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.
Base Size Checker
Check round, oval and square miniature base sizes on screen and compare physical dimensions.
FREE TOOLArmy Name Generator
Generate original names for armies, squads, commanders, vehicles, ships and worlds.
FREE TOOLColour Scheme & Backdrop Matcher
Build a miniature palette and test how its colours separate against different backdrop styles.
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.
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.
Remove Mould Lines
Clean seams from armour, weapons and organic surfaces before primer makes them impossible to ignore.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Metallic Armour & Weapons
Steel and gold workflows, shading metallic paint and keeping reflective surfaces clean.
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.
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.
What Size Magnets Do You Need?
Practical disc sizes for infantry joints, larger models, bases and vehicle components.
N35 vs N52 Magnet Grades
What neodymium grades actually change and when paying for a stronger magnet makes sense.
Magnetise Miniature Bases
Fit magnets underneath bases for steel trays, transport and storage without polarity headaches.
Magnetise Arms & Weapons
Drilling, polarity, glue and a repeatable method for interchangeable miniature components.
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: This guide is published independently by Blubbercove Ltd/WarSplay. It is not affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by, authorised by or licensed by Games Workshop Limited. Warhammer 40,000 is a trade mark of Games Workshop Limited.