This is only me second year of the 40K hobby! I played(not really played, but painted, modeled and made scenery) the LotR SBG for 2-3 years before that after seeing an advertisement for it in the LotR RotK game for nintendo gamecube.
After a few years of that, I realized that the LotR SBG wasn't as supported as is should be, and that the 40K miniatures were much cooler and much more fun to assemble. So, I got a friend interested in 40K as well by talking to him about it on a Track and Field trip. He bought DoW and now we're both hooked.