Known as Hospitiliers Guardians to the pilgrims, these guardians are a corrupt, criminal and highly organized merchants. They trade adeptus rights, passage, identity, body parts, and worse!
First of Thistle’s models are finished. Look at the face of that lady and the Anchor texture! Wow.
Lady Bethesda & The Pilgrym Father
IRON SLEET 
is Thistle John Blanche?
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It’s a word written in Glossia 😉
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Might be – who wants to know ……
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Your work is truly inspiring. It manages to be both gloomy and radiant, with such captivating colours and textures. Absolutely wonderful.
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Dear Laurence the Elder Thistle, kudos to you for your vision and resultant inspiration. Thank you for sharing your excellence with us all.
These are just beautiful man.
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Ah, they’re ok.
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😉
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I’ve been a fan of this style of painting for such a long time. I think Phil is on the right track as to the identity of Thistle. I would love to be able to actually watch John Blanche paint. To see the actual process. I have no idea where to start. All those textures, highlights, warm colours, drybrushing, free-handwork, Brass & bronze. It’s just baffling to me.
GW has recently started doing “how to” paint videos on youtube. I would give my right servo-actuator to see a John Blanche painting video…
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You know that video would just feature John Blanche walking into shot, sitting down and like…. magic happens. Or something.
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Absolutely brilliant in all their grim and bleak splendor.
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It’s the some total of 60 years of painting model soldiers …… A mix of wet blending,dry brush, flat colour, ink washes , ink glaze’s dirty water – all at speed – can’t do neat …..
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That’s good to know. So all I have to do is practice for another 50 years and I might be this good too? 🙂
Thistle’s work makes me feel like a total amateur at this painting lark.
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Oh wow… they are fantastic, grotesque and beautiful in equal measure… absolutely stunning.
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Something to aspire to during the Pilgrym.. Study, learn, and challenge! Aim for Luna, end up somewhere in the Hive spires?
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Brilliant.
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Nice work Thistle – loving those warm reds and patches of verdigris. Cheers for all the inspiration (and I totally agree with all those suggesting that getting John Blanche a guest slot on Warhammer TV seems like a no-brainer to me).
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Sorry chaps I just ain’t fit enough for such an undertaking ….
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Excellent looking pair of models! Thistle’s use of drab, rusty colors really helps sell the destitute, unfulfilling life in the underbelly of Terra’s Imperial palace. The headdress on Lady Bethesda is excellent; it is in stark contrast to the rest of the mechanical nature of the model, giving her a very esoteric and alien feel. The other is looking good too. I love the anchor, its inclusion sets the mind to wander into dark places 🙂 I believe I saw a similar feature on one of his other models, a transport of sorts on the Ammo Bunkers…
The Mechanicum release of 2015 sure has been an incredible boon on the Inq28 community (the Dominous has already been used multiple times in the Pilgrym project to drastically different effects). They are perfect of making creepy, unknowable 40k models. It also helps that they are scaled well to most of the other 40k range, making them look thin and alien.
I cannot wait to see more Thistle!
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Ah Thistle … your mini’s are truly your paintings coming to life.
Those orange robes – magical!!!
As Migs said, texture on the anchor – awesome!
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I can’t stop looking at the colors on her coat – mesmerizing.
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Very, very grim. Love these. The bases are executed exceptionally well too. 10 points.
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Well done. The pictures are a bit grainy, which I am sure you are aware of. Wonderfull conversions though 😀
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I’m not a photographer and I ain’t got the patience to learn ……
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Those secateurs look…ahem…intruiging. And bloody gorgeous stuff as usual! Two very evocative characters walking right out of the hallowed (as in dirty & dystopian) cathedrals of Terra…the robe on the Pilgrym Father is incredible.
A+
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Wonderful looking conversions all around! They look like they have walked right out of one of John Blanche’s paintings. Ha ha
The tones and colors on both of the model’s jacket/robes are brilliant! Keep up the great work!
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As always in awe of your vision.
The use of the tomb kings heads is so fitting and novel. Glad you’ve got the orange ink out again it is so you.
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Where would 40k be were it not for Thistle
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there has been lets make it WW2 or vietnam – and them’s that see a star wars thing – then there was a small cadre that wanted to stride the medievalism – but that was so many years ago – i blame it on being a kid in the fifties – it was colourless and everybody new their place …..
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Thank the heavens for a dour postwar Britain.. .. Long live the grim and the dark and the genius of unbridled creativity..
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Clever conversions that capture the fierce so many of your paintings keep inside. The vibrant red/orange in is just awesome!
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This is, again, a great demonstration of your art John…. Lady Betsheba is a masterpiece !
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Fantastic! Such wonderful textures and rich earthy colors. I love the ruined bases too.
No plastic GW models capture Thistle’s artwork as well as the new Mechanicus line does, so it’s particularly great seeing them being used this way. Can’t wait to see more.
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Beautiful work — the great Imperial lady is high, strange, Gothic, imperious — the chin reminds me of ‘Dowager Deaconess’ by John Blanche, the oddness of her headdress a reminder that in an Imperium of a million million worlds, there are many strange fashions and cultures, all drawn to the golden world of Holy Terra and the silver light of the Astronomican. A great Imperial noble lord and lady and their suite would make a beautiful set of characters — will we see more?
Bathsheba (Bathsebee), if my memory serves me, was the wife of Uriah (Urias) and the mistress of King David, whose penitence is written in the beautiful Psalm L (Miserere mei). Is the name relevant to her character?
The corrupt ‘Hospitalier Guardian’ is another masterwork, a mix of Gothic splendour and mercantile practicality and scavenging. A++
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