Andy Clark, Nerdling Herder

@andycruns.bsky.social

4521 Followers 1849 Following

Writer, purveyor of increasingly terrible jokes, semi competent miniature painter. Skipping gaily over the line between clever and stupid. Host of Find Folk Friday and idiot behind Stupid Lore Sunday. I’m so sorry He/him Nerdlingherder@outlook.com

three goblin knights from the film Labyrinth
A photo of a mostly eclipsed sun with a couple of glowing dots above it that make it look like a sad face
Clarkson points at a car with THE TRANS COMMUNITY on it and says ‘This is brilliant’. Then points at another car with LARGE PILES OF MONEY on it and says ‘But / like this.’
Warmest UK summer on record "increasingly likely" Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s charred corpses litter a british beach in front of jolly little huts that are approximately 900 degrees inside
A crude photoshop of the Earl of Grantham with an orks head and hands. He’s leaning on a chair in front of a fireplace in evening wear. The text reads ‘Downton Waaaggghbby’
a warhammer ork with yellow armour, a big power claw on each arm and impossible trousers
Clarkson pointing at a car with THE TRANS COMMUNITY on it saying This is brilliant but then point at another with LARGE PILES OF MONEY on it and saying But I like this
YOU'RE UP AT 5AM BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN PARTYING I'M UP AT 5AM BECAUSE THE STUPID CAT WOKE THE TODDLER WE ARE NOT THE SAME
Now…that’s all i can remember
A joy toy dark angels deathwing terminator with autocannon and powerfist. He doesn’t want to attend your meeting
A tyranid screamer killer in red and green stands over a tau firewarrior that’s hiding in the shrubbery and desperately calling for help. He’s fucked to be perfectly honest
a grumpy looking ork with a big knife and smoking gun walks across rubble. his skin is green, armour metal and spiky nice chap, loves dogs
A green fabric terrain template on a desk is grabbed, screwed up and thrown away
New warhammer terrain templates! Hurrah! To use them you need an A3 printer! Haroo
A space marine in white armour with green trim and a distinctly herbal chapter symbol
Morlocks, the cave dwelling backward creatures from The Time Machine
1st edition necromumda with lots of multi level terrain made from plastic and card
a chart with the box text Made millions through a pop culture phenomenon and retreated to a castle then an arrow to Enya marked Good and an arrow to Rowling marked Evil
Space marine captain in grey and black armour with a big hammer
A vanguard veteran soace marine with thunderhammer, plasma gun and excellent mutton chops
The Tiger by Nael, age 6 From They're Singing a Song in Their Rocket The tiger He destroyed his cage Yes YES The tiger is out
The cute little round white creature that is Moopsy. A terrifying organism that drinks bones
Steve Rogers with the text Games workshops biggest mistake yet! Orks are woke
A 40k ork warboss and an age of sigmar mega boss confront each other through a magic mirror built into an orkish idol
Boyz + paints set Containing: Mournfang brown Zandri dust Orruk flesh Leadbelcher Corax white Abaddon black 2 boyz and a gretchin Oh and the obligatory terrible starter brush
The Odyssey, but it’s muppets
The BBC 1 test card. For you kids this is what was shown when TV turned off at night
Inspector gadget Dead or alive, you’re coming with me
A zeo genesis force
A zeo from the game zeo genesis. Big fighty exoskeleton in light blue, orange, and white. It has two enormous guns
Bender Bending Rodriguez saying 'Fine, I'll make my own international football governing body. With blackjack, and hookers'
An orange knight with chrome trim
An imperial guard with a fish face
A very shiny red space marine from the very silly Blood Glitter chapter
A bits box purging weirdo with two impractical axes (gas powered and manual), a bandolier, a holstered pistol, and a back banner. Painted in a minimalist pallete
A miniature of a Games Workshop Possessed Chaos Marine in John Blanche's style roaring in victory as he holds a decapitated Blood Angel Death Company in its left hand.
Osterhilt marches onward, front (her) left side view: "Front (her) left side view of Osterhilt from the Mörderin by John Blanche Kickstarter. Painted in desaturated blue armor with bright red accent pieces and featuring a white checkered pattern and hazard stripes, based on a large orange brown jagged boulder at a slant with sun bleached skulls, dry looking tuffs, and rusted pipes surrounding it"
My take on the spectacular Epic 40,000 cover art from way back. Nearly a Zorn palette, with Army Painter paints from the JB signature series, but added a few extra bits like metallics.
a miniature of an ordo Malleus inquisitor, with a bionic limb and eye stabbing a sword tip down into a tome of forbidden lore, with a demonic fire sprouting forth, painted in the style of John Blanche, with yellows and reds and oranges and pale bone.
An Adeptus-Mechanicus Tech-Priest, with a very fine, if somewhat stained, hat on his mechanical bonce. Powered by the energy of 30watt bulbs, he strides across the Martian landscape accompanied by Percy, his loyal Servo-Skull. His robes are red and dusty, his robotic appendages rusty, and his big axe a little beaten, but trusty. 
You can still find them. Despite everything the planet throws at us. Despite all the cruelty and violence that we continue to visit on each other, even as we struggle to carve out a niche for the last of humanity to survive in.
