John Blanche is a master of his job. His oil paintings with sepia tones have established the whole atmosphere of Warhammer 40K, and his works of art still adorn rules and codices of years after his retirement. He inspired an entire movement of style of painting through his whiten chronicle in white dwarf. Personally, he influenced my own Warhammer trip at each stage to recreate his works to forge my own dark mechanic in his style.
Warhammer is a Grimdark frame. The quintessence of nihilist science fiction, there are no good guys and only war in this fictitious future. Gothic architecture alone has influenced a myriad of novels and table games in the past 30 years, to the point where you say the word “Grimdark”, and the first thought of most people would be “Warhammer”.
But that should not be the case.
The new children of the Warhammer 40k emperor deserve a colorful painting
Emperor’s children are an ideal opportunity to try a different style. After having finished reading Fulgrim as part of my personal Horus Heresy reading club, I looked at the dull gray of the miniatures of the children of the new plastic and I wanted to make them as bright and colorful as possible.
It turned out to be a challenge. I am a man who paints with sponges and washes, I almost drink the cracker. I care more about creating an impression than choosing each strong edge point, and this laundry inspiration is noisy and clear. So I needed to learn to paint from zero.
I started painting with a daring primer, the color pink of Color Forge. The Rogue Hobbies Collaborative Spray did an excellent job, offering sufficient coverage and a dynamic tone. Then I side the areas that would not be pink. Lots of gray eshin for each area that would be black or silver, a brown for gold stains and an ulthua gray for the fabric. I chose to also apply this to weapons in parts, to correspond to the codex. I’m not going exactly the same effect as marketing in marketing, but the weapon effect seems good.
I used a washing on my black areas – Black Wordless Templar – and I carefully highlighted the edges of my metal areas with metal paintings. Then I added blue on various wires as a punctual color to break things. We will bright With these miniatures.
I spent the most time on pink armor, which I am in observation with a mixture of Magenta contrast of Doomfire and the children of the Emperor before the highlighting with more children of the Emperor. After that, I added in the details, painted all the faces, the belts and the ephemeral paraphernalia, and I qualified them as an end. My navies are shiny, colorful and not washed.
How to tell a story with painting
I don’t know if I could get involved in a complete army painted like that; This team took me countless hours of beautiful painting. But I appreciated it as an exercise, and the miniatures of the Emperor’s children are the perfect canvases for this immaculate painting.
Obsessed with all that is artistic, the quest for perfection of the emperor’s children leads them on the way to excess, until their disappearance. Fulgrim, the most beautiful and most graceful of Primarques, is attracted to a whispering demon in his head. Soon, almost the whole legion fell in Slaanesh.
A feeling of Grimdark would not be good with the champions of Slaanesh. I have the impression that these warriors meticulously clean their armor after each battle, adding ornate details and details each time. It may not be very logical to see their shiny armor fighting on the top of the table against my Grimdark armies, but you can stretch your imagination a little.
The painting is as much narration as a novel or codex entry, and I try to tell the story of my group of perfectionists through clean painting. This is not something that I have tried before, and the lack of shortcuts or easy roads to a fast and effective army is new to me. But that corresponds to the army thematic; Like the models I paint, I try a style that gives off perfection to the point of zéote. No disorder washing or “cheating” dry brushes. Just bright colors and clean reflections.
For a first real attempt, I am satisfied with the way they came out and I have a new admiration for these pink punks. Who knows, maybe I’m going to clean my brushes for a perfectionist approach to Fulgrim every time he gets it out.
Following
Playing the admit as an inquisitor of Warhammer
Can the Warhammer and Confection worlds meet?