R.I.P. John Blanche

 John Blanche, one of the major influences in wargaming and the art community passed away today at age 77. His artwork was a huge influence to many and will continue to do so.

 

Art by John Blanche

 

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales - The White Death

 

 I have been wanting to sculpt a mutant sperm whale for years. Weird but it's true, I messed around with a couple of other sculpts for other projects but nothing ever got finalized so when I got to design some of the monsters for this project I saw my opportunity to finally make it.

If I could I would have done a whole whale and made an anthropomorphized monster but I held back and thought this was more fitting. I had planned to put harpoons sticking out of his hide and ropes lashed across it's sides complete with a Gregory peck looking zombie tangled in the mess but I figured they would become a casting problem so at the last minute I changed my mind. Anyway, here are some pics of the sculpt.

 

 

 

 

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales - Retchmaw ("Pinata")

 Designed this guy, original idea was once you defeat the monster you replace it with a random amount of walkers as everything it ate came out. I wanted it to look like it was still in the process of mutating, it's limbs in-between fins and legs.

This is an interesting note; it looks like the figure was scanned, cleaned-up and then the zombies that were originally coming out of it's belly were removed and then a new group on his side was digitally sculpted as well as the one in his mouth. Here are pics of the original sculpt,

 

  

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales - Deadlight

 Another one of my designs. My idea was a monster that could stun a player, maybe reducing their movement or actions. I was getting flashes of Scooby-Doo while making it.

 

 

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales - Tidewitch ("Mermaider") original sculpt

 The Tidewitch was one of my designs BUT not one of my minis; here is the original sculpt I did as part of a group of figs I was asked to come up with. I hadn't noticed mermaids in the concept art yet so I thought that would fit the criteria. The idea I pitched was a zombie that wasn't very mobile but could lure players to it and away from the party. Also, it let me sculpt something in a more "human" scale instead of the gigantic stuff I normally do.

As far as production, I suspect that the curvature of the tail in my sculpt was too problematic for casting. Looking at the new sculpt the tail is wrapped around a rock making the outstretched arm the only real tricky part to get cast. The original pose still lives on in the game art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zombicide: Dead Men Tales - Slopkraken Abomination

 Concept art

 

 Finished pics

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art by CMoN artist