White Dwarf no more...

So, as you may or may not have seen in my previous post, after actually seeing the new White Dwarf magazines in hand, I cancelled my subscription. In another blog post, that I realise as I'm typing that is still at the as yet unpublished draft stage, I mentioned what I think is the crux of my issue with modern White Dwarf - there's nothing really in it any more! In the golden age of WD, there's be conversions and scenarios and all sorts of exciting articles that would actually make me want to get out my brushes or my modelling tools and do something hobby related, whereas in recent years it's become a showcase for nicely painted miniatures.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a nicely painted little man, but I have the internet (where I even get to choose what sort of exquisitely painted little man it is I get to look at!). I'm not a display piece painter, so it's not going to fire me up and inspire me to greater heights of painterly achievement like it might the next guy... 

It's really just that WD became something to glance through when it arrived, then maybe pick up again once or twice to dig deeper into an article that was actually interesting (ooh, no I did not in fact know that interesting fact about the development of the imagery and iconography of Space Marines, or wow they really are struggling to find new ways to say that John Blanche sometimes uses *gasp* parts bases or paints that aren't GW!). Alas, when I saw the new mags, I saw that Warhammer Visions is literally just pictures of nicely painted miniatures (lovely, but I flick through those pages looking for some meat and find myself half way through the thick mag...), and White Dwarf Weekly is £2.40 for 30 odd pages of rules... Most of which I don't care for (honestly, when did I last actually play a game? I want to, but hey...) and I just can't justify that any more. I know, it's only the first one, they might start actually writing interesting articles again one day, but for now I'm out, I quit White Dwarf.

As it was a Christmas present, I got to choose some toys with the credit, and (after much grumbling about the lack of things I want actually being in stock) I came away with a preorder for the new plastic Dragon Slayer (because I have a box of slayers waiting for their day in the sun, and he looks pretty snazzy), some technical paints (because hey everyone needs more paint right?) a pot of what is supposedly the same paint as Fortress Grey (we'll see) and a box of Spess Mehreens, because I actually quite enjoyed painting my test nerdmarine, and might see about painting up a whole squad (and thought a box of tactical marines would give me the most options for adding some variety to the push-fit marines I have from old starter sets and donor parts to salvage old miniatures that are missing various limbs that I'd acquired over the years when buying job lots on eBay that I've recently dug out of my bits box...) - the theory being, if I can paint a whole squad, I can paint two, add a character and boom there's a playable force (but we all know how those plans work out...)

I mean, I'd have bought the bits I need for a Path to Glory Slaanesh warband or some LOTR ruffians to convert for ASOIAF if they'd had them in stock, but alas. 

This little bundle of goodies unfortunately takes the tally further in the wrong direction, down to:

1 vs 15 = -14

And since it's Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, I don't expect to get a whole lot of hobby done in the foreseeable future...