Review: White Dwarf June 2013

Last issue (May) I thought we saw a glimpse of hope that the WD team has been listening to their readers and brought in more new content. This issue continues in that manner luckily and I hope it will continue this way, but for now here's a review of the June issue.

First of all I will do this review a little different, I won't be mention every single segment this time around but focusing on the new segments and what I found most interesting in the old ones. But first we go to the mandatory segment which will always be there.

New Releases

Eldar of course! Gw continues with the trend of a new AB/Codex every month and now we get more Xenos action. They got some really cool new stuff and I must say I like the look of everything. The massive Wraithknight and the flyers is my favourites though as well as the Wraithguard/Wraithblades. They had a better preview of the codex this time around showing us some more of it, and the design looks good as all the recent Codexes/Armybooks. Apart from Eldar we get a new limited ed. T-shirt this month and some more books from Black Library. An interesting picture Is found on pg 41 showing us and cool Dark Angel on a world collapsing around him that I haven't seen before. Will we get some DA action from Forgeworld? Or something new in the HH book series perhaps?

Painting and converting

In Army of the Month we see Nick Bayton's huge and nicely painted Orcs and Goblins army, thank you for not showing us Space Marines yet again! In Parade Ground we see a focus on the ordinary soldiers and regiments of Warhammer. All is looking really nice even the Ostermark Halberdiers painted by me :). In Kit Bash we see a conversion that really made me stop flipping trough the pages. A guy called Eddie Eccles has made an 'Fallen' Dark Angel Land Raider with an Mausoleum from the Garden of Morr on top. Really nicely done and superb painting as well. In Paint Splatter we get some tips on how to paint Eldar, nothing extraordinary but good tips non the less.

Rules and Fluff

Not much of Rules accept the little bits of info in the Battle Report and so on but we do get some fluff this time around and we get it in an article called 'Culture of the Eldar'. Here Phil Kelly and Jes Godwin explains the culture and symbolism of the Eldar, like for example the runes that each Craftworld has. Here we also see how the different painting schemes for the Crafworlds and and what their insignias mean. Even though I no massive fan of Eldar I found this article to be an big step in the right direction.

Gaming

We get an Battlereport as usual putting the new Eldar against Necrons. Of course showing of the new stuff for Eldar. The battlereport is good but could be better, a narrative would be nice and I don't like that they don'r show us the Point costs. Still the armies look really and there are some bigger pictures in there as well letting us get a better overview of the battlefield.

The new stuff

Apart from the article about the culture of the Eldar I already written about there are actually two other new articles. First one is not totally new as we had one last month but still. Armchair General it's called and is about a gamer/hobbyist and why they started their army and how they tend to play them. In this issue it's about Dan Harden and his Tau army. The playing tips aren't that advanced maybe but I really like this segment and hope it stays, we also see a lot of pictures of his army which is nice.

The other totally new article is called War Diary and I have high hopes for this one. It's similar to a Tale of four gamers but here's it about making an Army to compete in the Armies on Parade 2013. We see some finished things as well as the work in progress for the ones involved in this project. There's a good mix of armies as well I think, Eddie Eccles will do an Eldar force based around Harlequins, Carl Dafforn will go with Ogre Kingdoms, Jon Flindall will go with Daemons of Chaos with an board looking like an overrun Empire village, Chris Bilewicz will make an Sylvanian themed VC army, Dominic Murrey will do Tau, Nick Bayton will do SM Blood Ravens and the last and best idea so far according to me. Dan Harden will do an Empire Ostermark army, really good choice Dan! So a lot of armies and Display boards to look forward seeing in the future.

The other stuff..

In this month in we get some good stuff about the Eldar when visiting the Design Studio, like for example seeing a comparision in size between an Eldar Wraithguard, Wraithlord and the new HUGE Wraithknight. We also get to see some of the models both the Design team and WD team has painted up and we get some info about what games they have played and so on. At Forgeworld we get to see some WIP's of the Dread Maw which is looking really fearsome and cool. We also get ti see an SM Legion Praetor which looks really detailed and nice as well. The Warrior Priest exclusive to visitors of Games Day or Forge World Open is also shown, we have seen it before and I so want it. Can't visit any of the events though so if anyone that knows that he will visit one of them please let me know maybe we can do some kind of deal ;)

Conclusion

Some new articles which where nice to read, some of the old segments is getting better I think. There's still stuff to improve even more but I a feeling that they at least try to improve and getting more used to the new format and feeling comfortable about it. Also the best thing, they have a picture of my Halberdiers :)

Rating: 3,5 out of 5

WoC: Nurgle Warriors command finished!

