WHITE DWARF · FEBRUARY 2022
Altansar’s survival, Beasts of Chaos, a tournament-player battle and the Mortal Realms warlords’ finale.
COVER TO COVER
In printed page order
A scratch-built Necromunda spire demonstrates how industrial scenery can become a long-term personal project. Reader miniatures accompany questions about Snakebite traditions and Space Marine heraldry, plus detailed advice for weathered metal and a spectacular painted dragon.
Max Faleij explains the weathered metal of Kragnos’s shield and jewellery. Layered metallic colours and green-blue glazes build convincing aged surfaces, with selected pale highlights preserving the definition of ornate details rather than allowing the verdigris to obscure them.
Daniel Brescia combines airbrushed red-orange transitions with deep purple-red shadows across Smaug’s enormous body. A warm pale underbelly and carefully defined scales separate different textures, using the dragon’s size to create rich colour changes while retaining a unified fiery appearance.
Hammerhal Aqsha’s industrial strength and religious fervour send a constant stream of Dawnbringer Crusades into the Realm of Fire. Behind its heroic public identity lie crowded districts, social friction and carefully cultivated propaganda, making the city as volatile as the landscape from which it draws its power.
The gor-kin see civilisation as an insult to the primal realms and spread corruption through their migrations and Herdstones. Their shamans, reverence for Morghur and intensifying power in the Era of the Beast make them a particular threat to Dawnbringer Crusades and to the natural cycles defended by the Sylvaneth.
An official update supplies monstrous rampages and a revised Herdstone alongside new scoring and open-play options. Path to Glory rewards beastly dominance through quests, veteran abilities and corrupt territories, making the destruction of civilisation and the growth of a beastherd central to the army’s progression.
A Cities of Sigmar expedition attacks three possible Herdstone sites across the Beastbridge. Secret defensive commitments create a guessing game before two or three linked battles, with regional hazards and rewards shaping the campaign before a dedicated battleplan determines whether a sacred monolith is sundered.
The Mortal Realms collectors finish their year-long challenge with four substantial armies. Final games and ambitious centrepieces conclude the series, while full rosters and army photographs demonstrate how the participants developed both a visual theme and a personal narrative over successive additions.
Teclis completes Martyn Lyon’s intended centrepiece for his Lumineth collection. The imposing model caps an army of mountain spirits and disciplined warriors, while its points cost encourages him to reserve it for larger games and take a break with different painting projects.
An Ogroid, Fomoroid and Spire Tyrants expand Miyuki Foulkes’s Chaos force while connecting its latest recruits to existing leaders and grudges. Painting eyes and working in subassemblies become practical lessons from the challenge, and small skirmish games offer a new direction after the large army project.
A Celestant-Prime and a selection of long-planned favourites complete Rich Packer’s latest additions. His campaign reaches a tense final dice roll at the Bridge of Axes, leaving the Order plotting revenge and its collector still aiming eventually to own a painted example of every Cities unit.
Glutos joins the Host’s other imposing centrepieces, with pallid skin and decadent surroundings supporting his identity. Shredded baby wipes mask an airbrushed marble effect on the palanquin, providing a practical way to create irregular veins before the collector moves on to other armies.
The final army photograph gathers the force’s infantry, leaders and centrepieces into one display. Its consistent basing and repeated colours reveal the visual connections developed during the challenge, while the differing heights and silhouettes show the range of models now available for future battles.
The final army photograph gathers the force’s infantry, leaders and centrepieces into one display. Its consistent basing and repeated colours reveal the visual connections developed during the challenge, while the differing heights and silhouettes show the range of models now available for future battles.
The final army photograph gathers the force’s infantry, leaders and centrepieces into one display. Its consistent basing and repeated colours reveal the visual connections developed during the challenge, while the differing heights and silhouettes show the range of models now available for future battles.
The final army photograph gathers the force’s infantry, leaders and centrepieces into one display. Its consistent basing and repeated colours reveal the visual connections developed during the challenge, while the differing heights and silhouettes show the range of models now available for future battles.
Thondia changes Warcry battles through savage fighters, living objectives and predatory terrain. New victory conditions and twists make gathering resources or keeping companions close more important, while themed lesser artefacts reward survivors with treasures suited to the Realm of Beasts.
Lawrence Baker’s Drukhari test Stephen Box’s Bloody Rose Sisters in a closely contested matched-play encounter. Careful movement, secondary objectives and the survival of key characters matter as much as casualties; the Sisters secure a narrow victory after an intense final round, with both players examining missed opportunities in the aftermath.
The Imperium faces hidden corruption as well as overt invasion, from civilian cults to fallen Space Marines and forbidden technological experiments. The Ordo Hereticus’s investigations reveal why apparently mundane unrest attracts such brutal attention, while the same suspicion leaves Imperial society perpetually vulnerable to fear and accusation.
The Khymer 64th defends an evacuation while successive allied forces withdraw behind it. Hesper’s determination to save his remaining soldiers clashes with the cold necessities of command, leaving him to combine stubborn duty with a desperate attempt to reach the last departing lander.
