WHITE DWARF · NOVEMBER 2021
Speed Freeks on Abundantia, Cities of Sigmar in Ulgu, corrupted Titans and the Fellowship’s journey.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
Readers share armies, terrain and hobby projects, with questions about Chapter heraldry and miniature painting. A spotlight on Jimbo Warth’s Sylvaneth connects the trees of California to the Mortal Realms, while an Éomer model demonstrates the value of carefully shaded leather and restrained highlights.
Francesco Olivieri builds rich leather tones from a dark reddish foundation, using successive highlights to define straps and equipment. The treatment keeps the many small details legible without letting them overwhelm the rider, giving Éomer a weathered appearance appropriate to a commander campaigning in the field.
Jimbo Warth draws on Californian redwood forests for his Sylvaneth, combining warm bark with pale, weathered highlights. Real twigs, leaves and other natural materials make the bases part of the forest, while repeated orange and sepia glazes bring the varied tree-creatures into one coherent collection.
Phil Kelly answers questions about everyday life, currency, calendars and the working of realmstone. These practical details connect trading and government to the realms’ magical nature, while discussion of Slaanesh’s imprisonment shows how seemingly contradictory stories can coexist within the setting.
Robin Cruddace explains how keywords organise factions, units and the relationships between rules. Examples show how the system reduces repeated wording and makes abilities easier to target, while the CORE designation illustrates the design decisions behind distinctions that might initially look arbitrary.
Abundantia’s vast agricultural industry becomes a battleground inside the cordon surrounding the Octarius war. Morbad Zagblasta’s speed-obsessed Orks chase fuel, loot and violence across the world, while contamination and Genestealer activity turn the planet’s food production and transport network into further sources of danger.
Killgrin and his fellow Speed Freeks attack a colossal harvesting engine, competing for speed and destruction as much as military success. Imperial fire and falling wreckage kill riders on both sides, but survival only gives Killgrin another opportunity to claim an unlikely trophy and advertise his own prowess.
Abundantia’s dangerous roads become a rolling battlefield where terrain and vehicles continually shift past the fighting. New profiles for Morbad Zagblasta and Manik Gorg accompany a mission that rewards aggressive movement and looting, translating the disorder of a Speed Freek convoy attack into playable objectives.
Fast vehicles and the belief that red goes faster define this approach to an Ork army. The introduction brings aircraft, buggies and bikes into a common theme, showing how the clan’s enthusiasm for motion can guide collection choices and the appearance of a whole force.
A red Wazbom Blastajet demonstrates quick drybrushed armour and metallic recipes alongside carefully masked identification marks. Cool blue power effects and a striped white nose break up the warm aircraft, giving its busy mechanical detail clear points of contrast without abandoning a practical army-painting method.
Wavy yellow guide lines become flames by widening and joining their shapes before filling them in. Small red scratches weather the finished decoration, providing a straightforward hand-painted alternative to transfers for personalising large panels on Ork vehicles.
A Leman Russ chassis acquires a Battlewagon turret through a sequence of cuts, trimming and simple internal supports. Ork crew, armour and decoration disguise the meeting of the two kits, demonstrating how practical mounting decisions can make an extravagant looted vehicle both convincing and sturdy.
A mobile Mek workshop, desert-camouflaged Blood Axe buggy and squig-fronted Wartrike demonstrate different interpretations of Ork speed. A flying contraption and an elaborate lunch wagon push the same idea further, using recognisable machinery and humorous crew details to explain each improbable vehicle’s purpose.
The four collectors reach 125 Power and introduce major leaders to their developing armies. These centrepieces connect new battlefield options with established personal stories, while continuing games expose both the strengths of the growing collections and their memorable mishaps.
Joel Martin converts Iron Father Feirros into Vaylund Cal, using the Chapter leader as the latest focal point of his Sons of Medusa. A Gladiator Valiant and Aggressors strengthen the force, while selective black armour helps important figures stand out among the bright green warriors.
Jonathan Stapleton adds the Void Dragon and Ophydian Destroyers to his Thokt Dynasty. Treating blackstone like chipped polished onyx distinguishes it from the army’s metal, giving the imposing new centrepiece a different texture while preserving the collection’s established dark and luminous colours.
Morvenn Vahl and Paragon Warsuits join Drew Palies’s Argent Shroud as their campaign story returns to the aftermath of Sanctuary 101. The new models connect a major leader to the Canoness’s existing narrative, and their preparation prompts reflection on how campaign consequences should serve that developing story.
Lydia Grant adds Ghazghkull, Makari and Meganobz while giving the grots a more prominent part in her army’s story. A battle against the T’au supplies a dramatic setback for the Gorkanaut, turning an unfortunate loss into another distinctive episode of the Waaagh!.
Louis Aguilar discusses a battletome approach that favours memorable unit identities and rules that are easier to use during play. Changes to monsters, subfactions and enhancement choices support that goal, while faction-specific Path to Glory material and scoring options give armies additional character across different game formats.
The Shadrac Convergence links Ulgu’s thirteen dominions through routes shaped by deception, trade and political competition. Har Kuron and Misthåvn exemplify different kinds of power within this uncertain landscape, where a traveller must contend with misleading paths and shifting appearances as readily as with enemies.