Finally my command for my Nurgle Warriors is finished, don't know why I took so long to paint the final pieces up but now at least they are done. Quite like how they turned out actually and how the unit is start to look like an real unit, now sporting eight warriors in there, so ten more to go to finish up the whole unit. 

Please tell me what you think, all comments are always welcome.

My Empire in the latest White Dwarf!

Well my Halberdiers at least. I knew they would be featured in this issue as I was contacted by Dan Harden a couple of months ago, where he asked me to send more and better pictures of my Empire models. Some of you may have seen them being on the WD Daily but this time it's in the paper version. Really cool and of course this is little bit of a dream come true being in WD for the first time. And I can only hope there may come more photos of my models in WD in future as well.

Also I must say that this issue seems to be quite interesting with more new articles, I have only made a glimpse through as of yet but I really think it's worth a buy. Especially now when you can look at my Halberdiers and some other lovely Empire models in it as well :).

Painting Challenge 2013: April

Late as usual but you know the drill by now. Here's what I painted in April.


Warriors of Chaos

6 Warriors of Chaos 94 Pts
1 Chimera 275 Pts (This one is upgraded with both Regen and Breath wpn, because it will pretty much always be fielded that way)

WZR: Bauhaus

2 Ducal Militia 17 each = 34 Pts (in the Warzone 2 ed book If I recall it correctly)

Total this month: 403 Pts

Not much it seems but that Chimera eats up some points, so not that bad actually. Next month won't turn out as good though. But we will see by the end of the month (or next month :P). I will do some more Empire work again trying to paint up my Hurricanum also have an urge to paint up an Demigryph Knight in Black Rose colours and just need build another one up first. I have some more stuff to complete with my WoC as well, right now I will probably focus on my three Skullcrushers, one Gorebeast Chariot and my BSB on monstrous mount.

Warzone Resurrection Rulebook preview and Box art!

Got another update from Prodos who is really busy right now getting everything ready for the first release of their products in June (which is going according to plans so far we where told by Mark Rapson from Prodos in the second issue of Doomtrooper Radio vidoecast).

Anyhow it is always a big joy when we get any bit of news from Prodos and now we are really seeing stuff is nearing completion. With an really nice pic from the rulebook and a preview of the box for an Eradicator. According to Prodos these boxes will be different for each corporation and have different/relevant theme, same about corporation pages in rulebook/boxes. Yea for this game even the boxes is really interesting for me, please Prodos give us even more pictures! June can't get here soon enough.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Kickstarter, just 19 Hrs left

Yes this KS is now in it's final day and it's just 19 hours left as I type this. What a ride it has been though, it has been smashing their Stretch goals lately and the sweet spot pledge lvl (Battlycry) is getting more and more stuff in it. And that was a sweet deal even beforehand.

The last thing that was unlocked was an additional Super Valkyrie in Battlecry and above pledges making it two Super Valkyries in Fighter, Guardian and Battloid modes. Just check out below what you get in the Battlecry pledge, that is a lot of miniatures and other stuff for that prize.

So you pretty much have your bases covered with this box, I will add some stuff we aren't getting however (or will we?) some Armoured Valkyries, Zentraedi Infantry and some Ghosts. And the Ghosts is the next box to be upgraded, so pledge on now people so I get more Ghosts in the box and more stuff in my Battlecry pledge! :D

Click the banner below to get to the Robotech Kickstarter page.

3 days left of the Robotech® RPG Tactics kickstarter

The Robotech® RPG Tactics kickstarter is really gathering up some steam now in it's final days. It's breaching several stretch goals every day and the deal is too sweet to pass up. So follow the link below and take a look for yourself. 

Imperial Guard: First test model finished

I didn't really know how I wanted to paint these up, I had one idea though. I want them to fit together nicely when standing together with my Guardians of the Covenant but still look IG. So the palette I had to choose from pretty much is metallic, grey, black, red and some green. So this is what I came up with, tell me what you think.

It may not be the best model I have painted but I painted him up rather quickly just to see if I liked the colour scheme. And I think I do, may be needing some tweaks here and there though.

