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[URL="http://52weeksof40k.blogspot.com/2014/01/acquiring-models-for-second-army.html"]52 Weeks of 40K - Week 3[/URL]
If you've come to the decision on what your next army will be your biggest obstacle will be acquiring the models needed to field your new force. If you are a gamer first, I cannot stress enough that you should have an army list in mind before purchasing models. There are 2 main ways to acquire models, buy them new and buy them used. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but with knowing your options you can get every single model you need to field a force which will shake the pillars of the 41st Millenium!
Buying New
The main advantages of buying models new from Games Workshop or your FLGS is that you'll have a blank canvas to assemble the models with whatever options your specific needs require. Especially when a new Codex comes out with weapon options not available in older kits, you'll do well to buy the new kits with those options available. Then you've got full control on how the models are assembled, how well mold lines are cleaned, what options are used and most fun for me, how the models are posed. Some of the most fun I've had in the hobby aspect of miniature wargaming has been in using the poses of my models to show character not otherwise presented with the model. If you're buying new you owe it to yourself to experiment with Green Stuff and pinning to take your figures beyond the instructions. When I was working on my Chaos Space Marines last year I knew I was going to have Plague Marines with Power Fists. I had a specific pose in mind for how a particular Plague Marine Champion would be standing, but there was an unsightly gap left between the Power Fist and the torso of the model. I had bought some Obliterators as well as Plague Marines and paid close attention to how Games Workshop modeled the skin on the Obliterators. After taking a chunk of wet Green Stuff and filling the gap on the Plague Marine with it, I used a straight clay tool to create similar lines. The end result was a patch of diseased skin which allowed the form of the model to look complete and enhanced the overall presence of the model.
The main disadvantage of buying models new is the price. Many hobbyists experience sticker shock when they see how much a new kit will run. Personally, I look at prices for models as an investment in time. I look at how many hours the price of the model would require me to work and compare it to how much time it would take to construct and paint the model and how often the model would get fielded. If you're a hobbyist who enjoys assembling and painting, the amount of time used in those endeavors should go in the, "pro," category for purchasing the model. If you're more interested in playing a game with the model and plan to pay somebody else to paint it, you'll want to factor in the cost for painting with the cost of the model itself. If the model is a lynchpin in my army and I know I'll get many hours of play out of it, the purchase becomes all the easier. There are many who lament the cost of miniature wargaming, but I truly feel if you compare the amount of time you'll spend assembling, painting and gaming with the model, you may find the cost per minute of enjoyment is actually relatively minute. Compare it to the cost of viewing a 90 minute movie at your local theater, for instance, and you may find that $50 Space Marine kit is actually much less of a cost per minute. Still, nobody is made from money and you may find the cost of a new kit to be prohibitive to making the purchase for a variety of reasons. Which leads us to your next option in acquiring the models you want.
Buying Used
Cost is one of the biggest advantages for buying models used, both in time and money. If assembling models is not something you enjoy, finding a fully assembled Hive Tyrant on eBay can be a no-brainer for you, especially if you can get it for half the cost of buying the kit new. The value of searching eBay is even better for model parts. Say you want to kit-bash a model that has never been supplied by Games Workshop, like a Twin-linked Devourer for your Hive Tyrant. You would like to use pieces off a Tyrannofex to do it, but buying a full Tyrannofex kit new doesn't meet your cost analysis, chiefly since you aren't planning on fielding Tyrannofexes or really using the rest of the kit but the 2 pieces you're interested in. Bits sellers on eBay and across the web can be the most economical solution for you. These individuals and in some cases companies, open up model kits and sell pieces off the sprues separately. You may end up paying a premium for an individual piece of a kit, but if it's the only piece you need from that kit and it's a 1/6 of the cost of the kit itself, it just may be worth hitting, "buy it now." Alternatively, if you're looking to start a whole new army, purchasing somebody's used army off eBay can be a great savings in assembly time and monetary cost. If this is the case you find yourself in, I recommend carefully considering which models are in the auction. The best deals are those which have a variety of the units you're planning to field and in generous numbers. As always, a few minutes of price research can save you money. If you're looking to play Chaos Daemons with a majority of Khorne units, compare the number of models in the auction to what you actually plan to use. Then go to the Games Workshop website or Amazon.com and compare the cost of buying the models new to the overall cost of the auction. If there are models you don't plan on using in the auction, make a plan for what you'll do with those models you don't wish to field. There is an advantage to keeping those models as it allows you to vary your tactical options, but if you get a Great Unclean One you never plan to hit the tabletop with, you may want to see if there is anybody in your local community who could use it, then make a trade or outright sell the model to anybody interested. But there are also downsides to buying models used.
The biggest detriment I've found to buying used models has been getting models in a shoddy paint-scheme which you'll need to spend time undoing. It's not the end of the world if a used model arrives in colors which clash with the rest of your army. Dipping models in Simple Green for a few days and brushing off the paint can be quite easy, if the previous owner didn't coat the models with a sealant. Additionally, some gamers don't clean mold lines or perhaps poorly cut pieces off the sprue leaving the model with an obvious indicator of poor workmanship. Finally, used purchases can already be based in a manner which does not gel with the rest of your army. All these sorts of blemishes can take time to repair and should be factored into your assessment before purchase. If you will spend more time fixing a used model to your liking than you would spend assembling a new model, the initial monetary cost can quickly be offset with time and frustration. This is doubly so for models which were assembled in a manner so they cannot be easily disassembled. If you want to swap arms on a Monstrous Creature, for example, and the original owner used plastic glue to assemble the model, you may do severe damage to the model trying to pry off the bonded arms. But if you go into the purchase aware of these risks, you can very quickly assemble the necessary components to get your forces on the tabletop.
