Mörderin by John Blanche Part 1

I have stated a few times on this blog that I’m a big fan of John Blanche’s artwork. His iconic work for the third edition of Warhammer 40,000 is where I started my hobby journey. In particular I do love to pick up miniatures based on his artwork. So, when there was a Kickstarter campaign for a raft of miniatures all based on art by John Blanche, I couldn’t help but jump at the opportunity. I had also recently picked up the John Blanche Masterclass Volume 2 paint set from the Army Painter that I was keen to try out.

As I’m an idiot, when it came to the Pledge Manager completely forgetting what exactly I had backed and what Stretch Goals I was getting so I ended up getting an all-in pledge. So, when everything arrived, I had a couple of duplicates. Not the end of the world, I can use the spares for conversion fodder.

The models themselves are siocast resin although some of the finer components, typically heads and arms are 3D printed. For the former, cleaning mold lines can be a little tricky as I found it hard to get into the nooks and crannies with my hobby knife. I did the best I could, but I definitely missed a few. In any case, I got about ten miniatures assembled and jump right into painting. And while I was painting them, I started thinking about the characters and their backstories.

Bears

I started with the bears, because they’re smol. I envisioned these guys to be similar to cherubs that adorn a lot of Warhammer 40,000 artwork.  Vat-grown horrors that flit about broadcasting hymns or waving incense around.

Drummer of Hearts - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

To get things started I primed them all with Colour Hyrax Brown, and dotted the noses with Two Thin Coats Death Reaper, as that would be the colour of the fur and I wanted to keep things fairly dark. At least for the basecoats. The little “Drummer of Hearts” as they’re referred to in the Kickstarter was my first victim. I painted his drum and his stylish mohawk with a couple thin coats of Vallejo Scarlet Red. For the rest of the drum, I painted the skin with Vallejo Pale Flesh and the strings with Vallejo Khaki. The drumsticks, earring and collar I painted with Army Painter Heavy Metal. I then gave them an ears to paws wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. From there I moved onto the highlights, intentionally choosing very bright colours to contrast the darker basecoats. I highlighted the edges of the drum with Army Painter Pale Sand and the mohawk with Army Painter Fiery Vermillion. I then highlighted the fur with Army Painter Urban Buff and the metal details with Scale75 Thrash Metal.

Voodoo Bear - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

For the Voudoo Bear with their hook and skull puppet, I started by painting their cute little onesie with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw to look like flayed skin. Perhaps that is what the hook is for? From there I painted the horns with Vallejo Khaki and the skull glove-puppet-thing with Army Painter Tainted Garden. The peg leg and hook meanwhile I painted with Army Painter Heavy Metal. For the washes I first gave the onesie a coat of Reikland Fleshshade before washing the whole model with Army Painter Strong Tone. The dual washes had darkened the flensed skin a bit too much so to bring some life back to it I first gave it a couple layers of Griffon Claw. I then picked out the stitches with Vallejo Pale Flesh. For the skull puppet, I highlighted the folds in the cloth with a mix of Tainted Garden and Pale Flesh. As with the Drummer, I then highlighted the fur with Urban Buff and the metal with Thrash Metal.

Jester - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

The last of the bears was the one in a little clown outfit that I have named Jester. I decided that I wanted to give him a yellow and red outfit, so with that in mind I painted the sections with either Vallejo Scarlet Red or Vallejo Heavy Goldbrown. The ruff around his neck I painted with Vallejo Khaki. Lastly, I picked out the nose, claws and eyepatch with Two Thin Coats Dark Reaper and then gave the whole model a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. Before moving onto the highlights, I first did some layering on the clothing, painting over most of the surface aside from the deepest recesses with their respective base colour. Whilst this did bring back a decent amount of brightness to the model, I wanted to push it a little further. To do this I painted the red areas with Army Painter Fiery Vermillion in a smaller area than I had with the Scarlet Red. I then repeated this with the yellow, using Yriel Yellow instead. I then highlighted the edges of the ruff with Army Painter Pale Sand and the fur with Army Painter Urban Buff. The stitches and eye patch I highlighted with Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey.

