WHITE DWARF · MARCH 2018
Morathi and the Daughters of Khaine lead a blood-soaked issue with design interviews and a battle against Mannfred. Iron Warriors, studio painters, two new rules features and complete Morathi and T’au recipes provide further coverage. The supplied 148-page scan has uniform +2 pagination. Ads, store listings and the standard promotional White Dwarf Guide are omitted; paint-app links are not treated as recipes included in the scan.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
The editorial connects Morathi’s return to the sinister events of Malign Portents. It previews the T’au codex, painting guides, new Necromunda gang rules and a standalone Kharadron game, showing how the issue moves between the unfolding story and practical new ways to play.
Morathi and her changing followers introduce a month of new releases spanning the Mortal Realms and the far future. The overview connects the cult’s old blood rituals to its new monstrous units, while highlighting the T’au’s darker expansion history and the arrival of Rogal Dorn.
A compact tactical assessment contrasts the T’au’s powerful basic guns and mobile machinery with their weakness in close combat. Surrounding battlesuits can limit their ability to withdraw, but nearby supporting units make overwatch an important obstacle to charging them.
The first Daughters of Khaine battletome follows Morathi’s escape from Slaanesh and the recovery of aelven souls. Its preview introduces the army’s background, war covens, rules, painting material and reference cards, with contrasting dice representing the High Oracle and Shadow Queen.
Robin Cruddace explains the deception behind Morathi’s claimed communion with Khaine: the power of the cult’s slaughter flows to her. Shadow magic, prayers, escalating Blood Rites and a one-way transformation give that background mechanical expression, while the spare Avatar from an existing kit becomes a usable unit.
Rescued aelven souls are remade in Morathi’s serpentine image as the Scáthborn. The kit offers masked Blood Sisters with heartshard glaives or stalking archers with poison, heart trophies and an optional hunting serpent, distinguishing bodyguards from patient killers.
Winged Khinerai take the airborne part of Morathi’s appearance, descending with sickles and shields or throwing poisoned javelins. Tails anchor their energetic poses to ruined masonry, avoiding flying stands while conveying agility and their close relationship to the older Witch Aelves.
Two miniatures embody Morathi’s deceptive beauty and corrupted true form. The High Oracle’s ornamental wings and flowing hair conceal a huge winged serpent whose altered body reflects her imprisonment inside Slaanesh; both versions carry Heartrender and the surviving Heart of Khaine.
The new T’au codex develops the disaster of the Fourth Sphere and the beginning of the Fifth alongside the empire’s history and military organisation. Sept Tenets, experimental weapons, stratagems and reference cards accompany its background and model galleries.
Double-sided folding boards present either an overgrown city or a volcanic wasteland. Push-fit ruins, treasure objectives and three battleplans make a portable battlefield that can be assembled and packed away, with the plastic’s colour matched to a named paint for easy expansion.
Six ruined wall sections can be combined into numerous arrangements to expand Blasted Hallowheart or an existing table. Fallen masonry, grates and comet-marked treasure chests make the relatively small set useful as both scenery and objectives.
The Praetorian of Terra appears standing amid fortress rubble with his hands on Storm’s Teeth. Relatively restrained Auric Armour, the Voice of the Emperor bolter and Imperial symbols emphasise resolve, while a removable display base permits use in battles.
The Legion’s defensive reputation grows from a crusading practice of establishing fortresses and lasting rule after conquest. The account follows Dorn’s preparations for Terra, the bloody encounter with the Iron Warriors at Phall and his final duty recovering the Emperor from the Vengeful Spirit.
The turn-based computer adaptation pits Ultramarines against Word Bearers in a twenty-four-mission campaign with new stories by Rob Sanders. Tactical and first-person views, multiplayer and optional virtual reality turn Calth’s surface and underground arcologies into an unusually immersive setting.
Sanctus Reach adds Castellan Stein’s Cadians as a playable army with their own campaign against the Red Waaagh. Infantry, walkers, Scions and heavy armour offer a different approach from the original Space Wolves force, relying on numbers and firepower.
The mobile runner expands its targets to Ogres, Stonehorns and Gnoblars under Greasus Goldtooth. Its preview treats smashing and zapping these new enemies as another escalation in Ikit Claw’s reckless machine-building rivalry.
The Carcharodons lure approaching Tyranids towards Piety V to fight on chosen ground. That decision forces an aggressive, isolated Chapter to deal with local people, complicating a story of two implacable enemies.
Two paperback releases contrast Dante’s long life, from Baal’s rad-wastes to Chapter command, with Khârn’s refusal to submit to Abaddon. Their previews offer very different forms of martial devotion and individual independence.
