John Blanche presents a new range of 32mm grimdark femmes miniatures based upon his artwork.
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Boarding Hussar, Production, Fulfilment and Painted Miniatures
16 days ago
– Sun, Mar 09, 2025 at 11:47:40 AM
Halloo dear backers!
We hope that this missive finds you all well. Looks like Kickstarter have resolved the issue of creators being unable to upload images, which is jolly good news (see update earlier today)! So without further ado, in today’s update we have:
Boarding Hussar renders
Production & fulfilment update
Painted miniatures
Boarding Hussar
Here are the renders for the finished Boarding Hussar.
Boarding Hussar art by John Blanche
Production & fulfilment
As mentioned when we launched the campaign, the initial estimate for fulfilling the Kickstarter was March/April 2025. In the Risks & Challenges section of the campaign page, we stated that we did “not foresee any major risks – the only challenge would be if the project massively over-funds, but that would be a happy challenge indeed”. Well, we think you might agree that the project did indeed ‘over-fund’ and resulted in several extra stretch goals being added. Due to these being additional miniatures that required sculpting, this naturally added to the time required to get them ready for production.
James, our sculptor, as some of you are no doubt aware, has been gobbled up by the raging success of Factory Fortress’s Trench Crusade. Since we launched the Morderin Kickstarter before Factory Fortress had any inkling as to how stupendously successful their Kickstarter might be, we all thought there would still be time for James to get all the stretch goal minis done for each of them to be in production by now. Sadly, this has not been the case since, due to the success of Trench Crusade, his time has been largely consumed by Factory Fortress’s success. But please do not fear – he will complete the Morderin KS sculpts ASAP so that the final ones can go into production by the end of this month (March).
What this means, and we are terribly sorry about this, is that our fulfilment dates will need to be pushed back a bit. Please do accept our most humble apologies for this. We have spoken with our caster, Zealot Miniatures, about realistic timescales now and these are as follow:
Complete prototypes and mould making for the final models by the end of this month (March)
Finish casting of around 30,000 miniatures (!) in May
Pick, sort, bag and ship models to the fulfilment centre in June
Fulfilment centre to begin shipping June
Once again we are terribly sorry this has taken longer than we had originally envisaged and hoped. We appreciate that this is not what anyone wants to hear, but we really hope you are okay hanging on a little longer before you get your miniatures.
Painted miniatures by Harry Kaye
John asked his friend, Harry Kaye [https://www.instagram.com/oldworldpaintedblood/] to paint up a set of the original Mörderin miniatures and he has done a wonderful job of capturing that Blanchitsu vibe. John is especially delighted with them.
Harry himself says: “Initially when asked (by John) I was filled with a mix of equal parts honour and dread. I've never considered myself a painter of his style and felt I couldn't really emulate the art they are based off in a way I thought would do them justice. So, I of course said yes and figured I'd sweat the details at a later date. After a few days of pondering, I decided just to paint them in my own interpretation, in my own style, using colours and themes that I connect with. My justification being in my head that I didn't think Mr Blanche would have got very far in life if he didn't break the chains of expectation and paint things how he wanted to do them, rather than how he perhaps should. So, in that spirit, here's my interpretation of the Mörderin Witch Hunters based upon John Blanche’s artwork.”
So thanks ever so much Harry, everyone here thinks you have done a sterling job!
To sign off, in the next update we hope to have:
Photos from the Zealot Miniatures foundry
Dates for when we will be closing BackerKit
Renders of the Nasty Piece of Work sculpt
Best,
Thistle
Kickstarter issues with uploading photos for creator updates
17 days ago
– Sun, Mar 09, 2025 at 05:38:22 AM
Hallo everyone!
Been trying to post an update with lots of nice images (renders of the finished Boarding Hussar and painted miniatures) but Kickstarter is having issues right now. Here is the latest from Kickstarter:
"Investigating - We are investigating reports of creators having issues uploading photos. Thanks for your patience while we look into this!" Mar 08, 2025 - 20:12 EST
As soon as Kickstarter resolve this issue, we will post the update - hopefully in the next day or two. Failing a quick fix by Kickstarter, we will post the full update minus images and see if we can do a work around with links instead...
