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Hi everyone,

I am friends with John Blanche on Facebook, as he is real-life friends with several people I know. Possibly some of you are friends with him too, as he is very active on some Oldhammer groups on Facebook, and I think he occasionally pops up in some of GW's official groups too... (He goes by Laurence instead of John on Facebook, but it is definitely the right guy, as I have met him once and as I said, he and I have real-life mutual friends.)

He has joined in with the UK trend of putting up rainbow pictures on the front of his house and his Facebook feed to show support and gratitude to the NHS*. I suggested to him that he could auction some of the rainbow sketches and he came back to me with a better offer - he will paint a 40k style portrit for the winner of an auction. So I created this eBay charity auction;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Personalised-John-Blanche-Warhammer-40k-style-portrait-100-proceeds-to-the-NHS/174259718281?hash=item2892b04889%3Ag%3AaiMAAOSw07JeoZhG&fbclid=IwAR1Lf-NuIxD3qJHQqquJxhxP4uQtYgs6VGAqcRPnfCV4OjYbgdRBjkoGRwY

100% of the proceeds go directly to NHS Charities Together - not a penny will go through me. As it is a charity auction, eBay even waves it fees. If you live in the UK, I'll even pay our postage so you can bid a little more!

(By the way, I abhor the notion that the NHS should have to rely on charity, and under normaly circumstances would not consider it, but I think this is a special case, and hopefully acts like this will be a stick to use to force the government to fund the NHS better once this crisis is over.... so, I beg of you, please don't use this thread to begin a political argument about such things.)

I hope many of you will consider making a bid!

*National Health Service here in the UK.

Fantastic idea by you and John, hope its a great success as who wouldn't want a 40k pic of themselves?!

 ingtaer wrote:
Fantastic idea by you and John, hope its a great success as who wouldn't want a 40k pic of themselves?!

Fulgrim probably regretted having his painting done

Wowzers, it has gone to £1020!!!

I suppose we shouldn't be suprised, I mean someone's clearly buying FW's warlord titans so obviously some 40K players have more money the gawd to spend

I read it as a raffle at first, I’m definitely out for this, too steep.

But, should you (or he really), want to do another. I’d suggest a raffle of £2 or so. Every one is an entry.
Arguably it’d make a lot more (more book keeping a bit for you, but Excel..), as if someone will bid £1000 they’d probably put a god chunk on multiple tickets. But you’d also get several £10 jobs down on it etc..

Just a thought, this is great either way!

This is awesome! Currently at £1,320

Fantastic, isn't it?

The portrait below is one that John did of a friend of mine, and which John himself has given as an example of the style of portrait to expect.

Mis-post!

Might as well bump this anyway though. Anyone got £1500 they don't need?

I am...sorely tempted.

 Fifty wrote:
Might as well bump this anyway though. Anyone got £1500 they don't need?

It's a great cause and I'm really happy he's raising it! But even with the more favorable exchange rate these days, my wife would absolutely murder me

Just a reminder, this is a great gesture AND if you don't have GBP1500 to throw around you can always donate directly.

*cough* John might have agreed to do another to raise money via a raffle... *cough*

That is fantastic to hear, good on him.

I am delighted to say that this made £1550!

Even better news is that John as agreed to do a second piece so that it can be raffled!

I'm reading about the UK rules for running a raffle right now, so hopefully I can get it up and running soon!

Now this isn't the sketch of the winning bidder,

but it's too cool not to share



Annie Norman of Bad Squiddo Games and her Cyber-Peeg by John Blanche

Yeah, that is awesome!

It is the best thing to happen to me ever!

Absolutely fantastic

 Annie wrote:
It is the best thing to happen to me ever!

Very cool to see the owner of the example portrait post up here . And obviously, beyond cool to have yourself drawn by John Blanche!

As promised, here is a prize draw from some John Blanche artwork.

Sadly, a raffle is a lot harder to (legally) organise than it looks, especially over a period of more than one day and/or online. Seriously, look it up on the Gambling Commission's web pages. A combination of factors made me decide that the difficulties in organising it myself, or more accurately through a society, were probably just to onerous.

Although this website takes a commission (10%) it is a *relatively* low commission compared to most charities, so I decided to host a prize draw here. Although you have to answer a question, I am sure it is something which, if you are keen enough to own some of John's work, you'll be able to find the answer! If you are not 100% then I encourage you to ask someone.

I hope that many of you will buy tickets and help John to help the NHS even more.

The prizes are three of the original pieces of Stay Safe rainbow art which John produced to show his support of the NHS, and which inspired me to ask him about an auction in the first place.

(Oh, also, the artwork for the auction winner is complete, and I am arranging the courier tomorrow. I'll post an image once he receives it)

https://raffall.com/20275/enter-raffle-to-win-john-blanche-nhs-rainbow-art-hosted-by-russell-goodwin