I asked John Blanche how he felt about the term "blanchitsu" at a Killteam Weekender at Warhammer World a couple of years back and he found the term a really odd development and was super modest about the whole thing. Lovely fella.

@garrytaylor929

Жыл бұрын

Blanchitsu used to be a section in white dwarf magazine back in the 1980s I recall, covering John’s miniature painting tips and tricks. So he’s known the term for around 40 years.

@chrishughes1376

Жыл бұрын

@@garrytaylor929 It was more the use of the term for a movement within miniature painting that was the surprise to him. It seems imposter syndrome is a real thing! 😛

I think a lot of people sell the Blanchitsu style short by just thinking it's painting things in 50 shades of mud. Go and look at the art; especially his more iconic pieces, such as the battle sister, or the mound of Black Templars and so on. There's a lot of saturated color in there. Grunge is part of Blanchitsu, but it's not all of it.

@michaelthebarbarian5527

2 жыл бұрын

I feel this way as well. A lot of times people say Blanchitsu, what they really mean is drowned in was with no highlights. But love the actual art style

@tando6266

2 жыл бұрын

This is not correct. Blanchitsu refers to the work he did based on the zorn palette. Not all Blanch is blanchitsu, and not all blanchitsu is actually blanchitsu. The sisters stuff is not zorn pallet, its just work he did.

@Underworlddream

2 жыл бұрын

I think Blanchitsu style sort of brought down by badly done Blanchitsu so it give the rest a bad name.

@haydenandersen9937

2 жыл бұрын

@@Underworlddream Seriously. A lot of pro mini painters kind of shit on it, saying that it's boring and requires low talent. Shame that good blanchitsu painters don't get a lot of attention.

@haydenandersen9937

2 жыл бұрын

@@paulvenables2628 Yeah, in my eyes s blanchitsu model isn't blanchitsu if it hasn't been converted

I'm honestly astonished the automated captioning picked up the correct spelling of "inquisimunda" and "blanchitsu" (more often than not, at least).

@rowdyzack5914

2 жыл бұрын

The robots are taking over!!

@darbizzlebacon

2 жыл бұрын

I'm still amazed how it knows between 'their', 'there' and 'they're'

@recurvestickerdragon

2 жыл бұрын

@@darbizzlebacon Oh man, my autocorrect gets those wrong every single time. Same as your/you're

I'm in the midst of building both a Sludge and a T28 army right now. I've never gone into the world of kitbashing until this and I am now hooked. I love the creative freedom these games bring. It's not opening a box and building that kit, I mean it could be, but instead for me it's what kits can I get that can create an overall look. If I had a 3D printer lord knows what all I could do. Great video and thank you for talking about this.

@madmanvarietyshow9605

2 ай бұрын

Oh man just started doing this myself and yeah it's so much fun! Just finished my first T28 army and currently expanding it to be able to run whatever. And yeah a friend of mine just got a resin 3d printer and hoo boy he's gonna get so many orders from me lol

Is there a movement of people who have really crappy 3d printers and all their models are covered in layer lines and end up looking like a scratchy biro drawing when they're painted? Because that's the one I'm in!

I generally don't like armies that look like a mass of grey and brown from two feet away, so I'm generally more of a lighter/brighter person.

@theredrighthandproductions

2 жыл бұрын

Same. I really dig inq28 for the kitbashing but my paint schemes are all still pretty bright

@bryanruhe5956

2 жыл бұрын

It’s all about contrast imho!

@bryanruhe5956

2 жыл бұрын

It’s all about contrast imho!

@indicosa91

Жыл бұрын

Although I also agree that contrast is everything in any kind of art, here I would point to two differences: if you go army, then better to have more out-popping colors, since you are going to have more than a mass of minis to move around (and sometimes we lose them among terrains!). If it is more skirmish, or more like Dnd with minis, I think the awful-eerie-macabre air of grimdark is better appreciated than in the other setting, because anyway, you'll have to look at each mini with detail when playing (same as with dioramas, if you are representing a very concrete scene, it is just a matter of contrast play, it can be dark af, but it is army it can be massive and big, but better be brighty).