The collection joins Genestealer Cults with its related short story. An Imperial sect conceals alien infiltration, making the reader’s knowledge of the cult’s nature a source of suspense while the human characters confront its spreading danger.
After Nagash’s defeat by Archaon, Tamra and the Rictus clan struggle against Nurgle’s invasion of Shyish. The mortal inhabitants’ veneration of death becomes a practical alliance with undead powers when their own survival is threatened.
Lieutenant Quiller holds a crew together inside a disabled Shadowsword while enemies gather outside. Conflicting personalities, tense dialogue and the sound of machinery make the confined vehicle as important as the wider battlefield.
A reading guide connects Reynolds’s character studies with his wider adventures in the Mortal Realms. Fulgrim and Fabius Bile offer difficult protagonists, while Spear of Shadows, Plague Garden and Skaven Pestilens explore unusual cities, divine domains and the motives of competing peoples.
Letters ask for more narrative links between collecting challenges, additional Warhammer Quest support and new opportunities for Inquisition games and character creation. The replies explain the team’s role and practical limits, while a returning Space Wolves player describes rebuilding his hobby after decades away.
The answer suggests that sigmarite colours may reflect the balance of magic at a Stormhost’s forging rather than a simple decision by Sigmar. The Anvils of the Heldenhammer illustrate this possibility through their dark creation and affinity with Shyish.
September 1992 previews fourth-edition Warhammer and demonstrates its rules before the box’s release. World Eaters, Night Goblins, Dwarf rune weapons, early Thanquol fiction and even Warhammer Records recall the variety of the magazine at a major transition.
The guide introduces the civil war and explains the roles of Forge World’s campaign and army-list books. Plastic troops offer a shared starting point for loyalists and traitors, with Legion upgrades, named commanders and older war machines giving collectors their chosen identity.
Hungry troggoth Giggith follows a familiar voice towards a dead Gargant at the swamp bottom. When the swamp drains into an immense chasm, a Fungoid Grot reveals that the voice has been his all along; promises of more corpses persuade her to let the current carry them into the dark.
The designers build the new Daughters of Khaine around Morathi’s dual identity: a glamorous oracle and a monstrous survivor of Slaanesh. Serpents, asymmetry, scorpion features and clawed wings connect her to older aelven designs while making the hidden corruption visible.
Artists contrast hopeful cities and diplomatic ceremonies with the disciplined violence of the T’au at war. Kroot kinship, caste imagery, propaganda-like early covers and later ambushes show how optimistic self-belief survives contact with a far more hostile galaxy.
Ben Johnson’s Hagg Nar cult confronts Dan Harden’s Legion of Night in Altar of War, where killing more units alters the Daughters’ special abilities. The report follows prayers, witchbrew, gravesites and Morathi’s deliberately delayed transformation through a succession of large combats.
Ben Greaves builds a huge Iron Warriors and Mechanicum collection through successive event deadlines, each encouraging a different force. A pre-Heresy crusade narrative permits both future loyalists and traitors, with shared metallic colours and different markings distinguishing the allied machines.
A brown spray foundation supports overbrushed metal, selective shading and bright drybrushing. Gold trim and black-and-yellow chevrons complete a compact method that Ben applies consistently across both Marines and Mechanicum units.
Ben Jefferson discusses theme, archetype and especially narrative as foundations of a great miniature. Apothecaries, tallymen, watchmen and working sky-vessels communicate their societies through visible activities; his nomination of Festus rewards the grotesquely caring cycle of patient, laboratory and renewed life embodied in one small scene.
The retrospective traces the feature from Jes Goodwin’s nomination of Brian Nelson’s Cadian Colonel in January 2009. Later revivals widen the pool of nominators and eventually invite readers to choose a model of the year, explaining how a personal design discussion became a recurring community tradition.
The third instalment asks each collector to add a Malign Portents Harbinger and an accompanying unit. The results expand allies and personal narratives as well as model counts, while Nick and Anthony’s first small battle supplies an abrupt lesson about the power of a Stonehorn.
Andy Keddie adds a Lord-Ordinator and Liberators, adapting his Witch Aelves’ turquoise and jade-like details to Stormcast armour. Introducing gold to both forces and using ruined-city bases makes the uneasy allies look like parts of one collection.
Jes Bickham’s Darkoath Warqueen brings plague reinforcements through ominous visions, with a Scrivener recording their work. Quick green recipes cover the Daemons while the Warqueen receives more careful red highlights, fitting her cleaner, more regal character.
