Spreading the 40K love

Hi guys, sorry its been a long time since my last post.  This last season has been a busy one especially for us hobbyists who in this time we need to put aside our hobby to help with the preparations to make the holidays the best ever.  My hobby has certainly suffered but no matter how busy I was with setting up the Christmas tree to hanging lights on our house, I always made a point to get some hobbying in no matter what.  We then come to the title of my post, sharing my love of 40K with others in particular people who have never played the game.  40K as it stands is a real complex game for people who have never played  a war game however for our hobby to expand and survive we as players need to bring in new people.  We as gamers should be responsible to teach and grow our community and whenever somebody new expresses interest, we as gamers should try to cultivate that interest.  The purpose of this post is to share my ideas on how to do this, not as a be all, end all guide but to share my experiences in trying to bring my love of the game to somebody new.  Over the course of my 40k "career", I have had numerous friends, family member, etc ask me what the heck is warhammer and why I'm I so passionate about it.   I explain its the lore, the armies, the painting the playing that I love and with each different person asking, I have tried to find a better way to explain the hobby without overwhelming my audience.  Recently I had 2 such people express interest in what I do, one person with little or no experience to gaming in general and the other with a lot of gaming experience but not war gaming experience.  The challenge was how do I share my love of Warhammer without overwhelming them and hopefully getting new converts to the game.  Below are some basic ideas on what I did to inspire this
1.  The use of painted models - Nothing brings out the wow factor in our hobby like painted models.  Its one of the reasons why I try to play with painted models all the time.  Painted models is what brings our hobby full circle, what really brings the game to life.  People interested in the game will really be drawn to painted armies playing on painted terrain more so then grey models or black painted ones. Anytime somebody asked me about the game, it was the painted models that drew their attention.  People might be intimated  by the idea of having to paint their entire army, this is where you bring up the idea of painting techniques, ways to paint models fast and easy.  I always tell those interested that I could show them how to paint models and will go out of my way to support them. 
2.  The Fluff -
      Depending on what you are trying to sell, a good backstory always makes a good selling point.  As it stands, 40K has one of the best back stories that any sci-fi fan can grow to enjoy.  I have seen people get into the game by having a 40K player recommend a book to them or by just talking up the back story.  Its definitely one of the reasons that brought me into the game.  Reading the fluff of a traitor legion called the Night Lords back in the old index astartes  articles got me into wanting to build my first Chaos army.  The different types of armies each with their own back story makes for a game that can  entice any sci-fan.
3.  Videos Games - Let me tell you a little bit about myself.  I was a gamer first before getting involved with 40K.  The guy carrying his big ol PC to his friends lan party, that was me.  Around 6-7 years ago game developer Relic dropped a little game called Dawn of War.  After reading some previews about the game and catching a segment on xplay, I just had to have this game.  I bought the game and just had a blast with it along with friends when low and behold as my wife and I were walking in our local mall I spotted something familiar standing outside a games workshop store.  It was a space marine statue, one of the guys from dawn of war the game I loved, I instantly dragged my wife into the store and the rest as they say is history.
In closing, as I stated at the beginning of this poat, its are responsibility of us gamers to grow our hobby.  Getting new people into the game will ensure not only that we will have new players to play against, but that our hobby will last for years and not grow stale. 
Hobby progress - i am currently working on a dark mechanicus wing for my chaos space marine army.  I am about 80% done with painting up my warpsmith, put together a forgefiend, a defiler and 2 heldrakes. I had an old dred that I will be using as a helbrute. I also startes revamping my old Tau army and have redone all 34 fire warriors, my 4 crisis suits, and my 2 commander models. I still need to get my vehicles done for them as well.