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PAINTING·WHITE DWARF 509

Model of the Month: Norn Emissary

February 2025·p. 7

THE SHORT VERSION

Marcin Kamiński turns a hornet spotted near his beehives into the starting point for a Tyranid colour scheme: yellow and red carapace, complementary purple flesh and turquoise psychic details. His process begins with a black-to-grey zenithal undercoat, then combines thinned Contrast mixtures and drybrushed highlights to create controlled gradients without making the creature a literal insect copy.

AT THE PAINTING DESK

Paints in this article

Every named colour below is searchable across the archive.

Chaos BlackMechanicus Standard GreyGrey SeerLuxion PurpleContrast MediumLucius LilacScreaming SkullDrakenhof NightshadeImperial FistAverland SunsetBlood Angels RedBlack TemplarWhite ScarKroxigor ScalesAethermatic Blue

Only paints explicitly named in this feature are indexed.

EXPLORE RELATED TOPICS

Colour theory Layering & highlighting Painting techniques

Back to the original

Find this article in White Dwarf 509, p. 7.

This is an original summary. Refer to your magazine for the complete article, rules, images and painting steps.

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CommunityWD 509 · pp. 2–6

Planet Warhammer!

Readers discuss squeezing painting into the first months of parenthood, returning to the hobby after difficult years, and discovering unfamiliar Space Marine Chapters through store painting challenges. The gallery ranges from Ushoran and a Bad Moons Deff Dread to Mephiston and Holga Clovenhorn, while a news item celebrates the Tome Keepers’ appearance in Space Marine II.

Warhammer 40,000Age of Sigmar1 paint colour
February 2025Read summary
LoreWD 509 · pp. 8–11

Worlds of Warhammer: Fundamental Truths

Colin explains how recurring “anchoring points” make a vast fictional setting coherent. Colours, psychology, military doctrine and reasons for fighting establish recognisable factions, from Codex-minded Ultramarines and the sacrifice of the Sisters of Battle to Ork superstition and T’au coordination. Exceptions gain their force from that shared baseline: Cawl, the Lamenters and the Farsight Enclaves work because the audience understands what they diverge from.

Warhammer 40,000Space Marines
February 2025Read summary
TacticsWD 509 · pp. 54–57

Basic Training: First-round Secondary Missions

Stephen Box ranks the Pariah Nexus secondary missions by the difficulty of scoring them in the first battle round. He distinguishes positioning and actions that can be planned during deployment from kill objectives that depend heavily on the opponent, and explains how Scouts, Infiltrators, fast transports and Lone Operatives help achieve early points. The examples favour reliable partial scores over risky overextension, and show how one coherently spread unit can contribute to several objectives.

Warhammer 40,000
February 2025Read summary