What's so Grimm Dark about Warhammer 40,000?

Warhammer 40,000 also known as Warhammer 40K, WH40K or simply 40K is a tabletop miniature wargame created by Rick Priestley in 1987 and produced by Games Workshop (GW). For me it is basically 3 aspects that make up the whole that is 40K w/c is the Lore (narrative, story or fluff), the Hobby (assembly, customization and painting), and lastly the Game (both the digital and non-digital games).

So first of lets talk about my most favorite aspect of this intellectual property (IP), the lore and below is a really quick like really quick tell tale on what WH40K is about.

As the short video explains the universe that is 40K is a futuristic dystopian scifi setting where the massive multi-galaxy reaching empire of mankind is besieged by varying enemies from all sides and from within as well. It is littered about stories of survival, war, adventure, conspiracies, politics & etc where the central theme is grim and gritty after all in this futuristic universe there is only war.

Now if you want more meat in your sandwich check out the other two links below.

What the Fluff – A Primer on the Warhammer 40K Universe from Geek & Sundry Vlogs
40k Explained, A basic introduction to the galaxy and factions from Arch Warhammer

There are many, many more videos, audio recordings in this ever expansive IP scattered all over the internet and if your interested in the books just visit The Black Library or check out your local bookstores, they might have some WH40K titles there.

For additional reading material checkout lexicanum.com and 1d4chan.org

Moving on lets talk about the Hobby part or the Scale Modelling aspect. Now what is “scale modelling” according to scalemodelguide.com:

“Scale modelling is the art and craft of creating scaled down realistic replicas of original subjects for display.”

That being said Games Workshop has produced some of the most gorgeous miniature figures out there in the market as well as a variety of acrylic paint colors and hobby tools from brushes to sculpting tools.

And those are just a sample of what you can find on the internet. There are tons more materials on different miniatures from single artistic pieces to an entire diorama between two or more armies fighting.

Checkout these amazing articles filled with photos form kotaku.com
An Enormous Gallery Of Warhammer 40K Miniatures Painted To Within An Inch Of Their Lives
Warhammer Miniatures Come to Life in These Amazing Photos

Checkout our guide to painting miniatures here.

A Complete Beginner’s Guide to Miniature Painting – Part 1: The Tools

Also check out WarhammerTV for their assembly and painting guides.

I must admit though that getting into the scale modelling hobby specifically WH40K Hobby may cost you up to 40k php… @_@

Lastly is the Gaming aspect of it. WH40K is (but not limited to) a tabletop miniature wargame. Those figures you worked tirelessly to assemble and paint, well you get to also play with it but it didn’t start out in such a grand manner of gaming where armies upon armies take center stage and clash upon each other, it started out as an rpg skirmish game. And then it grew to what it is now.

Here’s a sample game from miniwargaming.com

BUT it has also ventured forth into other gaming platforms as well from various Board Games to Card Games to Video Games. Here is one of the more well known WH40K video game Dawn of War.

You don’t necessarily have to get into all 3 aspects of this franchise after all getting into the scale modelling & wargaming aspect can cost you an arm and a leg (and maybe even you left nut) and will require a lot of patience BUT in terms of entertainment, there are numerous reading material out there as well as audio books and there is also a fan made fully animated film being made that looks breathe taking.