Those of you familiar with my Dakka Blogs know how big an influence John's work has had on my projects. How I make subtle references to his style and vision, sometimes in naming the projects like "Shaddes offs Greye" sometimes studying his art for ages to find fresh ground and courage to paint without technical restrictions.
Recently a good friend, Jakob Rune Nielsen (JRN), was kind enough to introduce me upon my request to John and a passionate discussion about the hobby followed. I wanted to have a chance to talk to him, before I move to US. We have exchanged dozens of emails, many many images and ideas and John has asked me to post some of his recent work in this blog. John will post some commentary in the topic replies I would think.
So without further a do, and because my writing doesn't do this justice: (click on them to marvel the detail and palette at original size!)
chaos dude has a forge world chain saw - a bit brittle but in scale - the gold is gold leaf and the paints citadel - the heads a conversion bit built on something i picked up at work but i cannot remember what tho - the two others started life as dualists but have morphed into 40k types - ill work on some photos after GD ...,..
ReplyDeleteWow, incredible models! I love the dirty feeling they have to them, great work, Migsula! It is a bit of a different style though, if you look at your other models, but I think they look great! :)
ReplyDeleteOh man, these are so awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe Nurgle Lord conversion is particularly great but more importantly, I really like his box. It sounds a bit silly but I completely fell in love with the box of accoutrements that accompanied some of the Femme Militant that were on the Tears of Envy website some time ago (it may have been on Luxmundi for a bit, too). I've been scouring junk shops for appropriate devices/boxes to house my own miniatures in - well, I'm basically completely plagiarising the idea for myself as it's had a real effect on me.
That sense of all-encompassing cohesion is so rare (if not unique), and more often than not, the peripherals of gaming are completely overlooked - primary coloured plastic dice and metal tape-measures can ruin the atmosphere and aesthetic of a game without you even really noticing. I liked the steps that GW took when they produced the WHFB templates and dice with the launch of 8th edition, but the finished products still didn't quite feel right. It's odd when we as gamers go to such lengths to build, paint and customise terrain and miniatures but then never consider the peripherals.
Anyway, it's a real pleasure to see these. Thanks for sharing them, Migs (and Mr. JB).
Ludovic - read the text please ;) They are not my models at all :)
ReplyDeleteFulgrim - spot on.
ReplyDeleteIn my armies I've always tried to go the extra length. For example I made wound markers out of Tomb stones on 25mm bases, painted with blood spatter indicating the amount of wounds.
I'm really looking forward to when the =I= trilogy is getting ready and I get to make them a display case and a carrying case. I won't do it before I can see them together and really create a piece that polarizes the ideologies....
You know, it's really reassuring that it's not just me that thinks about these things!
ReplyDeleteRight - I'm inspired. The paints are coming out.
I really love how he paints miniatures! He has a way of painting that is loose and free. He is 'sloppy' in ways I can only dream of. It is hard to explain but his miniatures look like art where other painters look like computer graphics.
ReplyDeleteLovely stuff John - the first photo in particular is very striking and I too love the accompanying box.
ReplyDeleteI really like the little touches with the hook wristed, withered arm and then the gribbly spawn claw. Wonderful!
Hopefully catch you at GD this year for a chat too!
ha yes a bigger retinue of inquis stuff at GD - see you there ......
ReplyDeleteMy god, these are beautifull models. I wish I could see more of Blanches work...
ReplyDeleteI come along here to check if Migs has done anything else to the Mirror Master, only to find this! I actually had to venture into my google account rather than comment elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteMr J.B. the big mutant is lovely. The scale of the chainsword melding with his arm makes me think it is actually a chain cleaver, all the more brutal. I like how you've made his fatness a mutation by giving him the small head and left arm. The flesh colour just glows in a wonderful way. I've never considered "painting" with gold leaf for such a real effect. Is the head from the vampire on the new zombie dragon?
Having looked at your miniatures I find it fascinating how they look like your paintings. How you have taken that unique 2D style and seamlessly applied it to 3D miniatures. Do you find a lot of techniques cross over easily from the different canvases?
BTW how have you done the crackle effect on the chaos sorcerer/ duellists robes?
Anyway enough gushing from me, great stuff.
Peter
ps love the vampire captain in the back of White Dwarf...sorry more gushing :-)
God... holy... bloody... damn...
ReplyDeleteI like these a lot. A lot.
Also, I think now would be a good time to mention, if any of you have not yet heard, that I run a tumblr blog devoted to creating the largest online collection of JB's work; gothic punk. (It's already the largest actually.) The first part of an interview is up too. Lots of new and (very) old stuff. Check it out here >> http://gothicpunk.tumblr.com/
ReplyDeleteVC -so thats where the heads from - i forget with time and being a miniatures magpie - the techniques are exactly the same as quick sketching or more considered illustration - its how i paint - its just 60 odd years of doing it really - second nature - dont know about crackle effect perhaps its the texture at the hem - just base grunge which is basically bicarb of soda sprinkled on p.v.a. gloo .....
ReplyDelete"ps love the vampire captain in the back of White Dwarf...sorry more gushing :-)"
ReplyDeleteSame here ;) The palette is a great surprise. I just got the GW newsletter about the new game. Looks like loads of fun. If this is the trend (Space Hulk, Dread Fleet), maybe, just maybe, one day there will be official =I=munda or Necromunda re-released with awesome new minis. Would sell like Air Jordans.