Unavailable Yhetees push Nick Bayton towards more familiar Mournfang riders alongside his Fungoid Shaman. Separately painting mounts, saddles and riders with varied coloured sprays speeds the work and gives the beasts variety without breaking the army’s identity.
Anthony Saliba gives his Knight of Shrouds an ethereal retinue of spirits, a Banshee, a Wraith and Morghasts. Deliberate colour differences distinguish special characters and anticipate future Nagash and Arkhan models, while shared bone keeps the growing army connected.
A Start Collecting force from each army meets under a jointly selected set of Open War cards. Anthony’s Coven Throne charges a Stonehorn and is destroyed for very little return, leaving both players aware that a monster can dominate such a small game.
Kristian Simonsen turns a Maggoth into an upright Clan Moulder monster with a sculpted hunch, chimneys, machinery and an enslaved Skaven. Wet blending, textured skin and a consistent light direction support the glowing warpstone accents that transform the finished piece.
Angelo Di Chello makes the bull-centaur’s transition between two skin types both unnatural and physically convincing. Veins, translucent tones and glossy recesses suggest sweat, while cool gold, hot iron and green shadows enrich the armour without losing the model’s earthy mood.
Mally Anderson sets saturated flesh against a subdued graveyard, building smooth transitions with an airbrush, blending and glazes. Repeated tones on skin, trees, ground and water unite the scene even as bright magical effects and contrasting values establish its focal points.
The Warhammer World team stages a Dark Angels attack on Death Guard-held Khendrel IV, choosing speed and aggression rather than the usual defensive Marine scene. Corrupted workers, toxic vats, teleporting Deathwing and attacking aircraft create interacting stories throughout the enormous display.
Anja Wettergren describes moving from informal miniature painting and university linguistics into the studio team. Her preference for monsters, saturated colours and smooth blending links personal favourites with colleagues’ selections, showing how colour balance and texture make very different subjects readable.
A personal Araloth project exchanges the official summery colours for black clothing, hair and a falcon. Reflective green armour and warm purple accents imply a noble seen at twilight, with different textures separating similar colours.
Anja builds a red-to-blue transition into a small chequered cowl, reverses the light-and-dark fades on the legs and blends purple into yellow on the ribbons. The ambitious patterning deliberately pushes the miniature’s tiny surfaces while retaining coordinated colour.
Orange and turquoise form the main complementary colours on Anja’s favourite studio painting experience. Black scales and a white belly act as neutral support, allowing vivid colours to dominate without making every surface compete.
The Giant was Anja’s first box-cover miniature after only four months in the team. Its scale offered room to test the palette and composition, explaining why she often finds large models easier to develop than very small subjects.
A blue-grey Tzeentch creature receives dark legs and back with red hands blended into its arms. Mixing wet colours on the miniature suggests shifting magical flesh and guides the viewer’s eye smoothly around the sculpt.
Painting Archaon establishes a daunting definitive scheme that takes about four hundred hours. The central challenge is preserving the black-armoured rider’s importance behind three colourful monstrous heads, making balance as significant as individual detail.
Max Faleij praises the transition between warm flesh and cooler dark extremities. Bone draws attention to the hands and face, while a black skull with glowing eyes prevents the true head from disappearing into the surrounding skeletal mass.
Tom Winstone examines a flame glow painted across the whole figure rather than confined to one small area. Blue accessories contrast with the fire, yet still receive its orange reflections, combining warm-and-cool colour choices with convincing light.
Chris Innes connects pale, ghostly flesh and complex trouser camouflage to the character’s stealth. Bright mask lenses supply a focal point and a scratched blade suggests regular use without distracting from the face.
Max Faleij highlights warm yellow-green surfaces set against cool blue and purple. Subtle turquoise in the corrosion and exposed organs joins the pestilent cloud to the staff, creating a harmonious treatment of grotesque materials.
Chris Innes praises blue skin, turquoise fur and brown stripes on the newly imagined Gryph-chargers. The unusual natural palette complements the riders instead of overwhelming them, showing the importance of designing a mount and rider together.
John Blanche builds a rad-waste Scavvy gang around a grotesque matriarch, combining Poxwalkers, Escher arms and varied fantasy and science-fiction bodies. Sepia and brown washes with black worked into the wet surface unify the conversions, while artist inks, quick final colours and weathering powders complete their irradiated world.
Kharadron captains race Frigates and Ironclads towards an aether-gold claim in this standalone minigame. Players secretly divide twelve dice between priority, movement and combat, balancing speed against initiative and opportunities to disable rival vessels.