John Blanche would paint exclusively with an "Anders Zorn limited palette": yellow ochre, ivory black, vermilion and titanium white. Any other colour is mixed from those. It has quite literally set the tone for 40k.

@robertdean52

2 жыл бұрын

Having just played with a Zorn palette for the first time recently, it's fun, as long as you don't want to see any blue or green ...

There are some impressive „grim dark“ painted miniatures for Mordheim … a setting that also fits with the style IMO. Take a look at „Gardens of Hecate“ for some great images.

I checked out 28 Magazine. Really good, very original Rogue Trader aesthetic in that first issue (the Ian Miller feature the was awesome, and a Branchitsu mini land leviathan ship crawler, pure Miyazaki though the grim-dark lens, just mind-blowing). Thanks for the heads up. 👍

I agree Turnip 28 is great fun for creativity, and the next version of the ruleset should be coming soonish. Like you said, having a game to play gives you that little bit of motivation you need to do these wild kitbashes.

I paint my models extremely bright, because I can't see very well, so they stand out more.

I'm so glad you covered this. I recommend covering the different inq28 settings since there is so much creativity there. I'm part of the Void28 for example. There is Outgard I and II, there's Gelida40k, Tor Megiddo, Yngvisitor which is set on Venus, and there's even a Drukhari setting set in Commorragh which used KT18 rules. I think showing more people these settings would really complete the journey because I think more people should do it. It inspires a lot of creativity and puts a different spin on the 40k setting which it sorely needs. I'm thinking of making a setting based on star system that has been cut off the Imperium, due to the Great Rift happening. But the Rift also cut off a large amount of invading Xenos inside the system. So it creates a different dynamic since both Imperials and Xenos are now stuck together in an isolated system.

I wouldn't mind more of these videos, or videos showing your ideas on painting in these movements. I love learning about new ideas, and turnip28 sounds fun.

Thanks for clarifying this - have heard blanchitsu being bandied around and never researched it. I definitely like grungy miniatures that aren't too weathered, with muted paint schemes other than some light sources and energy weapons.

We got in a turnip month ago. Today we got our first game (unpainted, but warbands are already made) and it was so great and best wargaming experience this year. We got even tired of that huge amount of laughing and fun. We're playing whole day. It was amazing. Waiting for next weekend to play again.

Other movements would be the Eff Smoothness Movement, where painters worry more about creating volume and interest without worrying about visible brush strokes.

@TheMartinChronicles

2 жыл бұрын

Haha! I initially read that as 'Elf Smoothness'.

@indicosa91

Жыл бұрын

I'm curious, do you have examples of this?

I admire the really clean lines and precision of 'Eavy Metal painters BUT love the realism of the Grim Dark style. I particularly loved the Mordhiem Blanchitsu stuff. 'Sludge' interests me greatly for the same reason. I'm also a massive fan of Adrian Smith's art and wish they'd done more with the game 'Hate'. The revival of Old Hammer (previous editions of Warhammer and 40K) has also revived the paint style of the 90's which I found too cartoony.

Relicblade is an Awesome alternative and Turnip 28 scratches so many modeling and painting itches for me. Both Historical, Grim Dark, Napoleonic, Medieval etc... Thanks for covering both.

I'm glad to see more mini art movements even if I don't like them myself - I appreciate not everything being the same heavy contrast, bright edge highlighted stuff.

Great video! One of the coolest movements I've seen recently is when Cursed City came out and everyone was trying different techniques to achieve grayscale minis

As a certified canvas painter I can confirm we barely think at all. John blanche I think is just an entity that's around whenever three or more originals are discovered under a filing cabinet and put on a mood board? He's formally retired I think.

I wanted someone to do a video about miniture art styles for years now. Thank you so much, uncle Atom!

Definitely have gotten really interested in SLUDGE. I like the seni-historical setting, and the way it skirts the line between blocks of troops and skirmishing. The fact that I can kitbash figures and paint then dirty is a bonus

Now this is a topic that finally is rather unique. I like this! Glad that you are covering more rare things like this.

