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hello dakka. quick poll for you all. I'm wondering how people feel about white dwarf as a painting & modeling resource (esp for 40k). the batreps and whatnot are fun, but not a selling point for me. I'm specifically interested in seeing good photos of great armies and learning how they were painted/converted as well as general tips & tricks. I guess I'm also interested in WD-only rules publications and such (e.g., stormtalon rules), seeing as how GW doesn't make those readily available elsewhere.

with that said, do you think white dwarf, in it's current incarnation, is worth the cover/subscription price?

This topic will likely end with 99% saying no. Because it is true. WD is a terrible resource for painting techniques. Most of the content is incomplete as well. There is nothing in the magazine that can't be found on the GW website or in a online forum. It's been said way too much the the magazine has been on a downwards spiral for the last several years.

Depends on how much money you have, and how much of that money you'd like to spend on a magazine.

No-one complains about a magazine like T3 being full of adverts and product placements - but I don't think people complain about it being worth it?



I think you need to think about the other alternatives out there...have you seen the quality of other (mainly local) wargaming glossies? They are, generally, terrible.

If you want a hard copy, on hand, resource with good photography and pretty mini's - and you can afford £5.50 per month/£44 per year, then aye, WD is fine.

I think that WD can have some interesting things in it. The articles like kitbash have improved the standard of how useful it is when providing ideas about modelling and so on.

However the amout of adverts is still overwhelming and I would like more detail in battle reports or may two of them. This would make up for the sparse amount of info about the battle because most of it is about choosing the army and how the game went instead of a narritive.

No. Buy 'Military Modelling' magazine. Actually useful.

Current format:
No for painter, no for rules, no for background enthusiasts, okay for kids wanting to see pics of the new releases, excellent for people travelling around the globe and wanting to have all telephone numbers of every GW stockist in the world at hand .

Depending on time, several old WDs were excellent and some still are.
As a painter, you better browse painting websites, e.g. coolminiornot.com or Dakka .

Sometimes? I have found some articles useful... which warrant a single purchase if needed. I also like issues which highlight models I plan to use and convert as it is nice to have as a resource. I think in the past few years I bought 3, The Dakkajet article, the Stompa article and one with Stormboyz/nobz release. It gives me a 'head start' on techniques and pictures of models just released on the market.

A year later, I can just google 'stompa' and find dozens of cool techniques, articles, builds and paintjobs which does the same role.

So I do find the magazine useful for models which I collect (which is only 40kork stuff) but nothing you can't find online later.

Kroothawk nailed it. The new layout is nice looking but the content is still pretty thin. If you've just discovered the hobby and are in that "honeymoon" period, flipping through WD can be entertaining. But I'd say, don't get a sub for that. IIRC, you save nothing on a sub anymore except the trip to the LGS (and the LGS will get it before it comes to you door anyway).

White dwarf used to be so much better. In the last 5 years the magazine has gone downhill so much. There is hardly any material in it anymore for painting and modeling.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Kroothawk wrote:
Current format:
No for painter, no for rules, no for background enthusiasts, okay for kids wanting to see pics of the new releases, excellent for people travelling around the globe and wanting to have all telephone numbers of every GW stockist in the world at hand .

Depending on time, several old WDs were excellent and some still are.
As a painter, you better browse painting websites, e.g. coolminiornot.com or Dakka .

He nailed it right on the head. So true

Way back they ran the masterclass painting series

Ie kossoro khan and how to paint white, think also they did Lukas, a gamesday chaos knight with blue and purple glazes, and others

As a hobby resource that was great. Think they then put those articles in a book you can buy. I tore them out and put them in a folder of plastic sleeves, still have them

Also remember the space hulk painting guide, think Anja did SGT Lorenzo, that was outstanding. I was inspired. Remember sitting on Balmoral beach just looking at that thinking wow.

Alas those epic demonstrations happened several years ago now. No reason to think they can't again.

WD, meet Eavy team. Painters, you will each prepare a showpiece for a monthly issue and work closely with photographer dude here step by step

We will explore glazes, colour combinations, use of light and painting light effects, OSL, scorched barrels, teeth and bone, hair, leather, magic weapon effects, power weapon effects, eyes, painting three dimensional illusions, planning and executing an epic dreadnought or chapter champion sized banner

Sigh

Orcs, Tau, DE, Fantasy, Hobbit feet..

Grounds to delight are rich and untapped.

4 to 5 pages, half text, lots of great quality photos

Yikes, i very nearly voted 'yes' there before i re-read the last line: 'is WD worth the cover price?'

Big Fat No

And yet i'm still pre-programmed to buy it every month without fail, in fact i start to get slightly anxious by the second week of the month if i haven't purchased it by then, kinda like i'm missing out on these really great articles on GW sanctioned fluff, cool conversions, reader's armies, stuff that would inspire and impress me and give me a load of ideas to nick...

And then i'll go buy it and it'll be such an anticlimax. Again.

The kitbash articles at the mo are the only decent thing about the mag from the moddler's point of view, and yet as others have said you can can find ten times the amount of conversion related goodness on forums such as here.

The odd photo-shopped pics they throw in every now and again can be quite cool though

White Dwarf is a glorified magazine of photoshopped marines and conversions

the only benefit of purchasing it would be if the rules for a certain unit were in it, and the FLGS you go to requires you to have the White Dwarf to prove the rules are correct.