You don't have to be in the Warhammer 40k hobby very long to realize two things: the miniatures are very expensive compared to most other miniature wargames, and discount sale prices are few and far between. So Black Friday doesn't traditionally offer great deals on Warhammer 40k minis - but it's a golden opportunity to grab all the other stuff you need for your hobby, at rock bottom prices!
I will say, if you're in the US, and you're hunting for reasonably priced Warhammer 40k box sets and units for your armies, you should definitely check Miniature Market's current deals. They're not technically Black Friday discounts, but they're among the best US prices you'll find on new in box Warhammer kits.
And, believe it or not, it's worth looking at Ebay, especially for 'new on sprue' kits, as people are always selling off unwanted bits from larger sets. For UK folks, Wayland Games and Element Games are also excellent places to get kits cheaper than normal.
But today's mission is grabbing some bargain basement hobby kit that'll do the job admirably, for even cheaper than usual. Most of these deals are for Amazon US only, but our British friends will find similar discounts available. Also, some of these are Amazon Prime member deals, but in this late stage capitalist hellscape, who isn't an Amazon Prime member? OK, let's start with the obvious…
21 decent brushes for less than a dollar each
NicPro is a Hong Kong based art and craft supplies company, and it's a name you'll see a lot when searching Amazon for miniature brushes. I've bought a couple different sets of their synthetic brushes before - the detail ones, and the dome-bristled drybrushes - and they're more than good enough for the price.
Are the detail brushes as good as sable, and the drybrushes as good as my goat hair ones? Of course not. Will they serve you damn well in day to day use, at the princely sum of $19.99 for a full set of 16 detail brushes and 5 drybrushes? Yes. Yes they will.
200 paint mixer balls for $6.31
Acrylic miniature paints are a mixture of pigment (colored powder) and medium (gloop) and, given time, they start to separate, coagulate, and dry out. You can save yourself a LOT of money in paints by just buying some of these little metal balls, popping one or two in each pot, and shaking them thoroughly every time. It's been a lifesaver for me.
Does an electric paint pot vibrator work better? Yes, but a good one will cost you several times as much, take up space on your desk, use electricity, and confuse your significant other when they see the order confirmation email. Just get some balls - trust me, they work.
A pin vise for under ten bucks
If you've ever posted a freshly painted member of your personal Space Marine Chapter online for feedback, the chances are you've had the words "DRILL YOUR BARRELS!" digi-shouted at you by some rude stranger.
And, while nobody should ever rant in capital letters over painting miniatures, it is true that using a teeny tiny drill to bore a hole in each plastic gun barrel contributes a surprising amount to how cool your final minis can look.
I've used the official Citadel pin vises - two separate generations of the product, in fact. And I've used various dirt cheap Amazon ones like this. And I'm going to be honest: in my opinion, they are exactly the same, so I always recommend an Amazon cheapie, especially with a Black Friday discount.
A decent wet palette for just over $16
The other piece of advice new hobbyists always get yelled at them is: get yourself a wet palette. And yes, you should, because they're extremely helpful for keeping your mixed paints from drying out before you're done painting with them. They make painting easier, conserve paint, and save on the cleaning time required with a regular artist's palette.
But you don't need to spend the $30+ that most name brand articles cost. At its core, a wet palette is just a plastic tray, with some water soaked absorbent stuff in it, and some kind of semi-permeable paper laid over the top. You can even just use soaked kitchen paper in a plastic takeout container, with baking paper over top - I did for a long while.
A proper purpose made one is better, though. The water sponge will be more effective and durable, and less bumpy; the special paper they come with tends to be better; and the sealable plastic cases are more airtight, meaning the paints stay wetter for longer in between uses.
However, once again, I've used expensive ($40+) ones, and I've used budget Amazon products( like this $16 Black Friday squeaker from the amusingly named FUNKYLEE), and the difference in price tends not to justify the cost. This one has everything you need, plus (as usual with these) a built in plastic dry palette with lots of paint wells.
An electric rotary tool, for almost half off
OK, this is the token 'luxury' option. But, with a 41% Black Friday discount knocking it down from $94.99 to 56 bucks, it's most certainly a deal, as the $100 mark is already on the low end of prices I've seen for these things.
Why do you need a battery powered hand drill/sander for Warhammer? Well, 'need' is a strong word, but it'll absolutely help you level up the finish on your miniatures. For a start, if you get one of these, you'll never use a pin vise to drill barrels again - electricity gets it done in half the time.
Beyond that, though, these tools let you sand off mold lines from models far faster than manual scrapers, and using different drill and carving heads allows for much easier sculpting of battle damage, or even major reshaping of models for kitbashing and customization. If that's something you've been hoping to get into, well, this is the cheapest I've seen one of these tools go for on Amazon, so it seems like an opportunity to me.
That's my little rundown of cut price Black Friday hobby tools for your Warhammer projects. If you've found something else super useful AND super discounted that I missed, come join the free Wargamer Discord community, let me know, and I'll add it in!