We play Inquisitor at 6mm scale (Inq6), though also love Inquisimunda at 28mm scale for using old '95 Necromunda models.

@dancingpotplant

2 жыл бұрын

Inq6? Oh I'm so happy to hear that it exists, small scale FTW!

I enjoy the Planet28 and Turnip28 sense they encourage people to convert and used model from other game.

5:31 "... but then your terrain needs to be twice as high..." I wonder if the reason for the massively over scale door in the old Manufactorum Cities of Death Kit wasn't to fit with Inquisitor.

@evansn79

2 жыл бұрын

This was apparently confirmed at a games day a few years ago - the terrain was meant to be for inq but they repurposed it for 40k.

Dude, that was a super interesting change of pace for the channel. I liked it a lot!

I’ve been particularly liking the movement spinning off of Sludge. The dark fantasy/black powder aesthetic is really cool.

This is awesome. I had no idea these existed. So many cool painting styles.

This has been my jam since the time I got into the hobby - yeah let’s get into the conversion and yes unfortunately much more expensive side of the hobby because all those awesome bits included with things like Grey Knights Terminatiors and Dark Angels Veterans should be on every model in your army. Thank goodness people like Kromlech and Anviil exist now.

I had no idea about most of this but love it! :) Thanks for the video!

I dig the Turnip28 style. Never heard of it before. It's very interesting.

@AVspectre

2 жыл бұрын

I’m very excited to try making units for this game. I love that it really encourages/forces people to use their imagination while also letting the players themselves also help shape how the game’s aesthetic will develop further :)

Inq28 is, if I remember right, using rules straight from the Inquisitor Rulebook (or at least an old White Dwarf article) where it's basically halving movement and ranges...the hybrid minis game and RPG actually made it rather fun to mess with. The actual Inquisitor models were also great options to use for statues.

Another great video, and another really great topic. So many ways and depths to explore this one. The style movements of miniatures (sculpting, painting, staging, etc.) have been profound, amazing, and also highly influential across many mediums and countless words. I think it's how miniatures capture and convey the synergies of things like dimension, personality, tone, theme, and the sense of a frozen moment (saturated with meaning) in time. I know sculptor Kev White and other artists (Ana Polanscak, David Soper, etc.) have cited Paul Bonner as an inspiration. I always loved Paul's art in the pages of Games Workshop publications, and definitely felt his art and its great personality was often reflected in the miniatures.

Not sure if it is broad enough to classify as a movement, since it (mostly) applies to a single faction in a single wargame, but I love the aesthetic of the 'Stonecast Eternals' trend. There are a lot of interesting takes on the really simple concept of recontextualizing Stormcast as statues given life. I often find myself looking at minis and asking 'Would this look good as an animated statue?'

@Atlach_va

2 жыл бұрын

There's a similar trend for sandstone necrons

I asm always for a creative approach to a mini painting. A rainbow megaboss... Why not?! 🔥 Also, glad to see an expansion for RiH is available 👍

I absolutely love the Blanchitsu art style and looking at Inq 28 art really inspired me to move outside of the GW 'Eavy Metal style that I was using. It is probably why I stuck with mini painting as a creative outlet even though I really play any miniature games. Great video and glad to hear you sharing more about this style with your audience. I would love to hear about other art styles in the mini painting community that I may not know about.

Blanchitsu where a standing feature in White Dwarf during the late 80ies about how to paint miniatures, ofcourse written by John Blanch. That was how I learned to paint minis.

Thanks for posting this it's great to see people deviate from the norm more from the 40k painting method

Personal fave of mine is the sugar candy style popularise by auger candy miniatures. Currently it’s mostly seen as painting method. The focus is in fantasy or science fiction mines think 40k and painting them in style of sweets or take bright colourful patterns mixing them with these grim dark models the effects is really interesting and I find very refreshing to see some so different. Saying that I know it won’t appeal to all especially as it’s d every divergent from what you see with a lot of style but it’s worth at least worth checking a sugar candy miniature video as they probably represent the style best.

