Obituary John Blanche
John Blanche passed away at the age of 77. The news was shared by Trish Carden, a long-time friend and former Games Workshop colleague, via social media. The family has asked for a private funeral and announced a later gathering for everyone who knew John and valued his work.
John Blanche’s wife Lin has asked me to let you all know that John passed away a couple of days ago.
John was an inspirational artist, devoted to his family and a good friend to many. Always generous with his time and knowledge, he was very well loved by all who knew and worked with him. He’ll be hugely missed.
The world of Warhammer was brought to life by his vision of the grimdark setting and I know his art meant a lot to so many of you. He leaves behind an enormous legacy that has enriched many people’s lives.
The family will say goodbye to John privately but there will be a get together in the future for everyone to celebrate John’s life.
Kosk yn kres old friend.
Anyone who got into Warhammer in the 1980s and 1990s really also encountered John Blanche. Not through the rules or the boxes, but through the artwork that shaped countless products in the Warhammer universe. Many remember the iconic cover of the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40,000, the Blood Angels Captain in the midst of battle, surrounded by Orks. That image, too, was created by John Blanche.
His style shaped not only the look of the products, but also the way many hobbyists approached their own projects and models. Blanchitsu, that distinctive mix of conversion work and painting, often using carefully chosen colors like the Zorn palette, helped define what many now understand as Grimdark, and it remains part of what makes that style so special today.
I never met John Blanche in person, but through mutual acquaintances and his many projects beyond the Warhammer universe, I was always able to sense the creative energy he brought to everything he did. In one of his quotes about his work, he once wrote:
„The first images of primeval man would concern themselves with hunting scenes, heroic action, mighty beasts, death masks, war paint, fetishes and trophies. Today we see the same sorts of themes represented in punk haircuts, studded leather and even in the imagery employed in films like Blade Runner and Aliens. This is the heritage of Western culture, and that is what I am trying to tap when I paint.“
He did exactly what he described. And traces of that can be found everywhere, including here. Thank you for your life’s work.
Rest in peace, John Blanche.
CONflict Rhineland 2026
Last weekend, the latest installment of CONflict Rheinland took place in Langenfeld near Leverkusen. Just like in previous years, we had our own table, this time covering some retro gaming of Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition.
CONflict is a closed, invite-only event that runs from Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, with some people, just like the three of us, only staying for Saturday. We covered things like the location, car park, and so on over the last few years, so I’ll skip that in this year’s coverage. If you’re interested, just check out the coverage since 2022:
As catering was expanded this year, we had more room in the car for miniatures and such, and I brought along two IKEA Samla boxes of sprues and kits for the bring & buy. Once we arrived around 10:30 am, a lot of gaming was already going on, and we did a quick browse before we set up our own table.
Right next to us, Lion Rampant was being played, covering a battle from the Italian Wars with lots of Landsknechts.
May 2026 review
Post-Chaosbunker Classics
Welcome to June! It’s almost the halfway point of 2026, and I’m still catching up on the things we did during that weekend. I started covering the individual army shots in separate posts, including the icons you might know from old White Dwarf battle reports.
I took a lot of pictures and screenshots from old magazines and recreated them. Unfortunately, due to a file error, all of the Ork icons I had already prepared were lost, and I have to redraw them. That is something I might tackle on the next long weekend.
Age of Sigmar Spearhead – City of Ash
Games Workshop sent us the City of Ash boxed set, the latest entry in their Spearhead format for Age of Sigmar. It is the first Spearhead set we review on this blog, and we will do an unboxing review for City of Ash in a similar way to how we covered the Kill Team sets. But just to point out: Spearhead is not comparable to Kill Team (of which the Fantasy counterpart is Warcry), but rather to 40k’s Combat Patrol game mode.
City of Ash is a themed boxed set for the Spearhead game mode: a self-contained two-player set designed for fast, focused games. There is also a regular variant, based on the last Age of Sigmar starter set containing Stormcast Eternals and Skaven.
What is it about?
The name says it all: Embergard, the City of Ash. A dead city fought over for its reserves of emberstone, a magical resource with military significance in the ongoing wars of the Mortal Realms. Two Spearhead-warbands clash in its ruins: the Freeguild soldiers of the Cities of Sigmar under the command of Jorvan Kreel, and the Clans Eshin Skaven, rat-folk assassins led by the notorious Deathmaster Crixxit.
