ToP Tips: 3 Tips for getting your Models featured in White Dwarf

I’m regularly asked, “how do you get your models published in White Dwarf” and I thought I’d share three tips on how you can do this too.

1. Be your Best
Sounds pretty obvious but you need to paint your models to the very best of your ability. You don’t have to be a Golden Demon winner but be neat and clean up any mistakes. Conversions can help you stand out but only use Games Workshop parts. Take extra time on your bases, add some detail like rocks, skulls. Look at the Reader’s Models in the magazine to get inspired.

2. Photography

This is the key that gets you in. White Dwarf go through a lot of submissions and have to whittle them down to a handful each month. Photos that don’t make the cut are dark, have the subject cropped off the image, are low resolution and don’t have a white background. You have to be able to take a good photo. I wrote a beginner’s guide to DSLR photography and I start by taking a photo on automatic and then explain why it’s a bad photo, I then go through the settings correcting all that is wrong with it.

White Dwarf have also produced a very good guide on how to take photos for White Dwarf submissions (includes phone cameras). White Dwarf issue 456 had a really detailed guide as well. Once you have your perfect images it’s time to email them to team@whitedwarf.co.uk.

3. Reach out

It’s possible that the first images you send might not make the cut, don’t get disappointed. White Dwarf can’t reply to everyone but there are great communities on social media that can offer feedback to help you improve. You can reach out on social media using #warhammercommunity and #whitedwarf. Having an instagram or twitter account where you just share your hobby can be a good way to get noticed.

You can also reach out in person, I went to an Open Day Event at Warhammer World and White Dwarf always have a stand set up and I always make a point of going over and chatting about the magazine and my work. It’s handy to have some of your images on your phone to show them and talk about.

I’ve cultivated a relationship with White Dwarf that over the past 8 years has led to me playing the Hobbit against Dan Harden in White Dwarf, 3 Army of the Month features, an Army Showcase in an Index Astartes and a feature on my Photography. It all starts with sending in those first few images.

Where it all began, my first feature.

Have you had models in White Dwarf? What advice would you give to others aspiring to do the same? Share your tips in the comments.