If you’ve read the Tale of Painters review, you will already know that Warhammer Visions fell a bit flat with Stahly and I. I’m all about fairness, so I thought I would list twelve reasons why you should buy it. Read them all after the jump.
1. It only costs roughly the same as a packet of cigarettes.
2. The photography is of a higher standard then what you can usually find on the internet all of the pictures are new (I have this on good authority).
3. It’s very similar to the Golden Demon booklets that you used to get in White Dwarf and we all loved those.
4. If, like me you aspire to be a published painter and have your work featured in a collectible art book then Warhammer Visions will be it. Why wouldn’t you buy something you want to be featured in?
5. There are no prices in the book, by that definition that doesn’t make it a catalogue despite what people on the internet might say.
6. There are no adverts in the art book like you would find in similar photographic publications (photography magazines are littered with multiple adverts in-between the features), it’s pure uninterrupted hobby.
7. If you’re a collector of a specific race then you’ll want to buy the issue where your race featured.
8. It actually has a pick up and flick through it again appeal. I’ve picked mine up again 4 times since I first got it to study the Golden Demon winners more closely.
9. It’s a keepsake unlike other magazines (I throw away all the motorbike magazines I buy).
10. If you scrap book your favourite pictures from White Dwarf (like our very own Rev) then you’re more spoilt for choice then ever before for printed pictures
11. GW doesn’t tend to replace many models nowadays and there are no rules in the book so it will never go out of date.
12. If you win Golden Demon you have a strong chance to be featured in this book with more pages then in old White Dwarf.
So why the sudden change of heart? Well, I genuinely do like what the White Dwarf team do. it’s always been there to inspire my painting and keep me interested in the hobby. I also tend to rebel against the mainstream, I’m not one to jump on a bandwagon. I’ve also contributed to White Dwarf magazine on two different occasions and hope to do so in the future. So before people accuse me in the comments of working for them. I don’t, I’m just a massive fanboy. I even got Dan Harden to sign my copy on Monday when I visited Warhammer World. If you can’t make out what it says, it says “I’ll read the review later! Dan Harden” in reference to the Tale of Painters review. What a good sport.
So after the initial knee jerk reaction, has your view shifted slightly? Could you list more reasons why it’s a good thing?
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Well, I'd rather buy new (more) paints. Or another magazine dedicated to painting miniatures such as Figure International, electronic mags such as Figure Painter Magazine, Portal (it's even free)… Are you sure '…The photography is of a higher standard then what you can usually find on the internet…'? BTW: You can live without smoking – it's even healthy. And you can live without Visions, too.
i really wanted to like visions but its just rubbish
as for my personal view, I used to subscribe and havnt now for a few years, this wont make me change my mind. Visions could be such a far reaching Umberella title, but where are the concept arts, the amazing conversions? And a pull out poster wud be easy to achieve and nice touch. In excess of £7 is asking a lot for a bunch of pics of studio models. I could be tempted by the WD weekly every now and again, its good to see them trying something to reinvigorate it rather than the last relaunch which amounted to 'make it glossy'. A sorting out of the battle reports to be A) detailed and B) fair would be most welcome hobby fix for those of us who get to game less regularly than wed like.
Two last points: which would be the cheaper hobby actually? Smoking or GW?
And as I add to most my posts: WHERE IS THE SUPPORT FOR SPECIALIST GAMES!!!
I disagree with an that visions is a catalogue. It's a far cry away from the advert blasted WD we have endured in recent years.
No, this mag is all about the pics. But I can't agree with your reasons for buying garfy… Except for the longevity and inspiration that the pictures can give.
I have an entire library of old WD mags stretching back 10 years which are there to serve the purpose of inspiration. These magazines were packed with pictures that importantly for hobbyists as well as painters included lots of real hobbyists models, units and armies. There is a substantial gap over the last 3 or 4 years when that stuff didn't appear in WD and for me, the success of warhammer visions would be determined by the inclusion of real example armies from all sorts of hobbyists. It is these that can really inspire a gamer to turn into a painter, and then the really high quality jobs can turn that painter into a quality competition painter.