Hussars

With the “bear-vitors” done I could move onto the more human models. Upolonia, the unnamed Boarding Hussar and Elspeth the Hussar all have fairly similar clothing, so it made sense to get them done together. All three of them were, like the bears, primed with Colour Forge Hyrax Brown, although Upolonia was left separate from her base to make painting easier. A staple of John Blanche’s artwork is near white, or at least very pale, skin and whilst I was tempted to break out the Army Painter Matt White, I decided to go for something a little less striking. I decided instead on Vallejo Pale Flesh, which is part of their Malefic Flesh paint set. It’s bit like a lighter Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw or Rakarth Flesh, ideal for what I was going for. I painted this on any exposed areas of skin in a couple of thin coats. From there I painted the corsets with Vallejo Scarlet Red, and the skirts and tabards with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw. For Upolonia and Elspeth I painted their trousers with Two Thin Coats Dark Reaper, I also used this for Upolonia’s hat.

Upolonia - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

For the Boarding Hussar’s scalemail trousers I wanted to try something a little different. One of the paints in the John Blanche Masterclass Volume 2 paint set is Sunburst Ochre, which reminded me a lot of the base colour I mix up from Vallejo Scrofulous Brown and Mournfang Brown when I’m doing gold non-metallic metal. I figured now is a good a time as any to test it for such a purpose. With that in mind, I gave the Hussar’s scale leggings a couple thin coats of Sunburst Ochre. I then mixed it with some Army Painter Matt White, around fifty-fifty, and used this to drybrush the scale. I followed this up with a lighter drybrush of pure Matt White and then a coat of Iyanden Yellow contrast paint to give it that golden hue. I was rather pleased with the results, for a super quick gold NMM it’s not bad! I have also decided to give the Boarding Hussar the name “Iona”.

Boarding Hussar - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

The Hussars had a couple of remaining details that I needed to pick out before I could move onto the washes and highlights. The fur details, like the hats, I painted with Vallejo Khaki, any skulls I painted with Army Painter Skeleton Bone and the feathers on Elspeth’s hat I painted with Archive-X Reefer White. For the metal details, like the weapons, bionics and Upolonia’s creepy mask I used Army Painter Heavy Metal. For her metal dreadlocks I used Army Painter Tainted Gold to make them stand out a little.

For the washes, I started by giving the skirts and tabards a coat of Army Painter Voodoo Shade. This is another new one from the Masterclass paint set, a dark wash that to my surprise has some green tones to it. This is not a bad thing, it’s just I was leaning towards the warmer side of the spectrum with yellows, reds and browns. I’ll need to do a side-by-side comparison of Voodoo Shade and Military Shade, but I can see few uses for it. For the rest of the model I thinned some Army Painter Dark Tone with some AK Interactive Ultra Matt Varnish and gave them an all over wash.

Elspeth the Hussar - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

From there I first gave the tabards an edge highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh and to make things a little easier, I lightly drybrushed this onto Upolonia’s skirt to catch the raised details. While I had the drybrush out, I highlighted the fur on the Hussars with Army Painter Pale Sand. As I had done for the bears, I then highlighted the red areas, i.e. the corsets, with Army Painter Fiery Vermillion. At this point the uniform colours across the models I had painted was really starting to come together.

Medicae

Last up to paint were Galomia with her syringe and bodysuit, and Rastn with her crab claw bionic arm. I had left these two until last purely because I was having trouble deciding how I was going to paint them, they lacked the obvious uniformity of the models I had painted so far. The more I stared at these miniatures the more I began to see a dichotomy between them, Galomia’s perfect form contrasted with Rastn’s crude bionics and stitched up skin. Perhaps Galomia is some kind of flesh-shaper and Rastn is her creation? Perhaps the Bears are her work as well?

Galomia - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

While I mulled over the relationships between my characters I got stuck into the painting. The red bodysuit from Galomia’s artwork is difficult enough to render into a physical miniature let alone paint. I was tempted to give it a coat of Flesh Tearer’s Red and call it a day but opted against it. In the end I decided to practice layering colours. To do this I first started by priming the model with Colour Forge Raven Black. I then built up my layers starting with a basecoat of Army Painter Basilisk Red, I then painted over ninety percent of the bodysuit with Vallejo Scarlet Red, only leaving the deepest recesses the purplish tone of Basilisk Red. I then repeated this process with Archive-X Caboose Red and Army Painter Fiery Vermillion, painting in smaller and smaller sections each time. For the rest of the model, I painted the skin with the usual Vallejo Pale Flesh, but for the hair I used Army Painter Ruddy Terra. As despite what is depicted in the artwork I didn’t want to use the same vivid reds for the hair. Ruddy Terra, as the name suggests, is still quite red at any rate. For the final few details, I painted the gloves with Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey as, like the hair, I didn’t want to overload the model with vivid red tones. The cool medical grey seemed like an acceptable compromise. Lastly, I picked out the syringe with Army Painter Heavy Metal, somehow managing to snap the needle in the process.

