WHITE DWARF · JUNE 2019
Vostarg lore and Contrast painting, Ghur modelling, Schemes of War and adventures within Blackstone Fortress.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Lyle Lowery takes over as permanent editor after the succession of guest contributors. He connects a childhood enthusiasm for White Dwarf to his new responsibility and asks readers to help shape its direction, while introducing the issue as a continuation of the recent range of studio-led hobby and gaming features.
Readers welcome the revived Index articles and share collecting ambitions, while Grombrindal answers another unusual question. A technical reply gives blue, green and orange plasma-coil recipes, explaining how brighter central colours and a unifying wash produce a glow without elaborate equipment.
Mark’s Nurgle collection shows how bright undercoats, thin layers and careful shading can make diseased models both vivid and richly detailed. He explains the appeal of the older Chaos books and stresses patient attention even on gaming pieces, with tutorials and diluted shading continuing to improve his work after decades of painting.
Phil distinguishes primordial gods from beings that ascended from mortal origins, focusing here on Chaos and Gorkamorka. Their nature, worshippers and affinities with particular realms show how cosmic forces drive stories while remaining recognisable through the ambitions and emotions of ordinary followers.
Bael-Grimnir seeks the certainty of battle amid uncertainty about his lodge’s future. A reckless confrontation with Bonesplitterz forces him to depend on help he had resisted, and the return to his family suggests that accepting change may be as necessary as preserving Vostarg tradition.
Ghur’s landscapes and animals offer colour and modelling ideas far beyond a single dusty palette. Hunter cultures, amber magic, patterned skins and snowbound or forest environments let almost any faction acquire a bestial regional identity, with examples explaining how details and bases make that connection visible.
Tobias imagines Ironjawz from arid deserts, combining drab metal with a restrained skin treatment. Pale green flesh shaded with a diluted green wash and warmed around the extremities makes the orruks look natural within their harsh surroundings while remaining quick to reproduce.
City of Secrets inspires Dan to make his Stormcast into grim Ghurish hunters. Extra cloaks and equipment join feral Space Wolf heads, turning familiar Retributors into more savage-looking warriors whose personal gear and setting reinforce the army’s identity.
Mark combines fungi from Mollog and the Dankhold kits with a cavern base carved from one piece of balsa wood. New Contrast paints quickly establish purple skin, warm ground and pale skulls, showing how a textured monster and an imaginative scenic setting can reward a direct painting method.
Emma Ayres surrounds a bright macaw-inspired Griffon with a pack of brown wolves to express an Amber Wizard’s power over beasts. Raising the mount on a carved foam rock keeps the animals from obscuring it, producing a coherent scenic group through a simple conversion and careful colour separation.
Maxime Pastourel gives a small Skirmish force a nautical identity through scavenged heads, equipment and an unusual Troggoth. A human who has earned acceptance paints himself green to fit in, extending the warband’s humour and character beyond a uniform faction roster.
An orruk cleaver is rebuilt into a sword to represent Ghur’s Rageblade. Extra skulls and a severed giant head with sculpted torn tissue make the weapon’s violent purpose explicit, turning an artefact choice into the focal point of the model.
Twelve skulls compare traditional bone shades, cool greys and stranger Contrast colours over the same pale undercoat. Heavy application gathers in the recesses and a protective varnish finishes the pieces, providing a quick way to vary the bones scattered across a Ghur battlefield.
A brown underlayer and PVA encourage cracked texture paint to split into pale, dusty plates. Dark shading and a light drybrush define the ground before snow and tufts give the base a little height and the appearance of a cold, dry plain.
Red cracking earth over brown creates a warmer variation on the arid base. A dark wash and orange drybrush pick out the broken surface, while small snow patches provide a striking environmental contrast within Ghur’s varied terrain.
Sam Pearson follows individual heroes across otherwise unrelated games by recording kills, deaths and narrative honours. Permanent loss and rewards for notable deeds create an ongoing story without a formal campaign, while name and title generators root his Khorne champions in the invented city of Kharkharos.
Vostarg pride and mercenary success conceal a history of exile, division and hard-won recovery. The lodge’s volcanic domains, royal traditions and ur-gold culture explain its present strength, while Bael-Grimnir’s ambition to recover the lost Vosforge links old shame to future war.
Bael-Grimnir’s advisers and champions balance experience, faith and aggressive ambition in service to the lodge. Their histories include dangerous shame and private doubts about corrupted ur-gold, showing how a seemingly united ruling circle carries concerns that its public image conceals.
Fjul-Grimnir’s surviving companions continue their hopeless-seeming effort to free Shadespire from Nagash. Their mutual familiarity makes them a formidable small force, while the account of addictive ur-gold power places their determination within the wider spiritual dangers facing Fyreslayer society.
