After over 15 years of playing WH/WH40k I'm still a crappy painter. But I'm suprisingly good at modelling (in a rough and ready way). Do you know what got me good at modelling? GWs price structure.
I actually used to like the meta-game of working out what could be modelled easily into another troop type with a few simple conversions. Chaos Terminators ended up being normal space marines with big shoulder pads, spikes and some random weapons cobbled together. Two full squads for the price of a normal box. Chaos knights were Imperial knights with gubbins attached and the necessary amount of spikes. Chaos spawn were always free. Screamers ended up being made out of 40mm bases, melted "just so".
I used to love working out what I could get for my dollars out of something else. It had to have a purpose, it had to look cool, it was sort of "the game behind the game" for me. I actually think I was the first person that posted on Warseer how good BfSP was for Chaos Dwarves. A 1200-1400 point army for $80, and it was even slightly effective. It sort of led on to a bit of a CD revival, with people doing all kinds of stunning conversions out of the cheapest figures (per dollar) that you could buy. I secretly think that the posts based around that were the reason GW put CD on the back-burner indefinately. Yep, I'm a bastard....... They don't seem to realize how many BfSP sets that they sold due to people converting the hell out of them. They really should have just released an armybook and a modelling/conversion guide and be done with it. Could have earnt quite a bit of dosh selling figures from the rest of the range without having to sculpt a thing themselves.
To tell you the truth, I think I've only ever bought 2 WH warmachines in my life. One pump wagon and one spearchukka. They were only there to prove the legitimacy of my other 3-5 of them. Sprue based engines of death that had more character and looked cooler than anything GW could produce. BOs were heavily converted boyz, in 6th edition, which all of a sudden fitted in perfectly with 7th edition rules. Netters and fanatics were converted BfSP NGs. Not to mention the ninja goblins. Mork praise the ninja goblins, they were the most fun modelling project I ever did.
I guess GWs pricing policies have done some good things for the game. It's made us all into awesome modellers. As a 12yr old (with a job) the prices were too high. As a 25yr old (with a job, paying 20x what the kiddy job did, maybe more) they were still too high. They're too high now and I need more figures for a decent army. But damn did I get good with a craft knife, a lighter and some super-glue in the meantime.
And they shall know no proxies..........