Looking Back: Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition Gretchin

I've got a war inside my head.

Over the last few months, we have been thinking a lot about greenskins in various forms, from painting a longsnout, to playing Space Gits, to converting the Red Gobbo, to being hopeful for the upcoming edition of Warhammer 40,000, to finally be disappointed when the orks were revealed. With the devastating loss of John Blanche, we have been reflecting on how we got involved with the hobby, particularly with the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40,000. The legendary cover artwork for this edition features a group of Blood Angel Space Marines being assaulted from all sides by Space Orks. This piece of art pulled us into a hobby shop and led to us getting a copy of the 2nd edition of Warhammer 40,000, where we went on to paint every model in the box, including the 40 mono-pose gretchin. These charming gretchin and the more vicious-looking ork boyz were our introduction to Space Orks, and continue to hold a special place in our hearts. John’s passing prompted us to pull out some of the original models we assembled and painted. We were particularly happy to see the small legion of gretchin, and wanted to showcase them here, as a reminder of how we started this hobby, and hopefully also as a push to keep working on greenskin models in 2026!

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 132: An Ode to John Blanche, Games Workshop is using AI, and the state of hobby YouTube channels

John Blanche 1948 - 2026

We begin this episode expressing our sadness at the passing of John Blanche, a luminary that defined Games Workshop’s artstyle and vision for decades. We then touch on how just days later GW revealed Horus Heresy artwork that almost certainly used AI tools to give a Space Marine a sixth finger. Finally we discuss the state of miniature hobby YouTube channels and how the algorithm necessitates boring, but searchable content.

Film Review: The Grim & The Dark

The Grim & The Dark

Building and painting miniatures for wargames like Warhammer 40,000 or Mordheim is a relatively niche hobby. All of us involved have likely been asked about our hobbies, and when explaining how we “assemble and paint miniatures for wargames,” are accustomed to responses like “oh, like Risk” or, more apt but still a little off the mark, “oh, like Dungeons & Dragons.” Depending on how much effort we want to put into it, we can say “yeah, similar to that,” or delve into what the hobby actually entails. When my friend Cody (@magos_buer, now of Buer Games) announced that he was producing a documentary about miniature wargaming, specifically the grimdark/Inq28 scene, I was excited. Perhaps this would be the ideal film to show some of my family to demonstrate the allure of this hobby? Furthermore, a film delving into the “grimdark” aesthetic was even more appealing, as that is one of the specific aspects that drew my brothers and me to Warhammer 40,000 in the first place. While the term “grimdark” is inextricably tied to Warhammer 40,000, with its tag line of “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war,” the term has expanded into other media outside of the miniature gaming world, including music, literature, and art. From the moment I first heard about Cody’s intent to make a film to its official release, the film evolved considerably, becoming what is officially titled The Grim & The Dark: The Search for John Blanche. Somewhat surprisingly, Jon Heder, of the Napoleon Dynamite fame, was pulled in to be the main face of the documentary. Cody had expressed his desire to interview many people involved in the Inq28 scene and asked whether we would be willing to be interviewed. Things came together rather quickly, and Cody, Jon, and the rest of the crew joined us on the first day of our Vastarian narrative gaming event in November 2024, where Heder interviewed the three of us and some others at the event. The interviews were not planned and were very much off the cuff. Afterwards, we didn't hear much about the documentary or how the footage from the Vastarian event would be used until it was released in late September 2025. My brothers and I were kindly given the opportunity to watch The Grim & The Dark shortly before its release. After having some time to reflect, I wanted to share some of the thoughts the three of us had about it.

Vastarian: Blanchian skull tree

On Vastarian, fanaticism has seemingly seeped into the ground, shaping trees into perverse amalgamations of metal, bone, and wood.

In June we announced the winners of our Vastarian Open Invitational Contest. We are now in the process of converting a model for the first place winner’s (Jean-François [trexcowboy_]) cult, the Aeris Sanctus. While we are still working on the conversion, we are excited to share the first component of the model, a grotesque looking tree that was heavily inspired by the artwork and vision of John Blanche.

28 Vol. 6 out now!

John Blanche is the feature artist!

We are excited to announce that volume 6 of the digital magazine 28 is finally out! As always, it is free to download from their website. It is filled with all sorts of grim hobby content, along with an interview from the legendary John Blanche! We also wrote an article for the issue, talking about our inspiration for starting Vastarian! It was a long road completing the volume, but we are glad it is finally complete and hope you enjoy it!

Blanche: The Rise of Grimdark Review

John Blanche’s biography!

