John Blanche: a new beginning!

The Broken Road - John Blanche, 2016

After an illustrious career defining and shaping the world's of Games Workshop, John Blanche retired last week. It is impossible to overstate how important John was in helping Games Workshop become what it is today. His boundless creativity and vision has touched all aspects of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000, epitomizing the dark style that now defines it. For the three of us, his artwork literally brought us into the hobby. A large cardboard standee featuring the central Blood Angel Space Marine from John's cover for the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40,000 beckoned to us from the window of a local hobby shop. This led to us getting a few blister packs (we recently repainted one of the first trio of models we got from that very store) and eventually the 40k boxed game, and the rest was history. His evocative artwork kept us engaged in the hobby since that time, and his Blanchistsu articles in White Dwarf helped inspire us to push ourselves beyond what is featured on the box art and create our own sliver of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. To our continued amazement, this creative journey led us to the Inq28 movement and John Blanche himself, when we participated in Iron Sleet's Pilgrym event in 2016. When starting the hobby, we would have never imagined meeting John, let alone playing Warhammer 40k (or Mordheim!) with him. We feel incredibly blessed to count John as a friend, and want to wish him a wonderful retirement and are excited to see what he does next!

Dragged into Turbolasers 101: Mosscairn and 28 magazine with Martin McCoy

Mosscairn

In this episode we are joined by Martin McCoy, known for being the resident artist for 28 magazine. We talk about how he got into the hobby and how it fit with his journey as an artist. We also discuss how he developed his artistic style and some of the projects he is working on including Necropolis 28 and Mosscarin. We also talk about the Rot of Hondious, an Inq28 event he is hosting later this summer, including how people can get involved.

Olden Demon 2023: Ratling Sniper

The first generation of ratling snipers are still my favorite, and it was great to repaint one!

I am happy to say I was able to find time to paint a model for chilvers_industries annual Olden Demon painting contest! It asks contestants to paint an old Games Workshop model, celebrating the wonky models from the 80’s and 90’s, complete with a Goblin Green base, a hallmark of the ‘Eavy Metal team at the time. While last year I painted an ancient Warhammer knight, this year I decided to paint a Warhammer 40k model, specifically an original Ratling sniper model, which was actually the first model I ever got in my teen-aged years! After converting the model a small amount, it was great to paint the model and compare it to the other two from the original trio of Ratling models. I have come a long way from those early days in the hobby!

The Unforgiven: Oldhammer Dark Angel

A Dark Angel amongst a decaying city scape (created by Totally Not Panicking).

I am continuing my quest to paint Dark Angels, and after talking with Koltti on our podcast I decided it would be fun to paint another Rogue Trader era model. It also marks a year since painting my first Oldhammer Space Marine for last year’s Olden Demon. Space Marine models from the 80’s are quite fun to paint, due to how simple the one-piece models are. Furthermore, it is amazing how inconsistent the old Space Marine models are, from different sized hands, feet, and even different helmet designs. I am really happy with how the model turned out, and hope to paint a few more to go alongside them.

28 Vol. 5 out now!

We are excited to announce that volume 5 of the digital magazine 28 is finally out! As always, it is free to download from their website. It is filled with all sort of grim hobby content, along with some excellent interviews and tutorials. It was a long road editing the volume, but we are glad it is finally complete and hope you enjoy it!

Dragged into Turbolasers 100: Chatting with Pax_acrylica about converting and sculpting miniatures

In this episode we are joined by Pax_acrylica to talk about his journey through the hobby and how he creates imaginative miniatures that push the boundaries of Warhammer 40,000. We talk at length about his building and converting process and about some of the sources of his inspiration, including video games like Half-Life 2 and Disco Elysium. We also touch on his love of board games and learn about what he is playing at the moment.

Smash Bash 2023: Birthed in Blood

The pitfighter towers over these Sisters of Sigmar.

Earlier this month I showed the conversion for my entry into this year’s Smash Bash: a brutal pitfighter whose existence is violence and blood. The original model was sculpted by Lux Thantor Miniatures and is being sold by Totally Not Panicking to celebrate Smash Bash. I tried to channel Blood Meridian energy in the model to create a paragon of mankinds’ ultimate trade: war.