April 2026 review
Chaosbunker Classics!
The premiere of our inhouse retro series was a full on success! You can read a recap on the weekend on here - Chaosbunker Classics 2026. We played Warhammer 40k 2nd edition for two days, had some amazing armies and terrain to play with.
The feedback on that weekend was overwhelmingly positive and in such volume that I'm still trying to process it all. Thanks everybody for joining in and especially to Tobias and Evi for the great pictures and coverage afterwards. We got invitations to podcast, we were asked when the next event will be, offered sponsorship and but most of all, the people shared their fascination and enthusiasm for what we did.
The coverage on the Classics is not done either, all the armies will get their presentation posts, like I did with my Imperial Fists and the Sisters of Battle so far, it just takes some time to prepare the small icons. And of course I want to provide the narrative that we played on the weekend in a proper way, editing the campaign maps, capturing the scenarios and such takes a bit of time, but will be posted on here as well.
So be sure, this won't be the last endeavour into the old times of Warhammer. We'll keep you posted.
Furucius – Stone Trove terrain
Last year I had a bunch of rock formations printed, using the Stone Trove files by Dana McDonald.
The project originally came from Kickstarter, and you can now buy the sets on MyMiniFactory in different bundles. There are also a few shops running a merchant license if you don’t have access to your own printer.
All parts were printed on a Bambu Lab A1 Standard, using the High Quality PLA profile with a 0.08 mm layer height. That already gives a very clean result, but on the top surfaces where layer lines were still visible, I went in with a 1:1 mix of filler and white acrylic paint. I just brushed a fairly thick coat onto those areas and let it cure fully before touching anything else.
Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026 – Part 1
It's been a while since the last event that was hosted in Europe by Games Workshop, if you exclude the Golden Demon at the SPIEL. And it is the first ever Warhammer Open in Europe, hosted at the MECC in Maastricht!
And since we really liked Warhammer Fest Europe 2018 in Düsseldorf, we were excited for the announcement of Warhammer Open in Maastricht, since it is just two hours away from us.
From April 24th to 26th, 2026 at Maastricht Exhibition & Conference Centre in The Netherlands, there was a whole weekend filled with gaming events for Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Kill Team, Underworlds and even an narrative format.
Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026 – Part 2
In the second part of our coverage on Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026 we continue with more tables and impressions from the event.
In a corner of their own was the Narrative Event, and they really caught my eye as they went above and beyond to really bring the narrative across, most of them wearing costumes fitting to their army.
A visit to … Kutami
During my trip to Bremen, I took the opportunity to visit Kutami at their new location in Lloydstraße, at the corner of Lloyd-Straße and Hans-Böckler-Straße. There is a tram stop nearby and a parking lot behind the building, which makes it easy enough to reach.
Before you get there, though, it is worth knowing that this is not a regular store with a broad shop front. Instead, Kutami's new location is rather a walkable warehouse for wargaming and tabletop hobbyists.
As they recently moved, not everything was in its final place yet, but I was allowed to take a few pictures and give you an impression of what is going on there. The space includes a checkout area, several cabinets, and plenty of tables. Especially on the weekends, there is a lot happening, and with boxes full of terrain they are easily able to host mid-sized to larger events.
March 2026 review
The Grim Dark and the Wild West
Posts on the blog have been slow lately, but that is mostly due to internal projects. As I told you, I am working on an Imperial Fists army for the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40k. I made solid progress this month, but still have some work in front of me. One missing piece to prepare is the Whirlwind, which is part of my extension to push them from 1.250 to 1.500 points.
We received another shipment by Great Escape Games for Dead Man's Hand. We will cover the US Cavalry / Buffalo Soliders as well as the Mounted US Cavalry from the Kickstarter. Just give us a bit of time to catch up with the current running projects.
Like us on Facebook
Follow me on Instagram
Categories
- events (206)
- fantasy (599)
- General (160)
- historical (632)
- Little Big Adventures (4)
- offtopic (5)
- reviews (536)
- science fiction (689)
- showroom (107)
- terrain (118)
- work-in-progress (420)
