WHITE DWARF · OCTOBER 2018
Nightvault opens, freehand banners, tactical advice, Beasts of Chaos and the Gellerpox campaign.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Nightvault introduces spellcasting and fresh warbands to Underworlds, while Beasts of Chaos gather around new herdstones. Warhounds, additional Kill Teams and the Wake the Dead conflict on Vigilus broaden the releases, with novels, audio and licensed games adding further ways into the month’s stories.
The mixed Tzeentch warband combines sorcery with fighters whose roles differ markedly. Spellcasting and the ability to bring Horrors into the battle create options beyond a direct advance, encouraging players to exploit unusual positioning and supporting cards rather than treating the group as conventional infantry.
A much larger warband creates new opportunities to occupy space and interfere with the enemy. Supporting goblins, dangerous squigs and a shaman offer varied threats, but making the numbers count requires suitable movement and cards rather than expecting every fighter to act independently.
A short script extract marks Gotrek’s arrival in the Mortal Realms and his encounter with another duardin. Recognition of the legendary Slayer meets Gotrek’s blunt irreverence, establishing both his unlikely survival and the distance between the history others remember and the warrior now standing before them.
Questions about old creatures, unusual projects and the magazine’s bearded sage produce an especially unruly letters page. Readers’ models and practical replies preserve the mix of humour and shared hobby knowledge that accompanies the issue’s more formal painting and gaming features.
The retrospective looks back to an era of beastmen, the Eye of Terror campaign and substantial modelling articles. Earlier columns and armies provide a historical counterpart to the current Beasts of Chaos release, showing how old hobby ideas and familiar miniatures can acquire new contexts.
Small squads of specialists undertake missions that larger armies cannot accomplish. The guide explains choosing a faction, developing individual operatives and assembling a suitable killzone, giving a first team a narrative identity as well as a practical route into short skirmish games.
Tom Merrigan explains how Nagash’s necroquake opens the dungeons beneath Shadespire and brings magic into the game. Spell gambits, lethal hexes and new movement abilities expand tactical options, while compatible earlier cards and warbands preserve the usefulness of existing collections.
Angelo Di Chello’s third Slayer Sword comes from a carefully unified vision of Nurgle’s decay. Muted colours and a heavily expanded tree scene support the snail-riding gardener, with playful Nurglings and hanging remains extending the narrative without weakening the miniature’s consistent finish.
Cyan, magenta and ochre unite a Lord-Celestant and his Dracoth in an unusual but balanced palette. Non-metallic effects on the mount contrast with actual metallic trim, while a freehand cloak design and stippled fabric introduce further differences in texture.
Nine months of conversion and painting turn Gutrot Spume into an elaborate nautical character. More than seventy sculpted suckers strengthen the octopus imagery, while carefully arranged tentacles and wreckage on the base connect the model’s individual additions into one composition.
Trajann Valoris receives immaculate white Solar Watch armour instead of the usual gold. The change creates room for close attention to feathers, fur and other organic textures, with a traditional red cloak and restrained purple details preserving a regal focal point.
A relatively ordinary Poxwalker becomes an exercise in avoiding predictable Nurgle green. Washes, glazes, stippling and pigments build the corroded surfaces, with textured flesh and an unhealthy pallor proving that a humble rank-and-file model can sustain a competition-level finish.
Robin McLeod uses stippling to add fine texture to Typhus while retaining the model’s familiar identity. Non-metallic copper and silver receive controlled corrosion, and a matching tint on the Nurgling’s tongue repeats a small spot colour across the composition.
Lotann, a Runefather, Ragnar Blackmane and a Blood Angels Terminator demonstrate the range of highly regarded single-miniature entries. Their inclusion beside the trophy winners recognises distinctive fantasy and science-fiction characters without requiring an elaborate diorama.
Kevin Chin considers art as a glimpse into a world whose extreme events are ordinary to its inhabitants. Character, scale and scenery combine into a theatrical whole, culminating in John Blanche’s Black Templars cover, where medieval devotion, immense architecture and futuristic weapons establish an unsettling crusade.
Simon Adams creates a Crimson Fists banner from a dark foundation and measured reference points. Symmetrical leaves, a reflective iron halo and a clearly proportioned fist develop in successive stages, with the final lettering and cloth shading making the freehand decoration belong to its folded surface.