I'm not certain that the price tag is warranted though, and I would feel irked about buying a significantly priced mag that isn't even single language! Some might say is a good way to brush up on your German, but it feels like you're being cheated… Id rather have more explanatory context in a single language.
Ultimately I don't see the narrow faceted army inclusion as a negative, rather the opposite in fact. As a result, and as already said, you will be drawn to the issue that had the models or race that you are most interested in rather than buying each and every one.
As for how to know what is in each, well, we all read Tale of Painters reviews right!?
Pretty narrow vista Visions offers. Got my today and I count myself to the diappionted ones, sadly.
.
If you are not interested in Tyranids, there is as good as no reason to buy this mag. The armies on Parade and GD entries, hobby parrts cover very few sites and are in part also visible elsewhere, you d probaby find images of the stuff in much higher resolution too. For free. You can see the studio painted NIds pictured on the GW site, you even can rotate them in 360 degrees there. As a Picture/Art -book it is disappointing as well. It is poorly lay out, looks amteurish, plenty of room for improvement. The format lacks too. the book is small, too small for impressive army shots, therefore filled with blown up detail shots of larger board arrangements.
All in all it might be worth a shot, it if you are a die hard fan of the featured army. But the way it is now, I cant imagine it will find great acceptance among hobbyists.
I appreciate you taking the time to look at the other side of the argument for us. I found point #6 to be especially thought-provoking, after all I buy Home & Garden-type magazines all the time for the "renovation porn," and these things are pretty much 75% advertising. There's no price you can put on inspiration, personally. Thanks for the insight!
I managed to get my hands on the weekly White Dwarf today, and that just compounds my view. Weekly is excellent, what was considered to be a sales booklet has more content in there to further your hobby than Visions or the Old WD. Visions is just too shallow, once you've had a look through it what do you take away? What water cooler moments does it bring? A picture may say a thousand words, but sometimes you need the thousand words.
Visions will never change to have actual reading material in it due to the multi language style it has, and it suffers because of it. Highly skilled painters enjoy the pictures because they can dissect the techniques used, but as an aspiring painter such as myself, I would really appreciate how to achieve those effects. (Which is why I am such a fan of this site).
The main gripe comes down to the pricing. £7.50 is too much for a product with no real use outside of 'that looks nice' (and I don't smoke, so that argument is null) and £2.40 is too much for a 30-odd page weekly. Most womans weeklies are under a pound and Autosport (which is the closest in price) just has so much content in it.
Still a shocking decision on GW's part.
Visions is everything great about the photographic element that GW have brought to gaming magazines, albeit with slightly poor repro (some of those GD and Blanchitsu photos looks blurry as hell).
As a magazine to support the hobby it is, frankly, worthless, with WD still being of more use, and Visions could easily be a quarterly magazine and achieve exactly the same effect. I don't think it has *no* place in the hobby, but I don't think it's what GW think it is – even more so considering the painting guides are *still* in WD and not in the magazine full of lovely photos of their painted models.
I have to say I stand by my views on the last review. My main reason for getting White Dwarf was pretty much checking up the techniques through masterclass lessons and lately, the Paint Splatter section. They're fine as they are, but could be a lot more. But the current direction GW seems to take is preparing the magazine in a more catalogue-esque function (even though there are no prices, the shots themselves are almost the same as the shop images with backgrounds) with a lot more visual content.
I hope you don't take this the wrong way like brown-nosing or anything, but I find Stahly's and your tutorials a lot better content for new hobby enthusiasts and veterans who would want to up their painting skill compared to WD's content.
Meeeh!
Youre deluding youreself. GW does these magazines to sell more minis. Anything els is just not intressting for them.
Coolminiornot does a book.
Their are sites that Show Goldendemons from now and way back.
Their is more Free Content out that is way better than this. If you like to look at other Art Hobbys you can find more value Tipps.
Its not like WD is Bad. Its just not intressting.
Its still a catalouge. They dont Show prices becaus they scare beginners off and they Know their prices are the 1 thing nobody likes. Its like any company that wants to sell you a Bad deal, they hide the important Info as much as possible.
Imo buy the mag if you want.
Lets wait and see if this will last as long as the last WD change.
Hi,
I was disappointed by Visions. I felt ripped off. Most of the pics were recycled from the last WD monthly. Tyranids, Hobbit and all.
