It all started with about 1200s into total war: Warhammer 2, which got me into watching Total war: Warhammer streams, got me to start mixing warhammer lore into my D & D games, then I started playing Vermintide 2 and loved it, to listening to the Gotrek and Felix audio books. It would seem that I haved transformed into a bit of a Warhammer fancomrade. When I was a kid I was always into warhammer minis, but I never had the money to get enough to put together an army and ended up using them mostly as minis for when we switched from AD&D 2nd edition to the more mini focused 3rd edition, but now with my renewed interest in the lore and universe, I have been playing with the idea of getting into it a bit more seriously and putting an actual army together and playing. First, since I am more familiar with the fantasy universe, I was looking into Age of Sigmar, but I just wasn't quite happy with it. One of my favorite factions are Druchii and I wasn't really happy with the options for that. I have been looking now at 40k more and I am starting to settle in on the idea of Chaos Space Marines.
All this history aside, I have a few questions about what is involved in getting into this sport.
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What all would I need to get started? The rulebook and the relavent codex/ices? One of the starter sets?
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How many miniatures would I need to be able to play a reasonable battle? If I got the starter set how much would I need to add to that or would that be a reasonable way to start to learn the rules?
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What are good resources for learning to paint them nicely?
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Does anyone have any good tips on how to get started on DIY terrain? I think in the country side and was thinking about collecting moss and shit.
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Any other tips, tricks or pitfalls?
I don't know if anyone in the community even plays this game, but I thought I was throw it out there.
I will also say, if you feel like messing around, Warhammer is pretty playable on virtual tabletops. Its not quite the same as playing with mini's IRL, but despite having a physical army, I've played quite a few virtual games with my friends, just to try out new armies, other editions, or to use some of those stupid expensive giant mech models. I've used mostly Tabletop simulator for this, as there are pretty decent mods with models loaded in, but even something 2d like roll20 can work, though you have to rule-of-thumb terrain height.
Regardless, you'll need the core rulebook for the edition you want, plus the codex/armybook for the faction you want to play. Strongly recommend a army builder; I use Battlescribe, though there are other options. Besides the fact that the army builders make some army requirements clearer, I also really like the cheat sheet of unit stats they generate at the end, so you're not jumping around in your book. Also, the models are expensive, so you do want to start small. The starter sets are a pretty good value, though they usually have a small team from 2 different factions, so the best value is if you want both factions, or if you have a friend that'd be interesting in splitting it with you.
Let me know if you need any tips/advice about specifics, or where to find pdfs. I've played Warhammer Fantasy 7th ed the most, but I've messed around a lot of 40k, as well as some other editions and versions.
I use foundry vtt mostly. I have actually thought about doing this.