Martin Morrin and Rhuairidh James emphasise victory conditions, deployment and purposeful unit roles. Advice on combat order, protecting essential heroes and avoiding unfavourable attrition explains how a force’s movement and support relationships matter more than simply sending its strongest model toward the nearest enemy.
Rhuairidh James’s Gavespawn warherd attacks Martin Morrin’s Sacrosanct host in a matched-play contest. Fast Centigors, summoned monsters and repeated transformations into Spawn cause early havoc, but the Stormcast’s magic and decisive Dracoline charge secure the field and a nine-to-five victory.
Robin Cruddace’s Starstriders fight Stu Black’s Gellerpox through four linked Rogue Trader missions. Doors, vulnerable support characters and carefully timed tactics repeatedly change the balance, but Elucia Vhane survives the final stand with one wound and her crew wins the campaign three games to one.
The guide explains Titan classes, crews, sacred technology and the legion traditions that make each god-engine more than a weapon. The Mechanicum’s alliance with the Emperor and the Heresy’s betrayals establish their history, while identification features, armament and layered void shields show how these immense machines fight.
Jay Clare compares narrative, open and matched play through their different objectives and preparations. Film scenes such as Amon Hen invite dramatic recreation and altered outcomes, while point-based battles, doubles games and organised events offer other ways to enjoy the same collection.
Storm Stainton’s rebel Gretchin turn familiar Ork units into a complete army of little greenskins. A turret-riding Big Mek, speeding tanks, rokkit troops and a heavily crewed Squiggoth combine humour with careful conversions, giving the force a narrative identity that matters more to its owner than winning every game.
James Littler’s team pushes modular Sector Imperialis scenery into a thirty-five-inch cathedral. A tiered footprint, monumental front towers and ruined rear establish the building’s grandeur, while exposed interiors, accessible floors and open ground preserve room for practical battles inside and around it.
Sprayed foundations distinguish cool exterior stone from a warmer interior. Drybrushing reveals the architectural detail before airbrushed brown grime settles around lower edges, bolts and recesses, connecting the clean grey surfaces to the accumulated dirt of a vast working battlefield.
Definitions of undercoating, brushwork and successive painting stages introduce the Warhound guide. The reference explains how drybrushing and glazes behave differently from ordinary layers, giving newer painters the vocabulary needed to follow a recipe designed for a much smaller scale.
Giuseppe Chiafele paints a Legio Mortis Warhound in separate assemblies, using different spray foundations to simplify red, black and white armour. Fine black lining separates gold from coloured plates, while bright lenses, a gloss-shaded skeleton and scorched barrels give the small engine a strong readable finish.
Layered insulation foam becomes a rocky hill large enough to support a Herdstone. Carved ledges, household filler, sand and captured trophies build its rough texture, while separately painted bracken adds vegetation and ties the new faction scenery into a more complete battlefield.
Readers present Underworlds warbands, armoured heroes and characterful individual figures. Their different palettes and settings illustrate how personal painting choices can transform familiar subjects, with clear photography remaining essential to showing those details in the magazine.
Stefan Sieniawski explores object-source lighting through a Runelord standing near flames. Warm glazes tint metallic armour, while successive reds and oranges on the surrounding architecture make the same light source affect both character and scenery.
Wolverhampton’s store competition attracts eighty-six entries across different categories. Narrative scenes, a Blanchitsu-inspired Rogue Trader retinue and a carefully painted overall winner show how a local event can celebrate both imaginative construction and polished individual miniatures.
The team explores Vigilus’s expanding conflict, discusses the appeal of narrative games and tries out the Nightvault. Michael’s farewell commander and newly completed tanks accompany those conversations, showing how deadlines, new rules and personal challenges keep the studio’s collections moving.
Dan’s Thorns of the Briar Queen push aggressively into Jonathan’s territory while the Cursebreakers counterattack. Ghostly movement and inspiration create dangerous moments, but the Stormcasts survive the pressure and dominate the closing board, demonstrating how unfamiliar objectives and clever card combinations shape the game.
A friend’s challenge prompts Dan to paint two Leman Russ tanks and a Baneblade over a few weekends. Broad drybrushed armour colours make the expansion achievable, turning a looming game into the motivation to bring his long-planned armoured company closer to completion.