Although John Blanche retired earlier this year, he is still quite busy. Case in point, he released another Voodoo Forest book titled Scions of Voodoo through Hollow Press. He agreed to be the feature artist for volume 6 of the digital magazine 28. On top of all of this, he worked with authors John Wombat and Ruth Moreira to have his biography written! This biography, titled Blanche: the Rise of Grimdark, was published by Wombat Wargames (December 2023). I am happy to say that we were involved in the creation of the book, albeit in a small way. Earlier this year, when exchanging emails with John Blanche, he mentioned that he was working on the biography and asked if we had some photos from the 2016 Pilgrym game and if we could share a few words about it. We excitedly obliged, reaching out to author John Wombat, who suggested that he would quote us in the final book, as well as include some of our photos of the event. Advance a few months forward, and in late November we saw that the book was being released on December 1st! Excited to see the final book, I ordered a copy from Amazon and promptly received it on December 2nd.

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!

Mordheim 2019: Undead games

Church of the Ever Burning Saint attempt to banish a vampire twisted and warped by wyrdstone.

My brothers and I played a multitude of games of Mordheim during the Mordheim 2019 event, all of them unique and filled with surprises. With this post, I wanted to describe the two games played with my undead warband, the first against Nicky Grillet‘s Sisters of Sigmar and Alexander Lunde’s Witch Hunters, and the second against Erik Blomqvist’s Sisters of Sigmar.

Mordheim 2019: Undead warband

A living death awaits us all.

It is hard to imagine Mordheim is twenty years old; it means that I have been a part of this hobby for over two decades! And while I never got the opportunity to play the game when it was first released, I remember poring over each new issue of White Dwarf, looking at the new warbands being released, battle reports, and their dedicated magazine the Town Cryer. Games Workshop’s skirmish games have always been my favorite games they release, with GorkaMorka being the first of their games we really played extensively. Games like Necromunda, Inquisitor, and Mordheim allow the player to dive deeply into the strange and morbid worlds Games Workshop has created, and actively encourage you to carve out your own unique niche within their creation. Mordheim 2019 has been a fantastic opportunity to explore the Old World like I have always wanted to, building upon imagery and models that have always inspired us. While Alex defined the basic motivations behind the major factions, Tears of Envy, another incredible hobbyist involved in the event (who made Mordheim 2019’s excellent logo), had the fantastic idea of looking at the city of Mordheim through the lens of the Strugatsky brothers’ Roadside Picnic/Stalker. This science fiction classic explores the aftermath of an extraterrestrial visitation. Despite the alien visitors abrupt departure, their presence irrevocably and mysteriously changed the environment where they visited. These “Zones” were eventually cordoned off from the wider world to be studied. Could the meteorite that hit Mordheim have a similar effect, and what would happen to the city after being poisoned by this wyrdstone for 20 years? How would its inhabitants and the city itself be affected and corrupted? And what sort of adventurers would risk their lives to find fortune by venturing into the City of the Damned? This concept really captured my imagination, leading me to start experimenting with different warband designs.

Mordheim 2019: a recap

A few Witch Hunters carefully advance through the broken streets of Mordheim.

Last weekend was the culmination of over a year of work by many talented hobbyists, who gathered in Helsinki to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Old World Skirmish game, Mordheim. This collaborative event, known as Mordheim 2019, was hosted by Alexander Winberg of the Echoes of Imperium blog. We were fortunate to be able to make the trip to Finland to take part in the event, using the warbands we have been chronicling over the last few months (as well as one created by the estimable Ana Polanšćak of Gardens of Hecate). The event was far too big and filled with all manner of excellent people and exciting happenings to ever be covered in a single post, so we plan to separate our coverage of Mordheim 2019 into multiple posts (covering all of the games we played), and maybe a few podcasts. This post is going to be a short one, showing a few pictures, and ultimately thanking everyone involved, especially Alexander Winberg for inviting us and hosting the event. It is hard to put into words how wonderful the weekend was, filled with fantastic models and even better company. It was great to see old friends and create new ones, putting faces to people we have long admired. And although the event is over now, we are more inspired than ever to keep building models, crafting stories, and connecting with the hobby community!

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 52: What is Blanchitsu?

We are joined by our good friend Eli Parsons to discuss the rumor that White Dwarf magazine may no longer contain the John Blanche-themed hobby showcase articles, Blanchitsu. We talk about what we think Blanchitsu is to us, as well as what it represents for the hobby, including some of the reservations people have voiced about the feature. We also talk a little about how we got involved in creating models that were featured in Blanchitsu, and how others might go about creating models that represent their own personal visions of Games Workshop’s universes.

Fulgrim the Illuminator, Forge World's latest Primarch

Who better to define a Primarch's image then John Blanche? 

The Primarchs have always held a sort of mythic status in my mind, steeped in mystery and conjecture.  An unknowable quantity that was only spoke of in whispers, like all the best elements of Warhammer 40,000.  So when I heard models were being made, I was pretty skeptical, because unless the result was utterly spectacular, it was likely to add a level of finality to these figures that I would rather leave to my own imagination.  But as luck would have it, Forge World gave this herculean task to arguably their best sculptor, Simon Egan.  And the moment Forge World revealed their first Primarch, Angron the Red Angel, I (and I imagine most of you) craved to see the other’s rendered with the same magnificence.