Special Showcase: Martin Peterson's Bloodmaws!

For two years now, I've had the pleasure of staying with Martin Peterson during my trip to Monte. He's been a wonderful addition to the group. One of those, I can't imagine the trip without him, kind of things. Simply a wonderful person and an amazing painter!

These trips are a great opportunity to see some of the best painted minis in the entire world, all in one place, and I was lucky enough to be holding and examining one after the show.

We went to hang out in the ice cream shop after gathering models, and while we were sitting and chatting, I had the opportunity to (very thoroughly) photograph Martin's Bloodmaws.

In this showcase, you'll see a mix of photos, some with a cloth background, which were captured during the show, and others that were captured in the ice cream shop.

I did my best to capture all the little moments across his squad diorama and really showcase the precision he uses in his painting style. I can't express just how wonderful it was to behold these models in their glory.

Enough of my ramblings! Below is a lovely write-up by Martin himself to take you through his hobby journey to where he's at now, including some thought process on building this diorama.

Thank you, Martin, for being a great friend and amazing artist.

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From Martin:

HOBBY STORY

I got involved with this hobby in early 1999. The game was cool, the models were cooler and I seemed to have a knack for painting. I built a small Blood Angels army and that was it. My faint interest soon bloomed to an absolute obsession. I borrowed some old issues of White Dwarf from a friend, and found out about the ‘Eavy Metal painters, and Golden Demon. In October 2002, my third consecutive year entering the competition, I walked away with a Bronze in the Duel category.

Flash forward to 2010. After a few slow hobby years, I’d gotten to know Max Faleij as the guy in the Stockholm Games workshop store who was really into painting, and we met Roger Axelsson and Sten Frödin at an annual painting competition hosted by the store. The four of us started painting together in the store after hours, and eventually going to Golden Demon every year. After Max won Gold in the Open competition in 2014, he made the move to Nottingham to join the ‘Eavy Metal team.

I eventually joined him, and became an ‘Eavy metal painter myself in June of 2017. I worked there for about five years.

My time in the design studio saw many hobby highlights: from seeing my first official box art on a shelf, to painting milestone kits like Angron, to developing the new Sisters of Battle and Votann ranges. I’m still extremely proud of my work there, and I consider myself an ‘Eavy Metal painter even though I don’t actually work for GW anymore.

Nowadays I still paint as much as I can. I still compete in Golden Demon. I do odd commissions, and teach painting through classes and one-on-one coaching. I really love helping others on their way in the hobby. Aside from sharing what I know, I also learn a lot myself from it.

SPACE WOLVES

I’ve been in love with Space Wolves for almost as long as I’ve been in this hobby. I built an army in early 2000 when the 3rd edition codex (well, codex supplement) came out, then another army in 2009 when that codex came out. I’ve entered Space Wolves into Golden Demon five times, won two silver trophies, a bronze and most recently, a gold with Space Wolves. In 2012 I actually entered a unit from my army (alongside a Dreadnought, just for good measure. They both placed.)

So when the new Space Wolves plastic range was announced and unveiled in March of this year, I immediately made a plan for my next Golden Demon entry: a mixed squad of some of my favourite models from the range. Two or three models I had pretty much right away (the running Blood claw, but with a Grey hunter’s bolter, for example) and the rest I mocked up as soon as I got my hands on the new kits. One other thing I decided pretty early on: no Blackmanes.

I have nothing against Ragnar’s company. The colours work really well, the symbol is so striking that most people mistake it for the Space Wolves chapter symbol, and Ragnar himself is awesome. I did think about adding him as the unit leader. But I also had in the back of my mind some amazing artwork from the Forgeworld Imperial Armour book The Doom of Mymeara, featuring Space Wolves from Bran Redmaw’s company.

I especially loved the helmet colour variations, which I’ve rarely seen on any miniatures (Dave Perryman did a fantastic Terminator with a red and black helmet, and the ‘Eavy Metal team painted a Blood claws colour variant with a red “muzzle” for the new kit.)

The illustrations in the book also had a slightly brighter armour colour than the studio models, and I was keen to try to find a different armour tone anyway.

The idea sort of grew organically from there. Putting together a squad like this on a single base doesn’t have to be complicated, but it requires some thought, I think. I like when there’s a sort of oval shape to the silhouette of the unit, looking from the front. And keeping one figure in the center, with his eyes dead straight, while the others are fanning out to the sides. Very movie poster, book cover style. I did a similar thing with some Darkoath miniatures last year, using the same size base, so that helped a lot.

The Terminator is obviously a bit bulkier than the others, but I wanted him and the Blood Claw elevated as well. Again, looking from the front I wanted all the figures to be clearly visible, but this can easily become too obvious if some of them are literally standing on platforms. I think this, the way they’re kind of climbing over Imperial ruins, feels natural enough. The wolf having a couple of ammo crates to stand neatly atop is maybe less natural, but it’s fine.

Speaking of which, the wolf comes from the Belladamma Volga kit, probably the best wolves (non-Astartes ones, that is) that GW has made.

A Wolf priest leading the unit seemed like a fun way to introduce a different armour colour, and it turns out that combining bits from the new Battle leader and Wolf priest kits is pretty easy. The right arm is from the Headtakers kit and the head is from the Chaplain on bike, but the whole conversion is basically cutting and glueing. Very glad I gave him a power fist too, it’s an underrated supplement to a Chaplain's Crozius.

The base is built from an ice cream tub, and its main features consist of plastic 40k ruins and lots of Milliput. I wasn’t sure about adding vegetation at first, but as you can see I eventually went pretty much all-in. I’m not unhappy with the base, but I definitely didn’t have much of a plan for it to begin with, and that’s categorically something I always prefer to have. Even a very simple idea is an idea.

I’m really proud of this entry, and obviously very happy with how it did in Golden Demon. It’s always interesting to go through the various stages of disappointment, satisfaction and, eventually, determination to keep getting better and trying again next year. I’ve got some ideas. We’ll see how it goes.