Painting Faces

A practical face workflow focused on value, contrast, skin tones and readable features.

Painting Black Armour

Build black armour through controlled highlights without accidentally turning the whole model grey.

Painting White Armour

Use off-whites and pale greys to create depth while keeping the finished armour visually white.

Painting Yellow Armour

Smooth, bright yellow armour without patchy coverage or green-tinged shading.

Painting Red Armour

Rich red armour that doesn't go flat, pink or patchy.

Painting Blue Armour

Clean, rich blue armour with highlights that don't turn chalky.

Painting Green Armour

Dark, bright and military greens, highlighted with yellow or bone instead of white.

Metallic Armour & Weapons

Steel and gold workflows, shading metallic paint and keeping reflective surfaces clean.

Lenses & Gems

The gradient and reflection trick that makes lenses and gems look like glass.

Glow Effects & OSL

Glowing weapons and eyes, plus light spilling convincingly onto armour.

Paint Leather

Brown and black leather recipes, stippled texture and believable scuffs on belts, pouches and boots.

Paint Wood

The three-brown grain method for planks, knots, rifle stocks, crates and weathered timber.

Paint Cloth & Robes

Shading folds, highlighting ridges and painting wool, silk and velvet convincingly.

Battle Damage & Weathering

Chips, scratches, rust and mud, applied convincingly without overdoing it.

Fix Painting Mistakes

Repair spills, pooled washes, chalky paint, rough highlights and other common problems.

Batch Paint an Army

A production-line workflow for finishing squads efficiently without turning the hobby into a chore.

How Long Does an Army Take?

Realistic painting times per model and per army, plus ways to speed up.

How to Varnish Miniatures

Spray versus brush-on varnish, gloss then matt, coats, drying and weather.

Gloss, Satin or Matt Varnish?

Which finish suits armour, cloth, metal, gems and wet effects, and how to mix them.

Fix Frosted Varnish

Why varnish turns cloudy or gritty, and the fixes to try before stripping.

Painting Rust

Stippled layers, rust washes and pigment paste, placed where corrosion really forms.

Mud & Dirt

Dust, caked mud, toothbrush splatter and wet mud matched to your bases.

Weathering Pigments

Applying and fixing pigment powders for dust, soot and grime without a chalky mess.

Applying Transfers

Gloss prep, setting and softening solutions, and sealing so waterslide transfers look painted on.

Transfers on Curved Surfaces

Softener, relief cuts and placement tricks for shoulder pads, domes and ribbed armour.

Fix Silvering Transfers

Rescue silvered, torn, lifting or crooked transfers, or remove them cleanly and start again.

Magnetising Warhammer 40,000 Miniatures

Magnetising can make weapon options, transport and storage far more flexible, but the correct magnet size and polarity matter more than brute strength.

How to Use This Library

There is no correct order beyond the basics. Use the base and colour tools while planning, the preparation guides before primer, the painting guides when you hit a specific technique, and the magnet guides only where interchangeable parts or magnetic transport genuinely improve the model.

The aim is not to turn a hobby project into a checklist. It is to have a reliable answer available when one particular problem is holding up the next model.

Independent resource published by Blubbercove Ltd. This page is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, authorised by or licensed by Games Workshop Limited.

Warhammer 40,000® and Space Marine® are registered trademarks of Games Workshop Limited. All related logos, names and images are either ® or ™ of Games Workshop Limited.