Jon Grant Miniatures

Painting September is always an incredibly busy month for real-life commitments, so hobby time was limited. Even so, I managed to make some progress on a few projects. I continued adding new tiles to my modular board. First up was a nine-hex stream to clearly mark neutral territory. In several games I’d found it tricky for opponents to determine where neutral ground began, and I wanted the board to be as fun and easy to use as possible for everyone. Next, I created 14 new starting hexes in preparation for the upcoming Spitewood expansion. I marked them with clusters of purple heather . My idea was that the colour would stand out clearly, while still looking natural as part of a heathland scene (inspired by the moorlands of northern England where I grew up). Finally, I built a set of four Waystone tokens , again for the Spitewood board. These were my first attempt, and while I’m happy with them, I may experiment with different designs in the future. On the painting desk, my mai...

Blackpowder’s Buccaneers storm into the blazing mines of Embergard, their eyes glinting with the promise of treasure and a thirst for battle in the fiery depths of the Realm of Aqshy. Leading the charge is Gorlock Blackpowder [1], the infamous Ogor Maneater, hefting his massive blunderbuss with a wicked grin, eager to face whatever foes dare stand in his way. At his side, Peggz [2] and Kagey [3], his gnoblar crew members, dart ahead, chattering and scavenging for anything worth plundering. Mange [4], the fierce primate, bounds along ready to tear into any threat with savage glee, while above them Shreek [5], Blackpowder’s sharp-eyed bird companion, circles and screeches warnings to guide the crew deeper into the labyrinthine tunnels. Each step brings them closer to hidden riches, the heat and glow of the Emberstone casting long shadows as they plunge into Aqshy’s depths, spoiling for both treasure and a fight. Fighter Characteristics With such a rag-tag crew as the Buccaneers it is ha...

  Painting At the start of the month, I eagerly anticipated the arrival of Kamandora's Blades . Even though the warband wasn’t exactly well received by the community when first revealed, I had a plan! I decided to paint the controversial faces as if they were covered with warpaint . In my vision, these devoted followers of Khorne daubed their skin with ash and charcoal to form a skull-like visage, honoring the Blood God. I quickly painted the warband and shared them online and was delighted to receive plenty of praise in return, which is always nice. (My full painting guide can be found below in the Blogging section.) My Kamandora's Blades With the Blades complete, I was once again fully up to date with my Warhammer Underworlds painting backlog. That freed me to pursue a project I’d been mulling over for some time: building a 3D Warhammer Underworlds board . My Underworlds Board, complete with blocked hexes I’ve already written a dedicated article on this board, so I won’t rep...

One of my favourite units in the Stormcast Eternals range are the Gryph-Hounds . They are perfect for filling out those last few spare points in an army or acting as a loyal bodyguard (or pet) for a hero. In Warcry , they really shine, adding a burst of speed to an otherwise slow-moving warband. From a hobby perspective, Gryph-Hounds are a joy to paint, offering a variety of textures and colours that make a refreshing change from the more uniform look of the standard Stormcast fighters. And of course, my little mascot Beakie is a loyal Gryph-Hound, always keeping a watchful eye on my Stormcast. Start by undercoating the miniature with  Chaos Black  spray  Lion Brown Body The body was given a solid basecoat of  XV-88 . Once this was dry, the whole area was shaded with a 50:50 mix of  XV-88  and  Mournfang Brown , thinned with water and worked roughly into the recesses and across the underside. After the shade dried, the raised areas were tidied back u...

Recently, I have been painting a fair number of terrain pieces. During a recent quest into the loft, I came across a sprue from the Sigmarite Mausoleum. On it was a pillar bearing a statue, and while I painted the pillar in my usual grey stone, I wanted the statue itself to stand out in a rich, dark green marble. This is how I painted my quick and easy dark green marble, which can be used for bases, shields and terrain. Paints required: Abaddon Black Incubi Darkness Kalabite Green Sybarite Green Pallid Wych Flesh Contrast Medium Akhelian Green Method I began with a solid basecoat of Abaddon Black. Over this I heavily drybrushed Incubi Darkness using a small makeup brush to bring out the texture. I then took a small piece of sponge and dabbed on patches of Kabalite Green to break up the surface and start creating the mottled marble effect. The next stage took the most time. I heavily thinned down Sybarite Green with water and, using an old synthetic brush, I stippled thin lines across t...

Beakie started out as a simple branding idea, but quickly grew into something more. Now he’s my partner on the blog, adventuring through the Underworlds and beyond. Along the way he stumbles into all the classic moments, jokes, and memes we know from tabletop gaming. These designs are my way of sharing Beakie’s journey—and hopefully bringing some of that fun to your table too. If you enjoy my content and want to support the blog, check out my Beakie merchandise over on Spring! Click  HERE   to visit the store. You will find T-shirts, mugs and stickers. I Cast Fireball - T Shirts, Stickers and Mugs here I'm attacking the Darkness - T Shirts, Stickers and Mugs here I ain't afraid of no Ghost - T Shirts, Stickers and Mugs here Don’t worry—if I make any sales, you won’t see any adverts again on my site!

The Idea I love Warhammer Underworlds and have been playing it for a good few years now. However, I have one particular niggling issue with the game: the board is too flat. For the last 35 years, I’ve been playing miniature battle games, and for most of that time, I’ve played across battlefields filled with 3D terrain. For a while now, I’ve had an idea about building a more immersive Underworlds board. I wanted the board to be modular so I could recreate both versions of the current board setup and future-proof it for upcoming releases. My idea was to use wooden hexes placed within a frame. Each hex would be decorated in such a way that they could be easily interchanged within the board. I also needed a way to create and clearly distinguish Blocked Hexes, Starting Hexes, Stagger Hexes, and the standard empty hexes. But before diving into those details, I needed a theme. Ever since I started playing Warhammer, I’ve always had an undead force of one kind or another. Currently, I have a...