Even if you’re relatively new to collecting Warhammer 40k as a hobby, Combat Patrols are a common first step for many a new collector (and even those of us who have collected for a while but want an easy way to start a new army!).
While most collectors will acquire Combat Patrols by purchasing them online or walking into a store and buying them in person, there is another way. A company called Hachette Partworks is currently running through a magazine series that covers a good handful of the current set of Combat Patrols.
These magazines come out weekly (though they are delivered once a month, so you actually get 4 magazines in one go) and come packed with building instructions, painting tips, lore, and mini-games to play. Over a series of magazines, you get to build up a full Combat Patrol.
The total cost will set you back by £39.96 a month if you have a standard subscription, or £47.96 if you sign up for the premium kits. To avoid crunching too many numbers at the start of this article, you get the most value pound-for-pound in the premium subscription for the amount of plastic you get, but there are a few other knickknacks you get delivered to you on top of the models themselves.
At this current stage, I have been subscribed to the magazine for the since August 2024 and as of writing in January 2025, I now have the complete Adeptus Astartes and Tyranids Combat Patrols – with a few extra models here and there.
What I want to do in this review is quickly outline what you’ll find in each magazine; what’s good and bad about it; and consider if it’s worth your time and money.
What comes with the Combat Patrol magazine?
As there are many different types of things that come with the magazine, let’s go through them in sections.
Models:
Arguably the largest selling point for the magazine are the models you get to collect with each delivery. These models are exactly what you would expect from Games Workshop, with sprues that are the same level of quality and detail that are in the box sets.
As well as Combat Patrols, you also get a few extra models like a Primaris Chaplin on a bike, helping expand the army list should you wish to develop the box sets into full armies.

One slight disappointment for those who like a bit of customisation is that these sprues build up only what is in the Combat Patrol – you’ll not have the option to add different types of weapons to certain squads with what is delivered. For example, the Termagants from the magazine all come armed with fleshborers, unlike when you buy a box set where they can be armed with different weapons.
That being said, with the premium kits there is more flexibility but we shall go into more depth about those later on in the article.
Paints:
The paint selection from the magazines is a mix of paints that are common in starter sets (skull whites and boltgun greys) and others specific to the Ultramarines and Tyranids. From a beginner’s perspective, this is great as it gives you all the paints you would need to dress these models up exactly as they appear in the magazine.
However, from the perspective of an experienced collector who may have a couple of painter starter sets under your belt, half the paints will probably already be in your collection. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, common colours like boltgun grey are often colours that get used up pretty quickly, and it’s always nice to have another pot on standby – but it’s not something to get super excited about. It is nice when there is a paint pot you don’t have (I was particularly happy with the burgundy paint pot as anything with a hint of purple is absolutely my bag), especially when it is a shade of a colour you like but maybe don’t already have.
Little Extras:
As well as models and paints, every few deliveries you are sent a couple of extras.
Most recently I was sent a Combat Patrol mug, which will sit pride and place in the cupboard next to an ever growing collection of drinking vessels any individual gathers over time. It’s an ok mug, nothing particularly special; fine for drinking or using as a pot of water when painting miniatures.
An extra that I was very happy to receive was a Combat Patrol binder. On the face of it, it’s not very exciting but after a few months of deliveries, you’ll find that the pile of magazines you get becomes a little clutter some. The binder is great for storing these away and even has spacers inside that allow you to separate the varying sections within the magazines (the magazines are printed in such a way that you can rip out the pages and have holes on the left-hand side that allow them to be placed in the binder neatly).
The binder looks fabulous on my bookshelf, and I appreciate that the designers chose to have an Ork now stare at me from across the room. My only issue with the binder is that it only fits in the first 20 issues of the magazine: meaning that I will have to invest in more binders if I want future deliveries to be stored in a similar manner.

Over the series, the magazine has come with a wide selection of paint brushes. Again, much like the paints, some of these will be brushes that are already in your collection and some of them may be new. I for one am one of those terrible hobbyists that will use the same type of brush for all jobs even if it is to my detriment. Due to my hubris, I have bodged the fine details of many a model, or spent much longer than needed painting larger models – but now that I have multiple different types of bushes, my model work is a lot better. Though I still swear by the all-for-one-brush for most of my painting sessions as breaking bad habits is hard!
The Premium Kits:
As with all things in the modern era, for an extra £2.00 per magazine, you can sign up for the premium kit. Once every 15 or so issues, you are sent a rather substantial box, with 2 sets of models that are not featured in a Combat Patrol but are nice additions to expand your collection.
For this leg of the magazine, the premium kit included a Hive Tyrant and a Brutalis Dreadnought.
Firstly, these models are absolutely gorgeous and unlike the Combat Patrol models, they come with the full set of sprues that allow you to build them however you want. I went for a Winged Hive Tyrant because I wanted a fast/melee-focused swarm but I could have opted to replace those wings with a ranged weapon if I preferred.

