Weird New Miniature Art MOVEMENTS 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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. 👍

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 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'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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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 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.

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?'

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 👍

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

Inquisamunda was a fun game, combined Inquisitor and old Necromunda

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.

Cool vid, always good to share the indie stuff with the community at large. Thank you! Some thoughts. Please consider crediting the artists whose work you show in full-frame shots. It both aids those who wish to see more, and honors the creators. Thank you for featuring my Turnip28 minis! :) It would seem that “Blanchitsu” as a miniature painting style isn’t necessarily reflective of Blanche’s own work anymore, and yes, it is often lumped together with “Grimdark.” While Blanche’s work inarguably informed the vibe and art direction for many of Games Workshop’s properties, I feel that lumping the two terms together or using them interchangeably is somewhat unfair and simplifies/distorts Blanche’s work. While the Grimdark painting style and Blanchitsu share some elements, I’d like to posit that Blanchitsu can be bright as opposed to dark. I wouldn’t generalize Blanche’s work as “muddy and dark.” “Muddy” is a tricky term, as in this hobby it can refer to a few things: 1) literal mud, 2) “muddy” tones and hues with low contrast or undefined color boundaries (as in “muddied together,” rather than the colors of mud and earth), or 3) a model painted in such a way as to not accentuate every little molded detail. Blanche’s work is highly impressionistic and expressive. His use of yellows, oranges, and off-whites often lend brightness, contrast, and richness to his work. It is often “dark” in theme and subject, but not always in shade/tone. The previous comments regarding the Zorn Palette are correct and relevant, and I’d encourage folks to research that topic further. The Grimdark style, to my knowledge, utilizes enamel washes (like AK Interactive’s “Streaking Grime) to a large degree. I think folks misunderstand the styles and frequently tag their work as “Blanchitsu” when “Grimdark” is a much better fit. At the end of the day, I’m glad people talk about these things and are finding inspiration to paint. :) Finally, the rules for Turnip28 do exist and are indeed complete enough to play. Max is refining the rules and is working on campaign elements, but the rules are available and are free to download on the Patreon (for anyone, not just backers). There are also some groovy free 3D files designed by @saintdecent (on Instagram) for those with access to 3D printers. Cheers!

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.

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...

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.

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

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!

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)

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!!)

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’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.

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.

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.

love the one page rules!

“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

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

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

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.

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

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...

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 ;)

This is super massively cool. Thank 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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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)

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

A very interesting discussion.

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

Warhammer 40 000 seems interesting, but I haven't tried the 39 999 ones before, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to catch up.

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

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...

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

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

There was a minor mistake in the video that was serendipitous. When you talk about Impressionism the example on the screen is a Post-Impressionist work. That got me thinking about the two movements and the relation to miniature painting. Both movements are typically identified by their use of visible brush strokes, but that is something that is considered undesirable in mini painting. Is there a style of mini painting that does use visible brush strokes? Impressionism is noted for its depiction of natural light and color, while Post-Impressionism strays far from natural light and color. I would say mini painting generally is highly focused on the depiction of natural light, but is anyone exploring techniques that are not anchored to naturalistic depictions of light and color? Lastly, we have all heard the mantra of thin your paint. However Post Impressionist used very thick applications of paint. If you have seen one of these works in person it is amazing how much paint is on the canvas and the grooves, ridges, swirls of paint. Is there an application to mini painting where the paint itself adds physical shape and depth to the model?

I think part of the motivation of Turnip28 is the intersection of community, creativity, and constraint. Anyone can make their own models, but doing it as a part of a community that is also exploring the same setting and aesthetic is kind of exciting. It also gives a lot of freedom in your designs while also having some core ideas to use as inspiration. It’s a great combo. :) It’s been fascinating to watch the interest in RU-vid communities (like those of channels Goobertown Hobbies or Bill Makes Stuff) eager to participate collectively in build challenges.While there are more constraints than simply making whatever you want, I think many of us respond positively to navigating some constraints in a group challenge (like Brent’s Goobertown Roulette or Bill’s build challenges for his Patreon members). A lot of us hobby (make/craft/paint) in a rather solitary way, and I think many of us (especially after the isolation of the past couple of years) are drawn to projects where we can have a sense of community - even if it’s online.

Just to be clear - there is no actual connection between Turnip28 and Sludge, but the fact that they are so similar reflects the art movement - two people simultaneously coming up with very similar projects. A big inspiration for Sean was in fact Princess Nausicaa from Studio Ghibli.