Monsters & Minis

In Memoriam John Blanche October 1948 - June 2026

We're going to be doing this more often, you know.

John Blanche died this week, as reported by fellow former Games Workshop alum Trish Carden, passing away at the age of 78. Intensely private in his personal life - his birthday is observed in "late October" - details of his passing are understandably scarce. Although he retired a few years ago owing to poor health, I hope that his ultimate end was a peaceful one untroubled by sickness or infirmity.

I had the unique pleasure of meeting Blanche in a professional capacity, once, and he was precisely the sort of gregarious weirdo that one might assume from his work. Though our acquaintance was brief, it was one of the highlights of my association with Games Workshop.

In many ways, Blanche is synonymous with Warhammer - throughout much of Games Workshop's golden age in the 1990s, it was Blanche's art which formed people's first impressions of the setting and served as the initial hook to draw them into the grim darkness of the far future. It's certainly what hooked me.

His influence on the 40k aesthetic cannot be understated and is still felt, today, in ways both subtle and gross. In celebration of Blanche's life, take a moment to appreciate some of my favorite pieces of his.

Legendary fantasy artist John Blanche has died. He is known mostly for his long association with Games Workshop, where he served as art director and created many of the iconic images that shaped the Warhammer and 40K worlds. He was capable of working in diverse styles, but much of his art and his own creative miniature conversions made his name synonymous with the "grimdark" aesthetic, mixing elements of moody gothic architecture and body horror with a limited color palette.

The great John Blanche, whose art set the tone for so much of what I love about Warhammer, has passed away. A lot of emphasis is being put on his work for WH40K, where he really shaped and defined the universe, but to me, as a fantasy guy, I'll remember him for some of his iconic fantasy pieces. Not all of them were made for WFB - some were co-opted into the setting - but they

The father of Warhammer 40k art direction and the man that has inspired me as an artist, down to inspiring my current artstyle (and I am sure will continue to inspire me, even in death). 40k just wouldn't be 40k had it not been for the foundation of grimdark sci-fi that he laid.

Farewell, you absolute legend.

John Blanche, one of the people who gave warhammer a visual identity, has passed away.

I don’t think that I need to talk about how influential he was or how talented and gorgeous his artwork was, I think that speaks for itself.

The world was a bit more colorful to have him, and the world of Warhammer 40k was more grimdark thanks to him.

Before I did that though, I played a game using paper proxies to try it out. Had a lot of fun with these, and they were quick enough to make where I just tore them up as they died. I was running the Fungivorous Herd for this game, hence the pigs. I lost.

First up are the first ones I did. These are "chaff," which are essentially a scout unit and I did a couple of officers (Called "toadies" in game). They also have guns because I like winning shooting encounters occasionally. Like all of these, I used Victrix Napoleonic minis as a base. In the case the British Penisular Infantry Centre Companies kit. Basic assembly, but I did cover their faces in 2-part epoxy to make a vegetable-looking snout face thing. Other than that, just made then a bit grungy with some washes and dry-brushing, added some acrylic modeling paste to the bases, some undergrowth stuff that Army Painter makes, and some tufts of grass from Woodland Scenics. Definitely the sloppiest, but also the first, so, hey. One of them is arguably a One Piece reference.

Second was one which I will post uncensored if even a single person asks for it. I just didn't want the big post to have a bunch of swinging dicks in it. Otherwise, I assure you that they are there. These are "fodder" which are your cheap, shitty infantry. I gave them close quarters weapons because charging directly into gunfire is funny. I wanted to recreate the design from the proxies that I did and used the Victrix Gallic Naked Fanatics as a base. The helmets are made of epoxy and I think I mostly did a pretty good job, but made the mistake of assembling them before making the helmets, which made things unnessessarily difficult. There are also some mutant freaks mixed in which have been altered by either doubling up on limbs or adding lumps of epoxy because the base minis are kind of limited in poses and there are 12 of these guys. Painting is basic again with just base layers and filth, but I made sure to include a bit of chaffing/sunburn around any metal they are wearing.

Cannons in Turnip are called "stump guns" and they are hilarious. I have not yet gotten them to be properly effective. While the dudes for this follow the same process I've mentioned so far using Victrix French Napoleonic Foot Artillery (which have some great little bits and bobs) the cannon is made using the stopper for a travel chess set as the body, propped up on rooks from the same set, then ordained with shields and bits from the Naked Fanatics. The cannon bore was drilled out with an exacto knife blade clamped into an electric drill. Do not do this. There's also some bits of old sprue from something which was resin printed to mimic brambles/sticks. Really happy with how this turned out.