Background on Hive Secundus introduces a small mining cult spreading beneath Necromunda’s cities. The gang list uses an Adept, Acolytes, Aberrants and Neophytes, explaining how these immature cults differ from the established forces seen in larger wars.
The introduction explains reading stage photographs, choosing brushes and recognising different paint types before starting the individual recipes. Basecoating, layered highlights, washes, drybrushing, overbrushing and glazing are contrasted through practical advice about coverage and control.
Tom Moore paints Morathi in separate parts, beginning with gold and distinguishing the bright lining from the darker cloak through different highlight colours. Carefully layered hair, pale skin, glazed metal, green gems and a glossy heart contrast with a drybrushed stone base whose strokes follow the stair edges.
A black undercoat supports ochre armour, brown fatigues and blue-grey skin. The guide uses controlled recess washes to define panels without darkening entire surfaces, with thin layers protecting detail and a cross-reference supplying the gun’s metallic gyro recipe.
A white spray and thin grey basecoat establish clean armour before carefully placed brown recess shading. Dark machinery, red markings, gold gyros and bright lenses break up the pale panels, while separate heads and reusable painting supports simplify assembly and prevent stray colour.
Five studio painters select characters as personal projects, exploring different materials, conversions and levels of finish. The challenge uses recognisable leaders to make learning goals concrete, from blended Daemon skin and reflective black armour to marble and carefully separated gold trim.
Jay Goldfinch pushes his army’s red skin further with blended shadows and thin glazes, keeping armour separate for access. Earthy black, blue accents and leathery wings support the red without competing with the commander’s large areas of flesh.
Steve Bowerman brightens reds and yellows to balance a predominantly black uniform. Earthy trousers, grey leather and reflective boots make three different blacks, while painted gold cloth is distinguished from the sword’s metallic fittings.
Dan Hyams tackles the varied textures of Guilliman by painting the head and base separately and finishing blue armour before its gold trim. Gloss shade deepens the metal, a thin black boundary separates colours, and a simple pale-head recipe makes the face manageable.
James Gallagher converts Ixion Hale with a Custodian head and spear blade to match Valdor’s artwork. Layered gold contrasts with cool robes and a green marble base built by sponging, fine striations and a final gloss coat.
Natalie Slinn follows the famous illustration while changing the sword to a blue glow. Study of real armour informs reflections built from black through blue-grey mixtures to white points, with warmer ornament balancing the cold polished surfaces.
Reader submissions range from Space Marine walkers and leaders to Aeldari, Knights and Blood Bowl players. Photography advice explains how a light background, daylight illumination, an effective angle and adequate focusing distance reveal the painting clearly.
Senasuke blends blues into brilliant highlights across a Lord of Change and paints individual wing feathers from blue towards green. Ochre, yellow and white produce non-metallic jewellery, with many thin layers keeping the transitions controlled.
John Margiotta describes carefully controlled damage and grime influenced by John Blanche and Jakob Nielsen. Metal textures, classic Genestealer colours, micro-bead pustules and glossy tentacles give individual subjects different materials, while green Orruks demonstrate his preference for strong contrast.
Staff painting projects continue while the Firestorm campaign reaches its final battle. The team discusses the revised Hall of Fame, new Tau battlesuits and ongoing Daughters of Khaine and Beastclaw collections, illustrating the overlap between work, games and personal collecting.
Jonathan expands his Stormsurge collection with a Ke’lshan Crisis Team carrying paired flamers and missile pods. Yellow identifiers fit the chosen sept, while the equipment reflects plans for both arriving from a Manta and deterring charges.
New Witch Aelves and a Medusa continue Matt’s purple-skinned force, while Martyn contrasts warm Ogor flesh with icy weapons. A white basecoat and blue-green glazes make the weapons read as cold even within the army’s warmer overall palette.
Matt explains why the large Morathi’s interacting tail, dress and pillar make fully separate painting impractical. Painting the bottom of the pillar first and leaving the wings separate preserve access without forcing fragile or awkward assembly later.
Dan and Michael discuss how visible actions and recurring cycles give miniature designs deeper stories. Festus and the Apothecary encourage them to examine familiar models more closely and plan future conversions around a clear narrative.
Jonathan’s Kharadron and Dan’s Skaven fight the Firestorm campaign’s decisive objective battle. The ships suffer in close combat, but Thunderers hold a flank and steadily clear the rats; a failed final Stormfiend charge leaves Jonathan victorious and his sky-port master of the Flamescar Plateau.
A second Magmadroth receives a lighter, hotter scheme to distinguish the younger beast and its Runeson rider. Successive reds and oranges build towards a pale underside that suggests the creature is about to breathe fire.