The next stage of a righteous Crusade adds stratagems, requisitions and a dedicated psychic discipline. Inspiration must be cultivated within a new limit, creating opportunities for protective miracles, renewed aggression and mentoring while the army’s faith continues to develop across successive battles.
Altansar’s long imprisonment in the Eye of Terror explains its blood-coloured armour, guarded survivors and uneasy reception among other Aeldari. Maugan Ra’s desperate defence and eventual rescue frame a history of endurance, in which sealed districts and enduring suspicion show that escape did not erase the craftworld’s wounds.
Craftworld-specific rules translate Altansar’s grim survival into resilience, anti-Chaos determination and distinctive command choices. Stratagems, warlord traits and a relic support both its Dark Reapers and wider army, including wards against mortal wounds and limited manipulation of fate.
A Windrider combines mixed magenta armour with a bone helmet and bright white faceplate. Painting separate assemblies improves access, while broad first highlights followed by narrower layers create smoother transitions; additional recipes cover the engine, black seat, blue screen and eye lenses.
Altansar’s rune is broken into simple triangles, a linking line and a curved upper symbol. Small guide dots and thin pale paint keep the freehand symmetrical on the jetbike’s curved surface, with the armour basecoat used to correct shapes before final highlighting.
A dark green foundation and progressively smaller highlights create the illusion of a reflective gemstone. A tiny white reflection and glossy finish complete the effect, while the accompanying explanation distinguishes the spirit stone itself from its surrounding armour and suggests alternative transparent gem paints.
Hashin’s dark armour shifts subtly toward green through glazing, matching a household devoted to the Dark Mechanicum. Its skeletal heraldry expresses the belief that a machine’s union with the warp can overcome death, connecting an atmospheric colour scheme to a specific household creed.
An aggressive forward pose places the raised axe and lowered gun into the same attacking motion. Directional red armour, black gradients, oxidised metal and glowing vents reinforce the threat, while chips and battle scars give the imposing machine the signs of prolonged service.
A Knight’s rescue by Imperial armour becomes the basis for a later debt of honour against Necrons. Strong yellow panels, cool whites and blue-tinted metal support the heraldry, showing how a personal military history can guide both the miniature’s identity and its appearance.
Sanguine Propheta retains the disciplined geometry of a fallen knightly house rather than adopting an entirely chaotic appearance. Carefully masked stripes and checks, brighter colours and a Heresy reference make its corrupted allegiance legible while preserving traces of its former nobility.
A Freeblade commemorates its lost household with violet while fighting alongside the Dark Angels’ allies. Non-metallic blue-steel trim gives deliberate control over reflections, and soot, oil, rust and dust tell the story of a machine continuing to fight through difficult campaigns.
A dynamic illustration guides extensive changes to the Knight’s leg position. Stippled armour and weathering pigments reproduce the dusty texture of the inspiration, with different kinds of corrosion distinguishing metal fittings from chipped painted surfaces.
Baron Hector’s pious household identity is expressed through stark heraldry and a challenging raised gauntlet. Repositioned legs place the Knight on ruins, while separately painted armour and skeleton simplify the masked black-and-white panels and the worn metallic frame beneath them.
A greyscale marble foundation receives transparent colour to create richly varied armour panels. Repeated Contrast layers control their intensity, while highlighted blue metal and individually painted veins give the large household centrepiece detail beyond its broad heraldic colours.
Living artefacts replace the normal focus of the battlefield in Untamed Relics. An expanded board arrangement and moving treasures change territory and victory considerations, while three- and four-player adaptations let more warbands join the frantic hunt for magical objects that refuse to remain passive prizes.
Titan honour banners record identities, maniple disposition and battlefield achievements through a formal visual language. The article explains how these living records are preserved and updated by forge-world scriveners, revealing the personal and institutional histories displayed beneath the weapons of a god-engine.
Players can adapt a banner’s symbols and kill markings to record the actual exploits of their Titans. Planning a design on paper and choosing a consistent set of class icons makes later additions manageable, turning decoration into a continuing account of a model’s service.
Battle logs and individual Titan records provide a durable record of victories, objectives and engine kills. Photocopiable sheets support this process, while notes on destruction and recovery let a machine’s honour banner reflect a complicated career rather than only uninterrupted successes.
Callum Davis discusses turning the White Dwarf team’s Tome Keepers into a six-part story. Their shared history, books and allegorical language shape his approach to characterisation, making research into the Chapter’s traditions essential before introducing a foe able to challenge them in distinctive ways.
The Tome Keepers arrive at Anakletos amid desperate refugee traffic and dangerously weak orbital control. On the surface, Lykandos’s telepathy reveals contradictions beneath religious officials’ polite resistance, while Nasiem must secure cooperation from leaders who conceal the true scale of the insurrection and revive old grievances against his Chapter.
Returning to the office brings new campaigns as well as fresh painting projects. Studio staff share layered blue-black armour, eerie basing, vampires and converted warbands, while the hobby bingo spotlight records how those personal experiments contribute to larger collections and future games.