Review: White Dwarf – January 2013

This month the sons of Caliban come back with a new codex and new models to hunt their fallen brethren once more. Read on to find out what Interrogator Chaplain Stahly has to say about issue number four of relaunched White Dwarf.

This month’s copy of White Dwarf has 156 pages, 8 pages more than last month and thus the biggest WD so far (together with the first relaunched issue that came out last October). Apart from the usual production values it also sports a free poster of a similar design as last month. This time it has a gallery of Hobbit models on one side and a gallery of older Lord of the Ring models on the other though. I don’t know who would really put up such posters apart from shop owners, it would be so much better if they would make posters with a nice piece of artwork for example. The content of the magazine follows exactly the same pattern as the last couple of issues, so chances are high you know the deal by now if you already had a look at one of the issues (or one of our reviews) after the relaunch.

The big release are Dark Angels, you’ve probably seen pictures that were photographed off WD pages floating around the internet before. It seams the WD photographers went into an old English cave to compose the pictures in this month’s New Releases section. Thankfully they did without any artistic light effects and just present clear and well taken pictures that don’t distort the paint jobs. The centrefold is taken by the Dark Talon and Nephilim Fighter. There are also a couple of new Hobbit models but there is no other LotR coverage apart from this section and two short tutorials in Paint Splatter.

The Army of the Month is editor Jes Bickham’s Tyranid army. It has already shown up a couple of times in in the last months, so I found this army showcase a bit boring. I would like to see them go out and feature more armies from outside of the GW headquarter, otherwise this feature might become stale soon. Jervis Johnson talks about finding motivation to paint even if you’re not an ace when it comes to picking up a brush. The Battle Report features Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines unsurprisingly. They used a special scenario, yet they didn’t take the chance to add some narration to the report. It’s also a bit daft that they didn’t set a point limit, but just put down all the models they had. At least there are a lot of player painted models featured.

In the Rivals, White Dwarf’s Matt Hutson and Glenn More pitch thunder hammer wielding Terminators against a squad of Grey Knight terminators and see which squad can beat up more in close combat. Blanchitsu is again very short with just two pages and features models that weren’t built and painted by John Blanche himself, but other selected painters with a similar style. Hall of Heroes features Karl Franz on Deathclaw, sculpted by Brian Nelson and nominated by Alan Perry.

Parade Ground is sort of different this month, as it is a 16 pages long gallery of 2012’s Golden Demon winners from Germany, the USA, Spain and Australia. It’s said to be part 1, so expect another gallery for the next issue. There are some very cool models featured, however the image quality is sometimes a bit rough and the article might be a bit overly long. Next up is Kit Bash, rather short with three converted 40k terrain models on four pages. Battleground has the Dwarf themed board on display that can be found in the back of the 8th Edition Fantasy rulebook. Not much new to see in this four pages long showcase apart from some new close ups. Paint Splatter explains techniques for painting Dark Angels, including dark green, bone and black armour and for various details. There are also basic painting guides for the Fortress of Redemption terrain piece, for Jes Bickham’s Tyranid paint scheme and for painting the giant eagles and wargs that were released this month for The Hobbit.

Jervis Vetock talks about what he likes more – playing at home or outside. After the boring shop guide comes “This month in…”, the monthly look behind the scenes. As usually there are the latest painting and gaiming efforts of the WD team, short interviews with Black Library authors, such as Gav Thorpe regarding his new Ravenwing novel, and some WIP Forgeworld models. The main interest is of course the design studio, whose designers are talking about the new Dark Angels. I found this article quite shallow this month, as there is no concept art shown and you learn absolutely nothing about the new codex and its rules.

Verdict

More of the same really. The Golden Demon showcase is a slight change of the formula, though I found it a bit overly long. Drawbacks for me were the Army of the Month and Battleground showcases, which both featured stuff that has already been seen elsewhere. Also this issue tells you very little about the new Dark Angels codex itself, and absolutely nothing about new the new rules or army list. I found it enjoyable to flick through, but it hadn’t any real highlights, so an average 6/10 from me.

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