The Beard Bunker

Today's post attempts to answer the question "what would it be like to be a junior officer in the strategium support staff of one of the Imperium's battleships... during a massive fleet engagement?" It's a question no-one asked me to answer, but I've answered it in prose form anyway, so nurr . I also appear to have illustrated it, because spaceships. The Battle of Hasmides Ensign Josselana Brannick was facing a test encountered by many Imperial citizens: keeping faith when confronted with mind-numbing dread. She glanced up from her work station and stared through the arched windows of the bridge. The spine of the battleship Dammerung stretched away for eleven kilometers. At regular intervals, lance turrets the size of hab-stacks protruded from the dorsal armour. Beyond that, the pinprick lights of the void. Those distant lights usually calmed her, but today, she knew that some of them were not stars. They were the flaring engines of an enemy fleet. Looking ba...

Greetings all you lovely people. Today I start my newest and evilest project. Oh yes, we did a Genestealer Cult together, you and I, but they are innately evil. I want something that chooses evil, revels in it, corrupts others. With that in mind, there really is only one candidate: the forces of the XVII legion, formerly the Imperial Heralds, now the Word Bearers.

I was recently invited to write something for the gloriously named Goonhammer.com, specifically their  How to Paint Everything  series. Humbled, I frantically attempted to think of something worth writing while simultaneously mastering the shock enough to avoid pooping an actual live kitten. The most obvious gap in their archive was freehand technique, so I teamed up with one of Goonhammer's founders, Rob "TheChirurgeon" Jones and set about creating what is essentially a compendium of various Beard Bunker articles I've written over the years. It was oddly satisfying to draw all those disparate tutorials into one place and to end up with a reasonably comprehensive primer on how to paint your own freehand designs. If you're curious, then here you are: How to Paint Everything: Freehand Image credit: Rob 'The Chirurgeon' Jones, goonhammer.com

It's laid dormant for a little while, but recently there was a little itch at the back of my head. "Hey, Jeff, you know what you want to paint? WW2 dudes..." Keep reading till the end to see this photo again... only better!