Somehow in the middle of all this, I got painted as "the forum's guy who knew John". And I did indeed stay in touch with John on and off through forums.
A few years later, he would contact me asking if I was interested in putting on something to replace someone else's cancelled WHW meet. 8/X
So, I show it to John, say the model's not finished, but I'm working on it for another forum's event in three weeks.
We chat for a bit (during which he mentions a cosplay that someone did of the outfit) then the model goes back in the case, the day goes on, and I think that's the end of it. 3/X
That was the absolute fastest Inquisitor event I've ever planned, from conception to completion in 15 days.
Apparently, people came out of the woodwork at short notice if you said John would be at an event.
And indeed, John turned up with some lovely miniatures that I helped him stat up. 9/X
This would be the first time I'd had the chance to meet John.
At the time, I was sculpting a 54mm Inquisitor miniature based on his Winter Court Noble from the Inquisitor Sketchbook.
The model wasn't finished yet, but I had it with me, and I found the courage to go over and show off the WIP. 2/X
What I didn't realise though was that John had absolutely picked up on my small talk about "another event in three weeks time".
Fast forward to three weeks later.
I'm up at WHW, we're in the middle of a game (with said model now finished and on the table)... 4/X
... and John turns up again to find out how the model has turned out. Complete with a print-out of the cosplay he'd mentioned, so he's clearly turned up deliberately.
And you can sort of see the gears turning in everyone else's heads around the table. 5/X
And, indeed, after John's moved off to chat with one of the other people there he recognises, one of the other players at the table leans over and says "... that was John Blanche, wasn't it?"
Needless to say, the games themselves ended up forgotten for a good few minutes. 6/X
However, @dreadquill.com had missed the detail that John would be there, so his first meeting with John was me going "Hi Rob, this is John, you'll be GMing for him in the first round".
(I hadn't known Rob's side until he posted a thread on Twitter years later: x.com/dreadquill/s...)
10/X
So yes, that's how I ended up knowing John. A really friendly person who was heavily engaged and involved in the community he'd inspired.
(Indeed, he was active to the very end, having been involved in the "En Garde" Kickstarter very recently).
He will be missed.
11/11
As it was, Lady Martejja Riemann (as I had chosen to name my version) went on to win the vote for that year's hobby competition.
(John's appearance may have had some influence on that voting though...) 7/X
