The initial buy-in, especially at a Games Workshop/ Warhammer store is astronomical.
You'll need paintbrushes to start - here, try these, the most expensive paintbrushes you'll ever buy. And paints too, how about our mindboggling range of expensive paints?
When I took up mini painting again as an adult, with dirt-cheap acrylic paints and brushes, and achieved far better results than I ever did as a kid with the "proper" stuff, it was a real eye-opener.
That company has this amazing ability to suck the fun out of even the most interesting things. Their greed is honestly shocking, even Wizards of the Coast isn't that bad with Magic: The Gathering and no one thinks of MTG as having a fair or reasonable cost of entry.
My friend got himself a resin printer for much less than the cost of an army and started making and painting his own figurines. He's having a great time.
It's the money-men making the decisions now, instead of people who actually care about the product.
Mind you, this isn't sustainable - by shifting to the more "luxury" end of the hobby, and their refusal to embrace emerging technology, they're creating huge gaps in the market for exploitation.
They're on the verge of Nokia-ing themselves out of market dominance.
100%, I can't even imagine the pull GW would have if they entered the 3D printing space. They can't even get out of their own way to make money, they're idiots.