This is the last update (at least when it comes to painting and such) for at least a week as I'm travelling to Rhodes tonight. I may post some news updates if I feel I have the time but anyhow until then take care. 

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Even more freebies unlocked!

Yeah the Showdown deal is getting better and better (and the ones above) we hit two goals today so we get an additional Phalanx and Spartan destroids as well as three Gnerl Fighters. See the latest update from this KS below. 

Two Bonuses Unlocked!Update #54

Wow, two stretch goals unlocked almost simultaneously! 

3000 Backers

We hit 3000 Backers first, so all pledges of Battle Cry and above receive an additional Spartan and Phalanx destroid! 

$625,000 Reached

Next we hit a phenomenal $625,000 unlocking 3x Bonus Gnerls for every pledge of Battle Cry and above! 

$650,000 Stretch Goal

Next up is the Serau-Ger Heavy Infantry for Zentraedi. These are available as an optional 

Purchase Add-on or 6x Serau-Ger for $30.
Finally, we've updated the Battle Cry pledge graphic with the new bonuses. Look at all that stuff!

Can't wait to get my hands on all that stuff, also this KS is very nice to follow as you get more bang for your buck so often. Awesome!

News: WH Forge Night Goblin Squig Gobba

Finally something new released from Warhammer Forge! Got the latest Wh Forge Newsletter and it features the new Night Goblin "war machine" the hilarious Squig Gobba which we have seen before. Now it is finished and out for order, and I must say I am a little tempted. The model is really cool and fun, I just hope to see we will see something for the other types of goblins as well in the next Wh Forge book, Night Gobbos already got plenty of stuff.

Anyhow the model is cool and I may buy one in the future to have as an count as Rock Lobber.

Down below are what they wrote about in the Newsletter as well as some pictures. For more info and pics go to their website here.

Night Goblin Squig Gobba
The Squig Gobba, as it is known by the common soldiery of the Empire, is a fearsome sight amongst the Orc & Goblin hordes. Dragged and prodded onto the battlefield by its malevolent Night Goblin tenders, it is a huge beast with an oversized gaping maw, a set of extremely powerful lungs and a ravenous appetite to rival even that of a Troll! 

With the Squig Gobba heavily chained into position to prevent it bounding off after the first tasty morsel it spies, its tenders start dragging lesser squigs from the cages surrounding them as battle is joined, slicking these vicious beasts with foul-tasting noxious liquids. This not only renders the creatures senseless for a short time, but also prevents the Squig Gobba from immediately swallowing them as the stunned squigs are unceremoniously stuffed into its jaws!

Soon the Squig Gobba’s mouth will be full to bursting point, with thick globs of frothing acidic saliva dribbling constantly forth. Then it is only a matter of time before one of two things happen: either the Squig Gobba will vomit forth its mouthful of now monumentally furious lesser kin, causing chaos and panic on a grand (and thoroughly disgusting) scale amongst the enemy army’s ranks; or the great beast itself will explode in a blazing fireball, as the Night Goblin ‘concoctions’ that coat the squigs react spectacularly with the Squig Gobba’s stomach juices.

The Night Goblin Squig Gobba is a multi-part resin kit designed by Keith Robertson. This improbable war ‘machine’ is packed with detail, from the terrified squig being lifted into the maw of the Squig Gobba, and the variously panicked and angry munitions being spat into the air, to the cruel and sneaky Night Goblin tenders themselves. This fantastic kit is available to pre-order now for despatch from Friday 31st May, and you can download a set of experimental rules from the Forge World website now.

WZR: Bauhaus Juggernauts Rendered!

We just got an update from Prodos showing us the renders from the Juggernauts heavy infantry, and they look awesome! I wasn't totally impressed by the concept art for these dudes (it was for the Vulcan at first though) but these new renders is really cool looking, and really steam punky as well. Will be getting at least one box of these, but I might to even buy two boxes now.

Starting up an Imperial Guard army?!

New army again? 
I have two Space Marine armies in 40k, five big armies for Warhammer Fantasy, several Mordheim warbands, I got plenty of Bauhaus and Imperial for Warzone with a lot more incoming soon and I'm also going to get a lot of minis for Robotech: RPG Tactics. Enough miniatures for most people I think... well not for me.