I though that was the head. I bought the entire kit for that head and the ghoul when it came out. Ghoul is now an "alter daemon", a vat grown genetic copy of my =I= with a daemon bound inside. More controlled than a daemon host, but utterly more risky to it's master. The head I also have a plan for.
John, thank Brian warmly for all of us! Or better yet, show him the "pimp my wizard" stuff and ho much buzz his models have generated.
brian is a recluse, quiet, reflective, humble, and very very serious about what he does - i regard him as a fellow creative and a friend yet i only see him on occasions when we stumble into each other at the studio - we both work from our own studios at home - the box mr fulgrim referred to was a crimea war officers writing case which unfortunately crumbled to bits after awhile - ive been looking for alternatives, cigar boxs and such not got there yet - the rular and dividers etc are also vintage and easily purchased from ebayye - indeed they were the inspiration behind the more baroque looking stuff at GW - i love a more weathered and worn look to miniatures rather than pristine smooth shading - warriors should be rent with the ravages of entropy as is all life ......
ReplyDeletejust realised that scotts film the dualists has had a massive influence on me - a real excercise in entropy .....
ReplyDeleteLol, this is like Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMr.Phiq - I hadn't realised that was you; I wanted to squeeze you until you popped earlier this year when I found that blog. I'd been desperately searching for the image of Presbyter after the Luxmundi website was taken down. Thank you for collating all of those images.
Migs - can you imagine the possibilities of plastic Necromunda gangs? I would love some 'ordinary' Imperials. And I think it could really help GW, too: I'm concerned that GW has been lacking in a kind of 'gateway drug' game system for younger players in the way that the GW/MB games operated for people of my generation. A re-launched Imperium-set skirmish could offer that slow-build, slow-burn game.
I really like that idea for the alter daemon, too. Great concept.
Mr. JB - the tale of the box seems fitting on may levels. Thanks again for sharing all this.
sorry i took down lux mundi and femmes as well - but im just to busy to give the kind of love and attention that both deserved - very interesting learning curve tho - so its thx to phil for his hard work there - certainly inquisitor and necromunda have been favourites of mine image wise - just have to slow miself down a bit and pay more attention to draughtsmanship ...... as for ordinary imperials - well i cant see the words ordinary ever applying ........
ReplyDeleteNo, indeed - that's why I put the term in quote marks. I think you understand what I mean, though. You can get a lot out of the Empire range (and loads of the other plastics, really) but the more the merrier. Inquisitor, and more so, Confrontation, have been a relentless source of inspiration.
ReplyDeleteNo need to apologise, either: sometimes it's good to make your audience work for things, especially when someone else does all the work for me ;) That they existed was enough. Speaking of entropy: entropy works in a different way with digital media - especially web-based things. Sites and images and ideas emerge, then disappear again, some people will have harvested bits of sites and they'll splinter into loads of different locations and occasionally (as with GothicPunk) re-emerge or coalesce, and these too will eventually splinter and be scattered about into myriad hard-drives and websites. It's not true entropy, but a different rare form, allowing ideas and inspiration to take root in the viewer before the image falls away. It seems appropriate with Luxmundi and the Femmes.
energy - chaos - entropy - its all organic .........
ReplyDeleteMasterful little pieces of art each one of 'em. Like the Nurgle lord conversion a LOT. Can't wait to see these at GD...
ReplyDeleteApologies to both Migsula and JB! This should teach me not to look at blogs with a big lack of sleep!
ReplyDeleteI especially like the Nurgle lord/thug/cultist. Very nice box too :)
bi not having the exact miniatures ei imperials - the creative gene kicks in and our hobby becomes a unique individual event - we get to build custom figures that only we have - there are so many useful miniatures existing now - brians single frame figures and the grey knights have opened a massive door to creating imperials - mi hobby is becoming one of creation and all plastic ........
ReplyDeleteMr Fulgrim - No worries. I'm glad I made you... happy. Lol.
ReplyDeleteHaha - you have no idea how long I was trying to track down that picture :)
ReplyDeleteMr JB - I agree completely, and pretty much everything I have (except my Vostroyans( has been converted in one way or another, but with the advances in plastics, the possibilities that multi-part Necomunda/Confrontation gangs could offer would be pretty amazing.
have a look at steve buddles blog - spyglassasylum ......
ReplyDeleteThank you all for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteYou just made my day.
Will do! Thanks Mr. JB.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog. Thanks for this treat.
ReplyDeleteI posted this to John a couple of years back and actually got a reply, which made me really happy, but here it is again, for others to see as well.
ReplyDeleteMy Inquisition army.
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2011/09/40k-showcase-inquisition-by-par.html
Hi Pär, I just tumbled on that article actually. I absolutely love the Baneblade and a lot of the vehicles. I think now would be a good time to add some really nice new henchmen conversion! All the plastic available.
ReplyDeleteWow, simply fantastic stuff, many thanks to migs and Mr. Blanche for this. And the talented Steve Buddle is working for GW now? More fantastic stuff!
ReplyDelete@Mikael Thanks for opening up this blog
ReplyDelete@Phiq Great idea to share J.B's work i posted some stuff to it a while back . lots of great stuff i hadn't seen before.
@JB Thanks for sharing.
Yes, the army will be revamped into a Grey Knights army led by Coteaz for a 1750-pts tournament in the easter holiday of 2012.
ReplyDeleteIt will be an army of Grey Knights without Grey Knights and a friend and mee will play the exact same armylist, but completely different models.
http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=238161&st=0&start=0