Oldhammer: Rogue Trader Space Marines

A trio of Rogue Trader era Space Marines!

Earlier this year we interviewed Koltti on our podcast, where we talked at length about his various Oldhammer projects. Towards the end, he proposed a challenge where we all found a Rogue Trader era Space Marine and painted it. We are always looking for an excuse to get and paint new Oldhammer models, so we jumped at the opportunity to get some Space Marine models from the 80s. After scouring eBay, we were able to find three characterful Space Marines from the late 80’s, including one with a shuriken catapult! Although the models were in good condition, they took quite a bit of effort to prepare for painting. This required the careful removal of moldlines and sanding, as well as some sculpting work to fill in gaps and make elements of the armor more symmetrical. Now that the models are built we can consider painting them!

Dragged into Turbolasers: Northeast Dungeon Siege 2023 with Hive Scum

In this bonus episode, we talk with sovthofheaven and noclearcoat of the Hive Scum/Under the Dice crew about the recent Dungeon Synth music event, Northeast Dungeon Siege 2023. In addition to chatting about the event and some of the artists and bands involved, we also talk about various aspects of the miniature hobby!

Smash Bash 2023: Mordheim Pitfighter Conversion

Smash Bash, an annual miniature competition to create gruesome and evocative miniatures, is hosting its third competition entitled Brackish Birth! Entries are due by April 28th, this month. To celebrate the third year of the competition, Totally Not Panicking commissioned Lux Thantor Miniatures to create Schopenhauer, an Undead Knight. I thought it might be fun to convert the model to enter the competition, creating a pitfighter for Mordheim, a battered and downtrodden warrior birthed in blood. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian was on my mind when creating the model; the pitfighter is a practitioner of mankinds’ ultimate trade: war. And like the character Toadvine, the pitfighter would have a necklace of ears!

A look back: Notable Hobbyists of 2022

Normally in January of each year we write a post about some of our favorite hobbyists who inspired us during the previous year. Time got away from us this year and it is already March! Despite this, we are happy to say the post is finally here! Like every year, there were countless hobbyists producing remarkable work, which made it difficult to acknowledge everyone we wanted to. Additionally, we purposely did not choose hobbyists that we featured in previous years, although many of them are still creating incredible work, so we would encourage people to look back on our selections from previous years!

Zone Secundus: Ratling Sniper

So now I know where snipers come from.

The Church of the Red Athenæum has always had a favorable view towards mutants in their congregation, recognizing their devotion, even though they are often persecuted throughout most of the Imperium. Unfortunately, we have not converted too many models to represent this, with only one in the original Pilgrym warband, and one from the newer one. When looking through some of our old model cases I found a trio of Rogue Trader era Ratling Snipers, the first GW miniatures we ever purchased. It seemed fitting to convert one a little and repaint it as a new member for the Red Church, their diminutive stature being welcomed with open arms.

Dragged into Turbolasers: New England Mordheim Open 2023

In this bonus episode, we were at the New England Mordheim Open 2023 event and got the opportunity to chat with some of the people who made it out to play in the event, along with some of the hosts, the Hive Scum/Under the Dice crew. The episode begins with the three of us talking briefly about what we are expecting the evening before the event, followed by the various interviews during the event.

New England Mordheim Open 2023: a recap

Back Into the City of the Damned.

Hot on the heels of Mordheim 2022, we drove up to Chicopee, MA to play in the New England Mordheim Open, held by Under the Dice/Hive Scum group. It was an amazing event with well over 40 people coming together to celebrate the hobby and play Mordheim, a game not supported by Games Workshop for over 20 years. The event took place in a single day, with each player participating in four games. In addition to playing Mordheim, we also brought some of our recording equipment along and were able to interview some of the people at the event and those running it. It is hard to express how fun the event was, meeting so many cool people and playing some fun games on a huge number of amazing boards. Although it cannot come close to conveying the magnitude of the event, below are some of the photos we took during the day. We hope you enjoy them and cannot wait to participate in the next NEMO event!

Zone Secundus: Church of the Red Athenæum - Painted Genestealer Neophyte

Bleed out.