Pretty much concurrent with making the stump gun come the "brutes." Think heavy infantry. More of the british infantry, but I have them shields from… Some other Victrix set. I'm not sure which one to be honest. I just had the bits. One of them is definitely a One Piece reference. The heads/helmets on these are more from the travel chess set: 3 pawns and 3 knights. A couple are flourished with more bits from the naked fanatics as to be expected. I also put some Alizeran crimson on these for some quick blood effects since these are supposed to be the guys who have seen some shit and survived.

Since I knew I was going to be running the cult called the "Procession of Woe" I made some more toadies, this time with bishop chess piece helmets because they are heralds of a big old shrine. Nothing crazy here, but I like how they look.

Which leads into "the root shrine," which is essentially the general of the Procession of Woe. This is one of the more ambitious minis projects I've done. Unfortunately, for the root itself, I don't know what this is. It was given to me as a secret santa gift and looks like a resin print. There's a face on one side. If anyone knows what this is, please let me know since I like the vibe of it. The root is also the first piece I had to deal with, as that needed to be entirely wet blended all over to make it all turnip-y. Bronze chains as well, and some red spots for ick-factor. The shrine is made out of glued together pieces of basswood which I stained, then painted over the parts where the glue blocked the stain. The wheels and yokes are from the foot artillery set since I plan on using the actual guns from that to make ships cannons anyway. The canopy was originally some kind of cream colored rough cloth, which I frayed a bit and dyed. Lastly, everything else from the bits hanging as decor around the top of the shrine to the dudes pulling it are more naked fanatics. They come in a bag with enough to make 24 guys, so I'm gonna use them whenever I have a chance. This is not the most stable mini since it has multiple bases, so I might be reinforcing this at a later date. Really happy with it overall though. Complete pain to transport.

The last ones (so far) are "bastards." Heavy cavalry and really fun to use. Melee weapons because they can force retreats really easy. I used Victrix French Dragoons for these as a base, but there is a lot of epoxy on these freaks. Mostly on the snout and bug eyes, but I gave all of them some lumps as well. I also carved out as much of the bellies of the horses as possible to make them a bit more emaciated looking. Anyway, horses are really hard to paint! I think I did halfway decent, but only halfway. Also used some little mushroom pieces from AK Basing Bits (good detail, honestly a bit too expensive unless you really need a specific thing) for some of these in addition to the sprue bits for terrain.

Brigands of Mirkwood (1987) is an alright adventure that gives players a new, interesting base of operations and then pits them against regional problems. The hub is Straytown, an enclave of seedy operators in Mirkwood. Sort of a rustic, frontier town, lined with corduroy roads and full of opportunities and danger. A bit like Lankhmar, really.

The first scenario is a check-out-the-neighborhood kind of jam, where a scholar requires the players to purchase a book on his behalf. Some light hi-jinx ensue, but for the most part this is a sightseeing mission. The second scenario has the players raiding the guild hall of the rogues, which is basically a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser scenario. I’m not complaining. The final scenario pits them against the local mage, who is the primary power in the town. He’s also in league with Sauron and has a castle, of course. That’s a fairly straightforward assassination, but disappointingly, his removal likely leads to the dissolution of the whole settlement, which is a shame.

Gates of Mordor (1987) is an adventure module for MERP. It doesn’t seem to set a time frame, but I think it is ostensibly set before the fall of Minas Ithil, which makes sense, since the opening action involves the wineries in fertile lands extremely close to Mordor. Normal people wouldn’t live there after the ring wraith’s transformed Minas Ithil into Minas Morgul, but I can see foolish ones doing so while the city was still in possession of Gondor.

The module boils down to orc problems. They massacre a winery and some other sites and the players are meant to wipe them out. There are some complications and such, but that’s the basics. The orcs linger at the winery searching for hidden treasure, which is interesting (they know it is hidden in water, but there are a lot of local water features). The second scenario involves killing orcs holed up in an abandoned tower, which is pretty to the point, though made more interesting due to the involvement of some NPCs. The final scenario…is also pretty by the numbers: finish off the orcs and their leader. The leader is cool, the werewolf sorcerer Gaurhir.