The result was pretty good, but I wanted to bump up the contrast just a little more, so I gave the bodysuit and the hair a coat of Army Painter Red Tone. The skin I washed with a coat of Reikland Fleshshade while the gloves and syringe were given a coat of Army Painter Dark Tone. These washes did darken the model a little more than I would have liked so to bring back some brightness I repainted the Fiery Vermillion layer on the bodysuit and a layer of Carcharodon Grey on the gloves. For the highlights and final details, I first ran a thin line of Flesh Tearer’s Red into the sides of the syringe and then carefully picked out the straps over her shoulders with Two Thin Coats Cuirass Leather. I then highlighted the skin with Vallejo White Flesh and the hair with Army Painter Buffed Hide.

Rastn - Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops

Moving onto Rastn, a name I will almost certainly change, I started by priming the model with Colour Forge Hyrax Brown. As with others, I painted the skin with a couple thin coats of Vallejo Pale Flesh and the corset with Vallejo Scarlet Red. It was a little difficult deciding what was and what wasn’t skin, but I think I got it in the end. To match the black trousers of Upolonia and Elspeth I painted Rastn’s leggings with Two Thin Coats Death Reaper. Taking a queue from Galomia, I painted the mark and, very short, skirt with Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey. The straps on her chest I picked out with Two Thin Coats Cuirass Leather. Lastly for the basecoats I painted the bionics and the gun with Army Painter Heavy Metal, I then painted the skulls and details on the claw with Army Painter Tainted Gold.

For the washes, I changed things up slightly by washing the skin with Taargor Rageshade. The slight purple tone of the wash making the skin look a bit sore and bruised. The rest of the model however, I washed with Army Painter Dark Tone. For the highlights I first started by painting the mask and skirt with a layer of Carcharodon Grey on the raised areas to bring back some brightness. I then highlighted the corset with Army Painter Fiery Vermillion, and while I had it out used it to paint in the eye lenses. For the stockings, I wanted to leave them quite dark, so I mixed Death Reaper with some Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone and used that to highlight them. I used Vallejo White Flesh to highlight the skin and as the metal areas are quite large, I used Scale75 Thrash Metal to highlight the bionic arm.

Bases

With the models done I moved onto the bases and any final details. First things first were the plasma coils on Upolonia’s pistol that I failed to notice until now. I gave them a quick coat of Army Painter Matt White followed by a coat of Gryph-Hound Orange. With that out of the way I quickly returned to the bases, giving them a generous coat of Vallejo Dark Earth texture paste. This was mostly to plug any holes left slotting the miniatures into the bases. Once that was dry, I gave it a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone to bring out the texture. I then dabbed on some PVA glue and sprinkled on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Patchy Plains, which I then locked in place with some Geek Gaming Scenics Matt Sealant. To finish them off I stuck down some tufts and painted the rims with Steel Legion Drab.

Final Thoughts

I’m very happy with how these have turned out, the paint scheme has really brought them together as a somewhat coherent warband. Upolonia’s capotain (or steeple) hat definitely has Ordo Hereticus vibes but I see them more as a mercenary warband, if not outright pirates. Not explicitly Chaos worshippers but they have definitely defected from the Imperium. They roam the lawless parts of the Astrid Reach subsector, plundering what they can and staying one step ahead of Navy patrols.

I’m toying with the idea of building them out to be a Stargrave crew. Dread Pirate Upolonia and her First Mate Galomia has a nice ring to it. The Hussars and Rastn can probably fill out some of the Specialist roles but I’m going to need some more standard soldiers. So if anyone has any recommendations for models that match the vibe of these ones I’d be ever so grateful. The Stargrave (and by extension Frostgrave) plastic kits do tend to be quite chunky compared to the more svelte look of the Mörderin models.