John Blanche's En Garde Reveals New 54mm Duelling Miniature Previews

The new En Garde previews arrived last week with a character that makes the whole project click into focus. Admiral J. Weiss, sculpted by Patrick Masson and painted by Grimdark Compendium, is John Blanche's own in-game alter ego: "an accomplished swordsman and crack shot with his brace of pistols," and by the game's own description, "the very epitome of the swaggering pirate lord." At 54mm, he is also one of the most paintable single figures this hobby has seen announced in years.

The scale choice is not accidental. Tuomas Pirinen, who is designing En Garde's rules, has confirmed that 54mm is Blanche's personal favourite scale. At that size, Masson's sculpting of Weiss rewards the kind of portrait-level attention that 28mm cannot support: fabric folds read as actual fabric folds, facial planes hold shadow and highlight independently, and metallic trim on a coat or sword guard becomes a feature rather than a suggestion. Grimdark Compendium's painted preview demonstrates this directly, showing how the additional surface area turns each zone of the model into a standalone technical challenge worth its own session at the desk.

En Garde is set in a fantastical, water-logged city teeming with mystery and danger, a Low Fantasy world of swashbucklers and brigands where sanctioned duelling decides fate, honour, and survival. The game was conceived by Blanche alongside world-builders Nigel Wood and Ronan Duggan, with Pirinen handling rules. Pirinen has compared the duelling system to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice in tabletop form, signalling that the mechanical ambition matches the visual one.

That creative lineup is the other reason painters are paying close attention. Pirinen designed Mordheim in 1999, the gothic city-skirmish game that retains a cult following three decades after Games Workshop quietly withdrew official support. This project reunites him with Blanche, who served as Games Workshop's Art Director and Creative Director for more than 40 years before officially retiring on 31 May 2023. Blanche first appeared on GW's radar in 1977, contributing cover art to White Dwarf issue #4 and artwork for the first British edition of Dungeons & Dragons. He is widely credited with originating the grimdark aesthetic and the Blanchitsu painting and conversion movement that still drives a significant current of hobby content today.

Since his retirement, Blanche has shown no sign of slowing. His personal Mörderin Kickstarter, a set of grimdark female miniatures, raised £68,000 in a campaign described as an overwhelming success. He co-created Trench Crusade with Pirinen and Diablo designer Mike Franchina, and released multiple volumes of the John Blanche Masterclass paint sets with The Army Painter, a commercially available palette grounded directly in his own colour sensibilities.

A Kickstarter for En Garde is imminent. Pirinen has stated it will arrive "very, very soon," adding that the team has already put personal funds into the project to reach this point and that crowdfunding is needed to carry it forward. "The miniature sculptors who've done this, it's their job. They need to eat," Pirinen said.

For painters planning ahead, the Masterclass sets are the logical starting palette. Blanche's hallmark approach, desaturated earth tones, sepia washes, and controlled grime with isolated bright focal points, maps directly onto what the Admiral J. Weiss preview shows. Source a 54mm display base, budget several sessions for the face alone, and treat Grimdark Compendium's painted version as a reference sheet. The Kickstarter will determine what the full roster looks like, but this preview confirms the sculpting quality is already there.