The Cities of Sigmar shelter diverse peoples around their Stormkeeps, but wealth, safety and opportunity are distributed unevenly across their expanding districts. Freeguild soldiers and Dawnbringer Crusades carry the struggle beyond the walls, where new settlements must withstand the upheavals and predators of the Era of the Beast.
An official update adds mount traits, battle tactics and a grand strategy alongside material for open and narrative games. Path to Glory gives generals an honoured retinue, an adjutant and settlement-building opportunities, connecting the army’s development to its responsibility for founding and defending civilisation.
A five-battle expedition follows a Misthåvn army into dangerous shadowlands in search of a missing scout. Accumulating fright and a branching campaign route change the force’s fortunes, while the final encounter and alternative endings let the expedition leave lasting consequences for a Path to Glory army.
This variant turns blocked hexes and the battlefield’s edge into deadly hazards, with extra rewards for fighters who exploit them. Desperate lunges and possible chains of displaced fighters make positioning unusually dangerous, elevating the value of Knockback, Guard and careful movement when planning an attack.
Drekki Flynt enters a game under a false name, only for an assassin and an angry Fyreslayer to turn the evening violent. The confrontation exposes the adventurous captain’s taste for risk and improvisation, ending in destruction, escape and a new grudge that promises to follow him into the skies.
A chronological survey follows the Imperium from Horus’s elevation at Ullanor to the Siege of Terra. Major campaigns and less familiar encounters are placed alongside the schism on Mars and the wider civil war, giving the Legions’ individual histories a shared framework of escalating betrayal and destruction.
Corrupted Titans exchange some reliability and command flexibility for mutations and supernatural power. Stephanie Burton and Rob Crouchley examine the practical effects of changing weapons, unnatural resilience and aggressive traits, explaining how the benefits must be balanced against the risks of losing control at a crucial moment.
A corrupted Warlord Titan uses sculpted organic forms and altered weapon parts to make its transformation visible across the whole model. Contrasting corrosion, red armour and abnormal anatomy preserve the Titan’s silhouette while suggesting that its machinery has become the vessel of a malign intelligence.
Ashley Hamstead-Reid and Lewis Collins revisit three major encounters from the Fellowship’s journey. Their linked selection of scenarios tests very different pressures, from protecting vulnerable Hobbits to surviving a crowded tomb and escaping an ambush, with narrative objectives taking precedence over simply destroying an opposing army.
Five Ringwraiths attack the Hobbits before Aragorn can fully stabilise their defence. The Witch-king compels Frodo into danger and lands a Morgul-blade strike, but Fate saves the Ringbearer; desperate resistance and the timely intervention of his companions secure a narrow victory for Good.
Goblins and a Cave Troll overwhelm the confined chamber despite fierce resistance from the Fellowship. Aragorn and Gimli help bring down the Troll, but the cumulative casualties include Frodo and several companions, allowing Evil to claim the scenario even after losing its most obvious monster.
The Uruk-hai attack divides the Fellowship into several urgent struggles. Boromir falls while protecting Merry and Pippin, and Legolas is also lost, but Frodo, Sam and Aragorn escape; the mixed outcome produces a draw and captures the scenario’s tension between rescue, sacrifice and flight.
Ashley Hamstead-Reid’s Amon Hen battlefield and Fellowship display use natural materials to make ruins look embedded in an old woodland. Bark, soil and scattered vegetation build convincing variation at miniature scale, with sealing and adhesive choices helping fragile details survive handling.
Successive drybrushes bring ancient masonry from a dark brown foundation to pale weathered stone. Grey-brown washes soften the transitions, followed by a thin green glaze that suggests damp staining and moss without concealing the sculpted detail.
Twigs, bark, filler and small foliage products become reusable woodland pieces, from reeds and tangled vines to saplings and mature trees. A bridge assembled from the Amon Hen kit demonstrates how filler and vegetation can hide joins and make a converted structure belong to the same landscape.
Black robes receive restrained drybrushing and warm shading so that their folds remain visible without looking grey. Metallic details use dark bronze and controlled steel highlights, giving the Ringwraiths enough definition for play while preserving their threatening, almost featureless appearance.
Fast drybrushing and thinned brown shading give the Goblins’ equipment a worn metallic finish. Pale green skin contrasts with red clothing, while alternative recess colours and small changes to cloth treatment introduce variety into a large group painted by the same efficient method.
Three leather recipes are distributed across clothing and equipment to avoid an army of identical black shapes. Reddish skin, subdued metal and tiny yellow eyes keep the models recognisable, and earth-coloured marks around the hems connect the scouts to the terrain they are crossing.
Film stills guide the varied clothing of the Fellowship, with individual colour choices helping the small figures retain their distinct personalities. Earthy cloaks, warm brown details and carefully chosen accent colours make the group coherent while avoiding an artificial uniform across its very different companions.
Studio projects include Ephrael Stern and Kyganil, conversions for a Nighthaunt collection and a Taurox inspired by an early Crusade battle. The hobby bingo update connects these projects to personal targets, while a company marking on an Imperial Fists Gladiator shows how a small detail can give a familiar model an individual place in an army.