A chronology connects Grimnir’s death and the lodge’s early disasters with later recovery, civil strife and wars alongside Sigmar’s forces. The Vostarg emerge as influential leaders among the lodges, but old losses remain unresolved even after successful alliances and renewed wealth.
Four battalions and a named Runefather profile represent the hierarchy and aggressive fighting style of Furios Peak. Coordinated commands, empowered priests and strong close combat translate the lodge’s traditions into army construction options, with points provided for matched-play use.
Fyreslayers attack an enemy fortress through Aqshian smoke and steam, choosing siege targets alongside the defenders before the assault. A reserve counterstroke complicates the attacker’s advance, so early aggression must secure enough strongpoints before the enemy’s riposte changes the battle.
James Perry compares warm and cool undercoats before using Contrast skin and orange hair to build a Battle Ready Fyreslayer. Further highlights develop flesh, metals and cloth, while cracking black ground over orange produces a lava base; the staged approach lets readers choose how far beyond the initial playable finish to continue.
Bright orange beneath cracking black texture creates the impression of lava breaking through solid rock. PVA beneath the texture increases the crack size, and a plain dark rim keeps the fiery effect contained beneath the finished warrior.
Layered yellow, orange and red Contrast paints establish glowing fins and a heated chest over a pale foundation. Brown beneath deep red scales reduces their saturation, while diluted black softens transitions around horns; protective varnish allows a final bone drybrush without disturbing the translucent layers.
Robin explains how a foundational army mechanic differs from optional detachment benefits, using Cult Ambush as a design case study. Hidden counters preserve the feel of a planet-wide uprising while giving the player a reliable plan and the opponent a meaningful uncertainty to solve, avoiding problems created by the older random system.
The collectors return with new troops, painted scenery and their first small battles. Raven Guard efficiently defeat Guard opponents while a cult Biophagus escapes slow Chaos Terminators, using Kill Team to put partially completed armies into action before the full forces are ready.
Sam reinforces his established cult and builds terrain that gives it a convincing home. New bikers, specialist characters and infantry support a flexible collection, while painted industrial containers become a practical setting for early skirmishes and future campaign games.
Sam shades red containers selectively so the panels remain bright, then adds drybrushed wear and industrial transfers. White barrel stripes and quickly painted black crates create variation, while corrosion and chipped edges make the whole terrain set look like supplies already in use.
James shifts his Black Legion towards Abaddon and a Terminator-heavy elite core, with a slower schedule than his fellow cult collector. He works on the centrepiece in sections rather than rushing, combining a future army plan with space to enjoy the demanding character paintwork.
Neutral grey highlights keep James’s Chaos armour monochrome beside ornate gold trim. Painting the gold first over a metallic spray before filling the black plates reduces the difficulty of the decorative armour and supports the force’s efficient overall method.
James Karch chooses a colder reflective black than the Black Legion scheme. A brown recess wash contrasts with blue-grey edges to give the armour depth, while red shoulder trim connects it to the warm bases and keeps the dark silhouette readable.
Mark’s Deathskulls grow around fast converted buggies and a low, aggressive roadster silhouette. Nail-art stencils produce clean patterns over blue armour, while altered guns, a moved Grot and a constructed ramp turn each vehicle into a personal modelling project.
James builds several Raven Guard Reiver units and a Phobos officer, adding bird-skull icons and cold lenses to personalise the force. He challenges the other collectors to a shared modelling task, while alternative dusty basing methods help support the army’s stark dark armour.
Taenara’s governor refuses to suspend Imperial obligations even when isolation makes supplying them dangerous or impossible. His councillors’ practical arguments become, in his mind, evidence of intolerable disloyalty, and his final order turns devotion into a tragedy for both his world and his own family.
Lyle’s Ultramarines walk into a Genestealer Cult ambush but use disciplined withdrawals and concentrated shooting to dismantle it. Exploding vehicles and aggressive cult reserves threaten even Calgar, yet the Marines progressively seize control and win 19–13 using the new Schemes of War objective system.
Players construct an objective deck and hold cards in hand before choosing which to put into play. New discard options and Stratagems offer more control over priorities, letting Maelstrom games reward a developing plan while retaining the uncertainty of drawing missions during battle.
Five datasheets bring newly released Slaanesh miniatures into Warhammer 40,000, including greater daemons, the paired Syll’Esske and the Contorted Epitome. Distinct combat, psychic and aura abilities support their roles, with updated points and compulsory named-character traits supplied for army building.