As a happy addition, while I have been writing this article, I’ve also received Librarian Titus in my most recent delivery. I double-checked the website to see if this was part of the Premium kit or if this was a late addition that has not been advertised, but I cannot seem to find an answer. He came with a mini-magazine outlining some of his backstory and it mentions that it’s the first of a series of Warhammer 40k characters that will come in some deliveries.
I have no idea if this was sent by mistake, but I’ll never say no to additional Warhammer at no extra cost!

What’s in the magazine?
Each magazine is separated into different sections which we shall look into below
Build and Paint:
This section of the magazine is only included in issues that come with models to build and paint. There’s nothing much to say about the building section as, if you have ever built miniatures yourself, you’ll already be very familiar with the layout of the pages here.
It provides step-by-step instructions on how to build the models, with a few handy tips for newer players who may be building for the first time. The only thing of note to mention here is that due to the size of the page that the magazine gets to work with, the illustrations are bigger than you would normally find in your typical building booklet which, as a man of a certain age who can sometimes struggle to see/read small print, I certainly found useful on occasion.
The painting pages are similar to the build section – handy for new players painting for the first time, but maybe something that more experienced players can gloss over. In each magazine that had a painting section, I made sure to read each page in detail as there are often useful lessons to learn from going over material designed for new players – even for experienced painters. The painting section however, is more or less exclusively catered towards the most basic of painting techniques, so don’t expect too much if you want to learn new tricks.
As the magazine series has gone on, these painting sections have gone into deeper detail in explaining good brush technique and layering, so maybe there is potential for the series to include more advanced painting skills as things progress.
Lore:
The lore pages within the magazines come in two different flavours. You have the standard background for each faction that helps contextualise the Combat Patrol you are building up; then you have short stories that put the background information into a narrative.
The background lore often centres around the units or models that are featured in the build/paint sections but can also veer off into other subjects surrounding the faction as a whole. Like most things in these magazines, these sections are great for new players who want to learn more about the 40k universe as a whole. Though I already know this lore, I am a sucker for reading about things I already know but worded differently – but I did find myself skipping through some pages from time to time (there are only so many times I can read about the founding of a Space Marine chapter).
What I did find that really shines about these lore sections are the short stories. Coming in at half a page, a full back or a whole double page feature, these narratives help break up the lore dumps found in each magazine and are worth reading from a pure entertainment perspective. Some stories are split up into multi-part series that span across multiple magazines which adds a fun cliff-hanger element if you’re the type of reader that likes to spend time thinking about what will happen next.
So far, these short stories have been my favourite feature in the magazine and I do hope they continue being as good as they have so far.

Mini-Missions:
In the back of most of the magazines, there will be a mini-mission that you can play using the models you have collected throughout the series. These missions are often centred around a particular mechanic or phase of the game in an effort to help teach new players how to play.
They also have a nice story element centred around the Space Marines and Tyranids and give reasons as to why and where they are fighting. Beginning as a simple one vs one between the Captain in Terminator Armour and the Winged Tyranid Prime, these scenarios quickly expanded to multi-unit engagements in later publications.
While these missions are fantastic for new players due to their simplicity, seasoned players will struggle to find a compelling experience playing them. There is hope that the missions are further expanded upon and become more complex with each new issue, as this has been the case throughout the current set of magazines. But there is no guarantee they’ll reach the level of depth that a full game of Warhammer 40k is known for.
Is it worth your time and money?
Before we discuss value, let’s do some math.
At the time of writing (January 18th 2025) here is a list of all the models that have been sent and how much it would cost if bought separately.
Tyranid Combat Patrol £100
Space Marine Combat Patrol £100
Brutalis Dreadnought £50
Hive Tyrant £40
Primaris Chaplain on bike £34
Parasite of Mortex £26
Chief Librarian Tigurius £28
Aeldari Farseer £20
Total: £398

Now let’s look at how much the Combat Patrol subscription has cost so far (with the additional cost of premium).
Five deliveries at £47.96 each: £239.80
First delivery was discounted and cost a total of £4.99
All told, the Combat Patrol magazines have cost £244.79 so far.
So, if we crunch the numbers, the magazines save you a grand total of £144.21 in comparison to buying the models separately! That’s a pretty hefty amount saved, especially when you take into consideration the additional binders, mugs, paints, etc. So purely from a value perspective, there is a lot to be praised here.
While you may not want to subscribe to the magazine during a cycle that covers a faction you’re not interested in, it is definitely worth it value-wise to wait for a faction that you like.
As for the magazine itself – I imagine many experienced collectors will enjoy flicking through the pages before storing them away. The vast majority of the subjects covered so far are very much geared towards newer players. This may change as things go forward, but at present, the magazine is very new player focused.
Overall, if you’re new to the hobby and strapped for cash, the Combat Patrol magazine series is definitely something I would recommend. The writing will help a lot with getting your head around the game and the painting guides cover all the basics to help get you started.
If you’ve been in the hobby a while however, it may be worth sticking around for the Combat Patrols you are interested in and then bowing out after you have received all the models you want.
If you wish to know more about what’s in each Combat Patrol and how to play on the tabletop with them, we have an article going through every single original 10th edition Combat Patrol!