Please bear with us - and Kickstarter as they attempt to fix this!
Best,
Thistle
Grimhilde
about 2 months ago
– Fri, Jan 31, 2025 at 03:58:10 PM
Halloo everyone!
Apologies it has been a little longer than we'd hoped since the last update, there has been rather a lot going on in all our lives. But things are moving along and we have another sculpt to show you today!
We hope to be able to get some photos of the production process soon, so that will be for the next update. We had hoped to get down to the foundry a little earlier but, alas, it has been a bit tricky with various things going on including blasted winter bugs! Hopefully that is behind us now.
So, today we would like to introduce you to Grimhilde, the mysterious and perhaps not entirely trustworthy queen of the woods...
Grimhilde art by John Blanche
When comparing the renders of this 32mm miniature with John's artwork, please bear in mind the scale we are dealing with here. Whilst it would have been great to replicate the delicate proportions of John's characters, this is very difficult to do at 32mm - because the miniatures are so small, you have to exaggerate certain proportions in order for them to a) cast properly and b) not be so thin and fragile that they break easily. Fortunately SioCast is an excellent material to cast miniatures, with detail comparable to resin with very good impact resistance and flexural strength. But even so, you can still only cast pieces so thin. One day we may consider doing some 54mm sculpts of John's characters, in which case those proportions could be a lot closer to the artwork... :)
The final miniatures are being worked on and we should have renders of those soon. These characters are the Boarding Hussar and Nasty Piece of Work:
Nasty Piece of Work by John Blanche
In the next update we will have a clearer idea of where we are with production, which is ongoing with all currently sculpted miniatures but, of course, we still have a couple left to finish off. We are still hopeful that we can hit April, at least for the majority of backers. Thank you for you patience and see you in the next update!
Best,
Thistle
Elspeth the Boarding Hussar
3 months ago
– Wed, Dec 18, 2024 at 02:01:12 PM
Season's greetings!
May we present to you Elspeth the Boarding Hussar...
Elspeth by John Blanche
Here are some renders of Elspeth:
If you like her, you can add Elspeth in the BackerKit pledge manager (you should have received a link to the pledge manager already – if not, please drop us a message and we will send you another link). James is beavering away on the remaining stretch goal sculpts for the campaign and we will get you pictures of those as soon as they are ready!
The next miniature being worked on, the mysterious Grimhilde...
Grimhilde by John Blanche
Hope you all have a merry festive period. See you in the next update!
Best,
Thistle
Arrce of the Covenant
4 months ago
– Wed, Nov 13, 2024 at 12:42:50 PM
Dear backers!
At last we have some renders for Arrce of the Covenant to show! We are very sorry it has taken a while to get here – as some of you will no doubt be aware, James (our sculptor) has been working on Trench Crusade and only recently finished sculpting miniatures for that. He assures us that he will now be able to devote a lot more time to John’s Mörderin miniatures. Your patience is truly appreciated!
Arrce of the Covenant by John Blanche
Here are some renders of Arrce, along with a turntable video showing a full 360 degree view of her. With those platforms she is a rather tall and imposing model!
Sculpted in ZBrush, rendered in Blender
If you like her, you can add Arcce in the BackerKit pledge manager (you should have received a link to the pledge manager already – if not, please drop us a message and we will send you another link). James is now busy working on the remaining stretch goal sculpts for the campaign and we will get you pictures of those as soon as they are ready!
A final quick note: Some backers have yet to complete the pledge manager (despite reminders being sent, you naughty people) and we need this for your address, card details and to select any options, if applicable to your pledge. Any problems or questions, please send us a message and we will be more than happy to help!
As mentioned in previous updates, it is possible that those of you with Apple IDs may not have received your pledge manager email/link. Please check out the following link and/or drop us a message:
