Essential Warhammer 40k Community Resources for Players, Painters and Tournament Hobbyists

A clear, reliable shortlist of community resources can cut the learning curve for new and veteran Warhammer 40k hobbyists and keep tournament calendars and painting opportunities from slipping through the cracks. Use official channels for release dates and organised-play scheduling, and lean on independent coverage and forums for tactics, battle reports, and real-world event feedback.

For official news, hobby tutorials, and store event listings check Warhammer Community at warhammer-community.com. That site carries previews, Warhammer Open information, and step-by-step hobby articles useful for organising local events or planning an army build. For independent coverage and longer-form features consult Spikey Bits at spikeybits.com and Beasts of War / OnTableTop at beastsofwar.com and ontabletop.com. Those sites publish release roadmaps, calendar listings and painting features that often include event previews and follow-up reports.

For live discussion and crowd-sourced tactical development, DakkaDakka at dakkadakka.com and Reddit communities like /r/Warhammer40k, /r/40kLore and /r/WarhammerCompetitive remain the fastest places to see emerging list builds, battle reports, and hobby threads. Use these forums to test list ideas, find local opponents, and read paint log threads for specific units. Warhammer TV on YouTube provides official video tutorials, while popular independent hobby channels fill the niche for step-by-step brush techniques and niche conversion walkthroughs.

If painting competitions are your goal, follow Golden Demon events, Infernal Brush contests and The MiniCal listings for juried shows and online challenges. These competitions value consistent technique and neat basing, so treat a single tutorial series as your baseline and refine rather than chasing every new gimmick. For tournaments and event logistics use Best Coast Pairings at bestcoastpairings.com and Frontline Gaming event pages for tickets, pairings and tournament packs. Spikey Bits also maintains tournament guides and calendar entries that help coordinate travel and hotel planning.

Practical application matters. Combine Warhammer Community for timing and organised-play rules with community sites for meta analysis and local organisers for table policies. Verify event start times and ticket rules on the event host pages, and follow a single painting tutorial series until you can reproduce results reliably to avoid GAS and wasted time.

Centralising these links and habits reduces frustration, keeps you competitive at your local shop, and improves hobby workflow whether you are prepping for a Golden Demon entry or a 2000-point tournament. Expect the community to keep iterating on lists and techniques, so subscribe to one official feed and one independent channel, check pairing pages before events, and focus on steady, repeatable improvement.