Been watching a lot of your older and newer videos while painting and really enjoy the content

@AndrewFishman

2 жыл бұрын

Make sure you pay attention to Sam Lentz ones. He is awesome. And he and Uncle make some really technical stuff easy.

@kdenkniep1454

2 жыл бұрын

@@AndrewFishman thanks!

Scratch bashing from house hold items is great I've made a few robot/walkers that way.

Inquisamunda was a fun game, combined Inquisitor and old Necromunda

I've definitely seen a lot of people who paint in a "vaporwave" type style, often with bold cross hatching or other painted texture. Like it seems popular enough to be it's own category, but I haven't seen a miniature specific term for it.

I love turnip 28! Very different and organic. Pairs well with Burrows and Badgers too.

It's not unique to our hobby but I'd say vapor/synthwave is probably an art style within the hobby

@Hepabytes

2 жыл бұрын

It’s a thing, sadly not a great game attached yet. When someone figures out 28mm parkour I think we have it.

@GhouraAgur

2 жыл бұрын

I think I saw some vapor shadow elves from warcry. White marble with transitions into pastel gradients, and the weapons gold iirc

The Oculus Spear is amazing. Thank you for that Adam!

Cool to see people on youtube talking about the whole 28 movement !

Any thoughts on the retrowave or vaporwave style of painting minis? The bright neon pinks and blues are pretty rad... reminds me of a trapper keeper or something... I couldn't do a whole army that way... Maybe necrons like Tron... Nec-trons.

Love your videos! One thing I would love is a link - in description, or in a pinned comment to those things you pachow during the course of your video. Saves scrubbing through the video after the fact, or stopping a video in the middle to watch the referenced thing.

My guess is that there's potential for an ultra-vibrant art movement to come through with loads of clashing colours and body horror. I'm imagining a miniature-focused take on something like Cruelty Squad. I suppose the best-fitting system for that would be something like Troika mixed with some of the experimental stuff from Rogue Trader-era 40K. Between sessions you could have a bunch of weird random tables for selling organs on the stock market and gross surgical upgrades that introduce interesting abilities that can be used in game

@twiggysmalls69

2 жыл бұрын

I’ve been trying the”biopunk” stuff out in a Brutal Quest game that’s heavily inspired by Mork Borg.

This is super massively cool. Thank you

love the one page rules!

Some cool stuff! (The pedant in me says - those "beaky" helms? Those are called bascinets.) Cheers!

You also have the neon/Tron style with ultra bright colors. Mostly used for necrons, but you can check dice'n deamon to check her ultra bright orks and seraphons

i recently started playing Altar of the Dead Gods, which is a 18th century, lovecraftian grimdark game. super fun and very conversion friendly!

We have issues publishing is producing a 1 to 1 scale minis game called Zynvaded, it's pretty fun and the models are actual size so any clutter on your table is the terrain they battle over. (Don't clean off your coffee table!!)

@BullScrapPracEff

2 жыл бұрын

Seems like it might be a comprehension issue, mate.

I think and underated part of "blanchitsu" is that if you look at the the art their are bright yet desaturated colours. Warm stained reds, small points of shine on otherwise dark metal, eye lens that stand out against dark masks, some textured colour transition. He's a fantastic artistic as well.

Blanchitsu is a term from the 80s, back when John had a column in WD with painting guides etc. Readers also sent in painting tips and some were pretty experimental.

I came across the Tears of Istvaan blog many years ago and was blown away by what I saw; now that whole Blanchitsu thing is a well established, if not old, movement. I would say there is a trend of it moving away from Games Workshop somewhat (there's an article to that effect in 28-mag Vol. 3). Cutting edge for me right now is Sean Sutter's SLUDGE, he's my new hero and I can see this game become very successful. It combines so many trending aspects of the hobby and it puts the creativity back that has gone from GW as they've become bigger and more commercialised (and since John Blanche is effectively retired and his unique art style has retired with him). BTW, I love your mini conversions and paintjobs, superb!

We didn't see any mention of Mork Borg: which has a unique style of gameplay for use with RPG and lends itself well for some interesting miniatures and models...