I have wanted to do an IG army for many years, but it have just never happened. And I have long thought about painting them inspired by the dead Warzone game. Well Warzone is not as dead anymore but I saw this deal over at Tradera (Swedish eBay) which I just had to buy.

Quite a lot of stuff, and for a really good price. But the best part is.... they are converted already (well almost all of them) with helmets and backpacks from Imperial Regulars (the ones from Warzone 2 ed box) and it looks awesome!

The painting standard isn't exactly high but I would had re-painted them anyway, one of the Commissars looks decent though, but still needs to be re painted a little.

Painting theme?
Anyhow, for painting theme I want these to go along my Guardians of the Covenant. So main colours will be metallic, grey and black and some green and reds. So armour in metallic and black, uniforms in camo grey colours, weapons in green and red cap and markings. Think it will look really nice but I will do an test mini and see how it looks.

What kind of army should I do?
Well rules wise I'm total newbie when it comes to IG (or most 40k actually) and any help you can provide would be very helpful. What can I do with this and how should the squads look? Down below is the stuff I got:

6 Veteran Squads consisting of:

• 38 Guardsmen
• 5 Flamers
• 9 Grenade Launchers
• 2 Comms Specialists
• 6 Sergeants

• 2 Commissars
• 1 Cadian Command box which is unassembled, how should I build them up? 

• 1 Missile Launcher Weapons Team
• 1 Lascannon Weapons Team
• 1 Heavy Bolter Weapons Team
• 3 Autocannon Weapons Teams

I got some spare bits and what not do change stuff around but this are the models I have at the moment. First of all I will use them as an Ally to my Guardians of the Covenant so I must have that in mind when I build this army up. Also what should I buy next for this army? I understand most people like the Valkyries/Vendettas and I really like the look of them, should I buy any tank? or maybe Chimeras etc. All the tips I can get is most welcome.

WoC: Warriors of Tzeentch finished!

At last the unit consisting of eighteen Warriors of Tzeentch is finally done. The reason it took so long for the last one is because I will use him as a tutorial for those interested in how I paint my Tzeentch Warriors. Will post up the tutorial in the next coming days, in the meantime you can check out the finished unit down below.

Review: White Dwarf May 2013

New month, new White Dwarf, new releases. This issues main release is the High Elves for Warhammer Fantasy and after the last issue I can't say I had high hopes for this one, but was actually a little surprised in a positive way this month, continue reading to find out why.

New releases
We get a lot of new kits for High Elves big and small along with the new Army Book, I won't get into detail about the kits (check GW website for that) but I must say I'm liking them more and more. One really pleasant surprise here is that they will release a new Uniforms and Heraldry book and of course this one is about High Elves. I have the Empire one and I really like it, I hope GW will continue to do these as they are great inspiration when painting your armies as well as you get some nice fluff about your army as well. We get a better preview of both this book and the Army Book which is something I have asked for, could be a lot more fleshed out but better than nothing. We get a new Radagast model for the Hobbit and some BL books but nothing major and most we have already seen.

Painting

So what is the Army of the Month? You guessed it, Space Marines once again. Well Blood Angels for being more precise and it belongs to the veteran model maker Mark Bedford so it is a really nice looking army. Just wished we would see something else than some type Space Marines. In Blanchitsu we see more Blanche inspired models but this time it's not from himself but from Julian Bayliss who have won multiple Golden Demons.

In Hall of Fame we see the Chaos Helbrute from the DV box and in the Parade Ground we continue too see loyalist Dreadnoughts, both converted and non converted. All of them looks nice but we have all most probably already seen them, except the last one who was sent in by a reader, a really cool and heavely converted Deathguard Dreadnought...ehmm I mean Helbrute.

In Kitbash we get to see some really different models, a Chaos Warshrine who rides on top of a Maulerfiend (an idea I had for a while as well), High Elves Spearmen of Chrace and Chaos Cultists. The we also get a second Parade Ground which features different Titans which most of us already have seen probably. We also get to see some more of Japan's Golden Demon winners, but just two pages this time which is enough in my opinion.

I the past Paint Splatter has been a real Hit or Miss, and mostly misses. But this time it's a lot better actually. They have focused on the High Elf models of course and they actually show a lot of details, good paint jobs and not just the most basic of techniques. For example who to paint the Phoenixes, white cloth, magical bows, silver armour and more. We also see a quite nice tutorial on how to paint different looking horses, really useful which is really nice for change.