A mini of a woman in a tall Witchunter style hat, metallic dreadlocks and facemask holds a pistol in her left hand. She has knee length boots, leather trousers and an open skirt. The colours are very muted, with a limited colour pallet od blacks, greys, reddy-brows and green-browns.
Old school harlequin with power axe in yellow and purple, front right facing.
A Minotaur with a horned headdress, in a charging pose. He is bellowing with fanged maw, he is wielding a sword and axe. Model kitbashed from various GW parts and 3d printed models. Background painted by my lil' one.
Ancient (2nd? 3rd?) Edition Space marine captain with power sword and storm bolter. He's painted in the Blanchistu style in tribute to John Blanche.
“Holy Boltguns! It’s the Sisters of Battle!” So boasts the cover of White Dwarf #212 but—what’s this?—Canoness Veridyan now stands alone in a Paragon Warsuit.
Atlan, a former Custodes Eye of the Emperor who now struggles to remember his past due to amnesia induced by a head wound.
An old Empire astromancer on foot miniature painted with black robes and bright orange/yellow accents, with bright indigo shadows and speckles of orange paints everywhere. He's standing on some gothic ruins that sadly remain unpainted thanks to the heat wave. His cloak reads 'Ioannus Albinus Pictor' in case he forgets his own name.
Zorn the Eternal, a Word Bearers dreadnought mostly painted in a Zorn-inspired palette as Blanche was fond of using. Instead of ivory black, vermillion, yellow ochre, and titanium white I used abyssal turquoise, red truth, heavy ochre, and Vallejo white since those were the closest matches I had on hand. I also used some metallics. Front view.
A repainted Sister of Battle action figure posed to mimic the pose in John Blanche’s iconic Canoness Veridyan artwork. She has one leg up with her foot on a skull, while other skulls litter the base. She wears black power armor with red accent robes and carries a power sword and combi-flamer. The combi-flamer has hazard stripes on it and the power sword is painted with an extreme contrast highlight of near white on the top half the blade and black on the bottom half. She has white hair and a bionic eye.
So, this is titled “Bits Box Blanche”. It’s an attempt to replicate one of my favourite John Blanche images, from the cover of what I still consider MY edition of Warhammer 40K, but with the stated caveat that every single part had to come out of my bits box. And what surprised was how easy that was: it seems like John Blanche’s style is practically hardwired into the DNA of these little plastic folk even now. There’s a bit of Milliput to hold it all together, and for the base, but the rest of it was just all there. I’ve included the original image, and a couple of shots that I took of this model as it came together. Finally, almost at the last minute, I remembered that he’s fundamentally a second edition Space Marine - arguably, THE second edition Space Marine - so of course, his base had to be green.
Fully painted Caucasian ogre on a small hill looking down on a desertscape or dried riverbed. He’s looking menacing, with a club resting on one shoulder, armor on his other shoulder and waist, a copper bracer, loincloth, and leather leg wraps. The landscape is adorned with details like grass, tufts, flowers, dead leaves, vines, other foliage, and a human skull. He’s painted using a Zorn limited palette, inspired by John Blanche. The paints used were all Golden heavy body acrylics and the colors were titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, and bone black. Because there is no blue in this palette, artworks using it tend to have rich skin tones, browns, reds, oranges, and white and black tones, along with desaturated greens from a mix of yellow ochre and black.
Inquisitor framed diorama
A highly decorated hero of the Baphomet Crusade who was tortured to death by Dark Eldar seven times without revealing any valid information. A miniature straight out of the famous 3rd edition cover art by John Blanche that was one of the reasons I started 40K. Dedicated to the master. RIP
An Orc in the service of Mordor. The orc is crouched down and preparing to thrust a glaive overhand. The figure is from Ral Partha (1978), sculpted by the great Tom Meier. Painted using a limited color palette (primarily light sandy brown, burnt orange, brick red, and burnt sienna). The original spear was replaced with a glaive made from brass rod and milliput. Keeping with the John Blanche theme, the orc is finished with a gloss varnish and there are mushrooms on the base.
Fantasy warrior knight on horseback both standing atop a mountain of skulls. Painted almost entirely with washes in a very subdued and limited palette..
A Blood Angels Space Marine Captain in Terminator armor painted to evoke the style of the late John Blanche's Warhammer 40K 2nd Edition cover art. The captains bulky armor is a fiery red colour with back trim, in his left hand he holds a storm bolter with a yellow casing and in his right a glowing blue power sword. He has a tilt shield attached to the bottom of each pauldron painted in yellow and black wit white heraldry a top it. from behind him you can barely see his cream coloured cloak,
A Skeleton Horde marches across a dark and foreboding countryside. A menacing, twisted tree looms in the background. The skeletons recede into the distance, like there is no end to their numbers. A very “Heavy Metal” banner of a skull with a rose in its mouth is being carried by one of the skeletons. The banner reads “We are Legion”. It’s more than apt, because those of us who have been inspired by John Blanche are Legion - and are always grateful for what he gave us.