It's not 28mm warfare, but you should definitely look into Machinen Krieger (Ma.K) which are Japanese model kits with a highly weathered retro sci-fi aesthetic. There is a very definite art style that goes along with it that is not intrinsic to the models. The art style is heavily weathered, gritty and realistic, but without being grimdark shades of brown. The models range from 1/35 up to 1/20 scale, so a bit large for wargaming, but the art style is very inspirational, and building and painting the kits is a nice change from tiny minis.

Mechatop- Kickstarter game that just delivered- it uses Gundam kits and similar robots as your minis. Which is a whole different scale but the game is SO MUCH FUN and Gundam kits are cheap as dirt compared to GW.

I’d become really disheartened by 40k in general, then I started a grimdark/inq28 project and found the love again. I’m tempted by new armies again

Re: the origins of the term 'Blanchitsu', it was definitely in use in the 1980s, though maybe not in the common usage or definition we see today. An episode of the 'Eavy Metal' painting column used the term as its title, when it showcased John's work, with his commentary on his methods. This happened a few times, at irregular intervals, in between other subjects. As I recall, back then, he was using oils and oil washes, but because he was painting a wide variety of current releases, for whom the colours were canon, there was less evidence of the limited palette associated with modern Blanchitsu.

My buddy and i are working on our own gaming company. Focusing on new ways to play our favorite games. Right now our first title is being developed. Its a hybrid tabletop wargame and tcg. Im hoping to get to work on and develop a pure tabletop game after.

Ironically in my "old age" I'm more inclined towards stupidly bright color and away from the usual Grimdark (even though I still appreciate it)

Love the grimdark paint style, mostly because its very forgiving for the throw paint at a model style of painting, IE its very forgiving. Paint schemes are a very easy way to make your army/warband more personal to you, so while I don't experiment much with painting techniques I do with paint schemes and am currently painting up a Sisters army using Culture Hustles Pinkiest pink and its is PINK! god help me. So your palette is your oyster and Rainbow Marines are not heresy, though the inquisition may ask a few questions ;)

I have been tinkering kind of vehicle based/centered game, bit post apocalyptic scifi theme as I love scratch build vehicles. Idea I have is bit like combining tank warfare with destruction derby in nuclear/chemical wasteland as no faction has either resources or know how to build real antitank weapons etc. For people who, like me, just loves to build custom scratch build vehicles from random scrap. Maybe it's actual real fighting or just wierd future vehicle sport or mix of both is still bit open...

I fell in love with Turnip28 the instant I learned about it. It's unlike anything else in the miniatures gaming world, and has such a singular and captivating aesthetic/premise. I could, honestly, just look at illustrations from this milieu and be content, it's that good. It's a perfect mix of grimdark bleak horror and absurdist levity, which keeps it from just being depressing. It got me really looking at Napoleonic miniatures in a way I hadn't before, and trying to figure out how they could be used.

@housecaldwell

2 жыл бұрын

Grim dark horror and absurdist levity was what Warhammer started as, too. That's the core that the corporate giant GW has lost.

10:28 those are called Pigface Bascinets, a late 1300s early 1400s medieval helmet.

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

Always been more of a grungy painter than the cartoony style of GW Eavy Metal with its edge lining and stuff.

I want to see a video about those modified Necromunda models. That Ambot with the gun arm and the enforcer with a Necron head.

“Oldhammer” self consciously revives the aesthetics of old GW stuff. The minis are probably a bigger part of it than the painting techniques so I dunno if you could call it a style per se

Try looking at the miniature painting of Paul Cubbings. He's well-known for interpretation of older citadel miniatures and smaller independent miniatures.( Lead Adventures Forum is one place to find his work also Wargames Illustrated)

@euansmith3699

2 жыл бұрын

That's a cool style of painting.

I would use the term cyberpunk to describe a neon, chrome and dark combo style that I see on a regular basis.

A very interesting discussion.