Rules and Fluff
We don't get much about the rules but we do get some fluff when they talk about the new HE books, nothing we haven't heard before as it's mostly a explanation of who the High Elves are. But at least it's something.

Gaming

Battlereport! High Elves Vs. Ogres. The armies are ~3200 Pts it is explained in the text but I don't know why they aren't showing us exact numbers like they used too, if the readers want to find out what the exact costs are for different units without buying the AB there are plenty of better ways to get that info. They are of course showing us the new units in the HE army and we get to see Jes Godwin's Ogres again as the enemy army. Other than that the Battle Report follows the same formula as the previous ones. Quite good but nothing spectacular. 

The other stuff
We get two new articles this month! The Armchair General where Adam Troke explains why he loves the Dark Angels and why they are so fun to play. Although we have seen Adams army before it was nice too read about why he likes them so much and what he usually fields. The second new article is called The Time of Dragons where Mat Ward and Trish Carden writes about Dragons, fluff and how the GW Dragon models have changed over time, quite interesting article but it would have been better if we got too see even more of the really old Dragon models.

In 'This Month in' we get some goodies as well some painted models from the WD team with little focus on HE and Dreadnoughts, and at the Design studio we get some words from the sculptors about the new High Elves. At Forgeworld we see the Fellglaive heavy tank and Space Marine Legion Outrider bike (the HH bikes for short) and some painted models including some really cool Pre Heresy Night Lords. At Black Library we get a chat with Guy Healy about his first BL novel called Baneblade.

Conclusion
Even though a lot of things is like the last issue I feel some things is addressed here. We got two new articles this month which is really nice and I hope they continue in this manner. Also one major thing I thought about the April issue was that we didn't have any reason to re-read it, I didn't find that there was anything useful to come back to. Not at all so in this issue, better painting tutorials is one thing and I just feel they have got more stuff in this issue that is interesting. This is issue is far from prefect but I feel that maybe we are now going into a up going trend.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ KS has reached $500k!

The kickstarter for Robotech: RPG Tactics is doing very well and has now breached the $500k pledge goal. This means that we who is having a pledge of 'Battle Cry' or above will receive as a freebie.

We also got too see what we get as a $525k goal and it's another freebie!

This means we can get even more value out of the box than what we already have, and I (who are at the Battle Cry pledge lvl) will get an awesome value out of the box.

Also we got an new update regarding International shipping, and they now have a solution for us in Europe. See the full description below:

We are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement to use the UK as a staging area for our European shipping. 

What does this mean?Since we will be shipping your pledge rewards from a local distributor, European backers will not be required to pay VAT or other additional import fees! 

Note that International Backers must still pay the additional shipping charge. We still need pay extra to get your product to the UK warehouse, and are already sharing the cost by subsidizing the shipping quite a bit. 

If you've been sitting on the fence waiting for this news, or know others who have, spread the word!

Tutorial: Freehand on Shields

I have had a lot of compliments of the freehand designs on my Tzeentch Warriors of Chaos. And I'm really happy my self with how they turned out so I decided to just make a short and easy Tutorial on how I paint them. They say that a picture says more than a thousand words and this is true with this tutorial, hope you find it useful.

Base colour is the old Citadel colour Enchanted Blue then a wash of Army Painters Dark Tone Ink.

I then make a Highlight with Ench. Blue around the edges and then a finer  HL with the new Citadel colour Temple Guard Blue. Now I can start with the actual design, a cross in the middle. Painted with Citadel Mephiston Red.

I than make the cross into a circle which I fill with Mephiston Red in thin layers until I think it looks good and even. 

I then add the rest of the design I had in mind, in case a small Tzeentch marking and flames.

I then paint with Citadel Blazing Orange 

Next colour is Citadel Averland Sunset, now you start too see how it will turn out.

Last yellow high light I do with Vallejo Sun Yellow.

The last and final step, black in pupil of the eye and I also painted some around the the flames to get better contrast. The last thing before considering it done and finished is a little white dot in the eye. And then we are done.

Freehand is easy for some and really hard for others, the best tip I can give you is to just try it out. Do some of your designs just to see how it looks and then do it some more. You need practice to get good at free hand but for some it comes more naturally. I consider by self quite good at free hand but sometimes the end result of the design I'm painting that didn't came out as I was expected, so I redo it, and redo it until I'm content with the result.