Sauron sends small companies to recover a lost Dwarven Ring thought to have passed from a dragon’s hoard towards the north. The campaign adapts the structure of Journey to the Blue Mountains for Evil factions, with alternatives for Good players and a story that will continue through later scenarios.
The company’s journey begins with an attack on a small Rohirrim settlement. Keeping the force unbroken while defeating the defenders earns a stronger result, and a reward table turns looted supplies and discoveries into resources for the next stage of the hunt.
Fleeing Rohirrim pursuit drives the company into a forest whose trees become its actual enemies. Fighters enter as the game develops and must escape through the far edge, with victory measured by how many survive the journey rather than by defeating a conventional opposing army.
The team tries Chaosbane’s four-player action while its developers explain recreating the Old World and distinguishing the heroes’ resource systems. Repeated defeats, changed character combinations and experiments with special abilities demonstrate the cooperative learning involved in its frantic fights.
Blackstone Fortress tiles become a new Kill Team battlefield with rules for portals, walls and ultra-close confines. Measurement, visibility and charging must follow the actual corridors, and an Overwatch option lets defenders respond during a charge, turning the unusual modular map into an active tactical constraint.
Two kill teams enter through the fortress portals and compete for key locations. End-of-game objective control determines victory, while a variable battle length prevents either commander from relying on a guaranteed last move in the cramped environment.
Kill teams search possible relic locations within the alien fortress until the true archeotech is uncovered. Holding the actual prize at the end wins the battle, combining exploration uncertainty with the difficulties of moving and protecting fighters through narrow tile-built passages.
An employer’s search for the Grayl Intulia requires explorers to exploit an Ambull’s strength rather than simply kill it. Stolen eggs become the means of drawing the creature through the fortress, but carrying them uses precious activation capacity and turns every stage into a dangerous escort problem.
The explorers leave the Ambull’s lair carrying stolen eggs while drones and Borewyrms complicate their retreat. The pursuing parent can reappear close to an egg carrier, so escape demands managing both the living lure and the route out of the chamber.
The Ambull clings to the escaping maglev and must be driven off through a coordinated burst of weapon actions. Failure causes mounting harm and can force a crash, with the presence of surviving eggs deciding whether the mission can continue.
A wrecked transport leaves the explorers farther from their destination and still hunted by the Ambull. Protecting eggs can mean accepting wounds during the crash, making the decision to preserve the lure directly affect the party’s ability to survive the longer route.
The explorers reach the apparently stable sealed chamber and confront patrolling hostiles before the next stage of the plan. Reinforcement and Ambull rules make clearing the area more involved than a standard room fight, and at least one surviving egg is needed to carry the expedition forward.
Dave weighs powerful combinations against the risk of drawing cards that do little alone. Versatile, immediate-impact, utility and disruptive pairings demonstrate different purposes, while his advice warns against building too much of a deck around an elaborate sequence that may never assemble at the right time.
Experienced coaches discuss why a fragile, unreliable team remains rewarding to play. Positioning, moving the ball, inducements and a willingness to throw teammates or foul creatively offer routes to unexpected success, with the panel treating adjusted expectations and memorable moments as central parts of the Halfling experience.
Aaron Dembski-Bowden discusses writing Space Marines through human viewpoints and giving successor Chapters identities beyond their gene-seed. The Emperor’s Spears gain cultural strengths and corresponding weaknesses rather than simply exceptional abilities, while isolation and scarce resources shape both the novel’s setting and its moral choices.
A human thrall watches a dying Emperor’s Spear fight on after wounds that should already have killed him. Morcant interprets the final act through the Chapter’s own traditions and demands secrecy, exposing a gap between an outsider’s observation and the meaning a warrior brotherhood gives to sacrifice.
The studio tour introduces Lyle’s miniatures, Mark Bedford’s converted cult gang and recent games. Personal painting habits and discussions of favourite novels connect these small projects to the stories and shared enthusiasm that keep established collections growing.
Matteo Gallo builds a wandering band descended from Shadespire’s Katophranes, using Namarti, Dark Rider and other aelven parts. Bright yellow cloth and purple sashes link the converted guards and strange leaders, making a small Skirmish collection feel like a travelling society rather than a conventional regiment.
Lyle tests Contrast paints on an Ur-Ghul while his own collection is still in transit. Zenithal preparation and softened transitions create blue-green flesh with purple hands quickly, while a separate Guardsman palette shows how the same approach can speed up a whole set of hostiles.
Erik Niemz returns to his grot army with a vividly yellow Loonshrine and a new Loonboss. Grey rocks stippled with two greens suggest moss without obscuring the sculpted stone, giving the scenery a strong identity alongside the revived collection.