Go by official prices and you'll get the wrong idea about how expensive it is to get into Warhammer. None of the armies being brought out weekly at my local wargame club cost full price. Between third-party retailers, mail-order discounters, Facebook marketplace, secondhand stores, bootleg Chinese recasts, 3d-printing, and going halfsies on a boxed set with your mate who wants the space marines when you just want the tyranids, it costs less than you think to put together an army of little guys. You can even make them yourself.
This is what the Poorhammer community is dedicated to, and it's an inspiring example of DIY ingenuity. One of my favorite examples is an ork submarine made out of cardboard and rubbish, with a Pringles can as a significant part of its structure. Orks are a gift to the Poorhammer player, with their junkyard aesthetic perfectly suited to modeling things out of leftovers, as is the melty and mutated vibe of a Chaos army.
