Swedish Warhammer 40k fan Henrik Petersson has fearlessly discovered the most delicious way to engage with the 40k hobby and amass large armies without breaking the bank: baking models out of gingerbread. What began as simply a way to use up excess dough during the Christmas period became a new pastime in itself, after posts about his models proved popular on social media. Now the battalion baker has two full Warhammer 40k armies done, dusted, and looking tasty, with a third force underway.
"I have always enjoyed doing weird and unusual gingerbread cookies during the annual baking," Petersson tells Wargamer. In the past, he'd made Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and Pokemon and, since he used to play Warhammer 40k and has been interested in the game and setting for a long time, the idea arrived in a flash of inspiration.
Petersson began with an Adeptus Custodes army, "because I wanted an army with a small model count," he explains. Rather than just baking whichever models he fancied, he actually used an army builder app to assemble a 1000-point list before getting to work in the kitchen.
"That army was so popular online that I immediately wanted to make another one!" Petersson tells us. Growing in confidence, he jumped right from a low-model count, elite army to Games Workshop's most infamously humungous horde: he decided to tackle the Tyranids.
Petersson's Tyranid gingerbread army, the Gingerbugs, is a thing of beauty. It boasts a high number of 'models', with 40 Hormagaunts, 20 Termagaunts, and 20 Gargoyles, but there are some big monsters too, including a Hive Tyrant, some Zoanthropes, and the crème de la crème, a great big Tervigon.
The builder says the 3D models (he has one in each army) are the trickiest part of the process. "If you get an angle or a distance wrong, it can end up messing up the whole model. Fortunately, there is a lot of leeway with gingerbread sculptures, mistakes can be mended by cutting and gluing afterwards."
The 3D Tervigon is also his favorite, though. He notes that it even ended up with accidental highlights, as the raised parts of icing ended up setting a slightly lighter shade.
While the Tyranids themselves are notoriously ravenous, Petersson says he can't bring himself to convert his creations into biomass (that sounds gross… sorry). "I am thinking about a way to preserve them," he explains. "I will probably cover them with some kind of varnish later."
With one Xenos and one Imperium faction bread-ified, there's an obvious place to go next, and Petersson confirms he's building a Warhammer 40k Chaos army next - specifically, Nurgle's Death Guard. We're sure they'll look delicious!
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