Tolkien Realism seems alive and well. Games like Oathmark use classic fantasy as inspiration. Lots of folks want minus for LOTR but find ways to do it with historical figs, and it definitely shows in paint styles. Stargrave has awakened a lot of creative modeling. Mashups with western and space minis, inspiration from Firely and Mandalorian / Star Wars. Anything goes in space these days.

I think you will enjoy Forbidden Psalm also. Love your show even if I am older than you😉.

I love the artwork of John Blanche, but I've never really been a fan of "blanchitsu" on figures, being someone who grew up in the 80s, I've always found his figure painting style to be rather muddy looking - just a load of dark colours all mashed together in an indistinguishable blob in the shape of a figure. I find "grimdark" is an overused term, by people who've been in the hobby less than 15 years - 40k has always been grim and dark regardless of the painting style of the time, and painting in a "grimdark" style is not new. I do however like the aesthetic GW had in the 90s, particularly the Warhammer Fantasy Battles terrain they made for their photoshoots.

Uncle Atom, do a Vid on your techniques on Grimdark. Do you use Streaking Grime or Oil wash? I personally love the style and still just getting started with it

Check out Alfonso Giraldes Banshee’s work. He started a whole movement called F** Smoothness which is very interesting

Take a a look at Conquest: TLAoK - starting with WFB like 100k and developing interesting new factions. Larger scale, fast pace, alternate activations with twist, large scale battles. Worth checking.

Then there is this commercial right before you're vid.Where they build a working piano out of legos.

I really hope that some of the OSR aesthetics start breaking into miniatures. I want more dolmenwood minis specifically, turnip 28 is close.

Excellent!

Hmmm.. Turnip-style could come along greatly with Frostgrave cultist (especially the Northstar ones, since they have partially zombie-like parts in their body) or undead - skeletons, zombies, "black knights" etc... I mean even in games what are no Turnip28 or so... Edit: and for those who play Warhammer and WH40k type games with chaos, could easily create their own turnip chaos god...

Was really hoping for more than just a grimdark exposé but I guess in the future of 2021 there is only grimdark

My friend's dad (and my friend) actually played Inquisitor in 28mm from the beginning. Just ignored the fancy new miniatures and converted to 28mm (they also essentially played it as an RPG... not just a wargame with a GM, ala Rogue Trader, but players playing as individual characters in a story directed by a GM). I think if it had been marketed as 28mm for the start it *might* have got somewhere. My personal theory was that there were 2 different ideas that found each other at the same time, and they tried to use Inquisitor to sell both: whoever was doing the models wanting to do a larger scale with more detail and individuality (which should have been simply sold as display pieces), and someone else wanting to do a 40k RPG. *As I understand it*, the Inquisitor ruleset was (in part) intended as a test run to see what appetite there was for a 40k RPG (and they were disappointed with its sales). Oddly enough, if you are playing Dark Heresy (the eventual 40k RPG) and using miniatures, the suggested ground scale is (roughly) the same scale as the Inquisitor models. However, when it talks about miniatures is seems to presume you would be using 40k scale 28mm models, which would mean the figures would actually be too *small* for what they are representing, which is an odd one, given most wargames tend to have the miniatures being far larger than the ground scale would imply.

Love Turnip28 and Sludge. Does anyone know where the 28 thing comes from?

@childofthedarkrat

2 жыл бұрын

From the scale of the minis: 28mm scale. Inquisitor was originally 54mm scale, but a lot of people downscaled it to use their existing 28mm models, and thus Inq28 became a thing

One page rules. Good stuff. Plus you can use minis you already have.

Neat game, still have my rulebook. But the novelty of the big minis brought the terrain issue so..... ya that dropped off the desire drive.

Woo! RiH expansion!😁

adam has 0 accent until suddenly "rutz"

Well, recognizing the the whole grimdark aesthetic is not to my taste, I'll also recognize that the movement to do Wells-style vintage toy soldier games may not be to other's tastes, but it is out there...

do you need a core book to play the 'spear' solo or you only need the expansion?

Is the mini at 3:56 a conversion? Looks really nice. What is this mini?

Seemed to be more about gamestyles rather than art. Still can think of a few styles. Grimdark, comicbook, retro, ultra-realistic.