The battle report didn't make sense. It seemed like a few pictures of a gaming table with a few short text inseted haphzardly.
In fact, I just wrote in to cancel my on-going subscription of WD (which got switched to Visions) and demanding a refund.
I'll give WD a try in the future if there is a change for the better.
Honestly, I missed the WDs of the early 2000s. Those I still keep and read. The WDs of the past 2 years were essentially flip through and trash.
Thank you.
I like it. I wish the BR were a bit better but the pictures were awesome. I have high hopes they will improve on the first edition. FYI, in Australia its actually CHEAPER than a packet of cigs. Cigs here cost over $20! 🙂
I really like the 'silver lining' attitude, and definitely don't want to see them fail… But every time I try to think positively about it I see the silly captions – 'informing' me that Gandalf is a wizard, for example – and the lost potential makes me miserable… Glad you've managed a change of heart! Maybe next month will turn me around 🙂
Dear Garfy, these reasons do sound forced. Do you really consider e.g. 1, 11, and 12 to be valid reasons to buy this magazine? I am, quite frankly, not sure whether you are joking or not. Concerning 2: The images are not all new. Be your own judge: http://quirkworthy.com/2014/02/01/white-dwarf-reborn-part-3/
Regards
Pretty pictures of miniatures are free all over the internet. And often better miniatures from more varied sources then just GW. Visions is a waste of cash,
just a point, i bought a copy and there was an open one to flick though in GW so you can see before you buy.
Why pay so much money to look at pictures you can probably find on the net. When I saw that it was called Visions I thought it would be full of articles both GW and readers. Pay so much for 200 pages of shiny pics. I will not be doing it again.
Its overpriced after all, Both of them. Since its not open you don`t know what you get untill you buy it.
I gave the first issue a shot and i don`t think i buy another one since the really creative parts are underdeveloped. Would be better if there was no high res oldpicrecycling and more of kitbash and after all Blanchitsu.
I can't fault your enthusiasm but for £7.50 it's pretty naff.
Little flimsy but I appreciate you trying to find a silver lining. My main issues with it are 1) price yeah it is too high I was perfectly happy with the old price and format I think they really needed to prove that rather than split their efforts ooops that's kinda point 2. So extra point 3 – I was happy with the olfd price and content most of the time but this new A5 mag is more expensive and I am afraid it is not well designed it does not really count as a well crafted coffee table book as the production and design isn't high enopugh. WHen I compare to other (non gaming) magazines intended for similar reasons as display or inspiration the it falls short. A great issue of Frankie/Smiths Journal or InDesign for instance is cheaper better quality paper comes with posters and great photos and still has editorial content. This has nothing to offer I can't get for free it doesn't have a significant point of difference. My two cents anyway. I'll skip this one but will read the next months review to see if there has been any changes.
13. GW is likely working towards getting more substance into the next issues.
I found it to be very compelling and I've definitely started upping my game when painting after looking at some of those fantastic models. It even had me tempted to join the hive fleets! Depends on brand but my smokes cost between £6 and £7.50, needs to be packing it in soon, need more models and less tar! Cheers for the article and that ultramarine army is a thing of sheer beauty! Stu
I'm definitely frustrated by it, but it's not beyond the possibility of repair. I'm hoping the next issue will make a few tweaks and make it worthwhile.
Love this!
I like the 2 magazines to be honest…each to their own.
Love how you meet Dan and Adam – then this article crops up! Did they threaten you Garfy? (Joke of course).
I would be more happy with a decent battle report.
Edd
How much does a package of smokes cost in the UK??? 😉
Enough that a grey market of illicit tobacco has grown to be a sizable problem in poorer areas of the country.
A pack of 20 lambert is now nearly £7.60, suffice to say I'm glad I quit!
Its like 3x what smokes costs in rest of europ.
So for us the WV is more expensiv.
@cylux
You mean solution!
It youre goverments fault to tax a basic thing so high normal people cant afford it. But then give banks tax breaks.
I like it to, like you said, you can keep it, its a lot more durable than most magazines and so its going to be great on a shelf in my gaming room, ready to be dipped into by anyone for years to come