Following up the last post, where we shared a collaboration with Nicky Grillet where she illustrated the Cardinal of the Church of the Red Athenæum, we wanted to show off the first Church member painted this year, a converted Genestealer cultist! It is nice to be painting miniatures for the Church of the Red Athenæum again after what has felt like a long hiatus. The Genestealer Neophyte models are surprisingly complex models with all manner of small and weird details. I found myself on numerous occasions unsure what certain details were to even represent (there are lots of little switches, knobs, and cables everywhere). This also resulted in the model taking much longer to paint than I was initially envisioning. Despite this, I am really pleased with how the model turned out!

The Church of the Red Athenæum: Aseneth Levedescu, (3rd) Cardinal

And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives.

With the blog recently turning 10 years old, it is hard not to reflect back on what we have done in that time. One of our favorite creations is the Church of the Red Athenæum. Designed for Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event, the Church is a radical splinter of the Imperial Cult that believes suffering is the highest form of veneration of the God-Emperor. In 2021 we began to revisit the Church, creating a host of new models, including a Gunfighter, a heavy weapons specialist, a Halfling, and a new Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum. In 2023, we hope to continue developing and expanding the Red Church. And while we created a host of different characters from the Church, one of the most iconic is the current Cardinal, Aseneth Levedescu, and her mobile throne. We wanted to celebrate the character and showcase her again on the blog, seven years after her initial creation. To do this, we knew we could take better photos of the model and share the lore we wrote pertaining to her, but we wanted to do something more special. For this purpose, we commissioned the amazingly talented and visionary Nicky Grillet to illustrate and paint Aseneth!

32, Chapter 11 - Necropolis

In chapter 11 of 32, Alexander and Peter (Owlshield) discuss Peter's new game, Necropolis. They talk about game design, the undead and how smaller games allow for a more artistic approach.

Dragged into Turbolasers 99: Chatting with Oldhammer legend Koltti.

In this episode we are joined by Koltti, who has spent the last few years showing the world how miniatures from the 80’s can look as good as modern ones. We chat about how he found the Inq28 blog Spiky Rat Pack and first met John Blanche. We also talk about how he joined the Inq28 collective Iron Sleet and was involved in some of their many projects like the Pilgrym and the Thorn Moons Crusade. We also touch on his painting style and how he found his way back to painting Oldhammer miniatures.

32, Chapter 10 - Angels of Death: Origin

In the first episode of 32 for 2023, Eric Wier and Alexander Winberg get together to chat about Warhammer +/ Warhammer TV. While they intended to watch and discuss the Angels of Death CGI series, Alex discovered that Warhammer TV is not available in Finland (at least at the time of the recording). Due to this, they instead watched an episode of the prequel series, Angels of Death Origins, because it was made available on YouTube.

Painting Sector Mechanicus Terrain

Dead Industrial Atmosphere

Although we have been building and painting miniatures for years, long before even the start of this blog (2013), we have never really painted any terrain, despite collecting a variety of the plastic sets Games Workshop released over the years. Ten years after starting Between the Bolter and Me, we decided we should change that. To our good fortune, Ana Polanšćak from Gardens of Hecate, recently released a tutorial for quickly painting derelict machinery and industrial terrain. The process looked quite easy, relying primarily on using a sponge to apply an interesting pattern of rust, so I found the Sector Mechanicus terrain I had sitting around since the release of Shadow War Armageddon (2017), and decided to give it a try!

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 98 - Smash Bash and chatting with Totally Not Panicking

Totally Not Panicking!

In this episode we are joined by the seminal grimdark creator Totally Not Panicking! We talk about how he got into the hobby and developed his signature style. We discuss what drives his prolific miniature output and what drove him to create the converting and painting contest Smash Bash.

2022, a year in review!

Now that 2023 has started, we wanted to look back at 2022 and see all that we accomplished on the blog. It is hard to believe, but we have now had the blog for a full ten years! I am happy to say we were able to maintain regular blog posts while also continuing our podcast, and weekly Twitch streaming. With this post we wanted to look at our most popular posts of the year, while also highlighting our favorite episodes of the podcast.