A fan turns Warhammer squigs into starter Pokémon

Squigs – they’re everywhere in Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar. Now they’ve joined the Pokémon universe thanks to one mini painter.

Warhammer 40k squig Pokemon - a plastic miniature squig painted and sculpted to look like a Pikachu

Between Warhammer 40k and Age of Sigmar, there are plenty of different kinds of squig. But what if there were even more varieties of your favourite Squiggly Beast? What if there were, say, 151 more – and you felt compelled to catch them all? As it turns out, Twitter user and long-time Warhammer mini painter Crystal (@CrystalMCDoll) has transformed a bunch of squigs into the adorable and collectable starter Pokémon from generation one.

Using two-part putty and some existing plastic minis, Crystal created her squig Pokémon, ‘PikaSkwig’, ‘BlastSkwig’, ‘CharaSkwig’, and ‘VenaSkwig’ (Pikachu, Blastoise, Charizard, and Venusaur, for anyone who hasn’t picked up the Pokémon TCG recently). Crystal also created a MewTwo squig, but she claims to “hate” the poor little guy, leaving him out of the poll created to choose, once and for all, the greatest PokéSquig starter.

Crystal says “Pika is my favourite PokéSkwig”. You can choose your favourite custom model from the pictures below, but the results are already in from the Twitter poll, which was created on May 15. BlastSkwig came out on top, stealing 31.3% of Warhammer Twitter’s hearts. CharaSkwig earned second place, followed by PikaSkwig, then VenaSkwig – with MewTwo Skwig watching sadly from the sidelines.

According to her Twitter bio, Crystal has been painting miniatures for more than a decade. “I’ve been doing these weird Skwigs for about a year” she tells Wargamer, “starting with bumbleskwig, an old hammer squid I attached wings to”.

“Each model is made without much deliberation”, Crystal adds. “I try and pick out the key parts of whatever character / creature I’m trying to recreate.” Crystal says she also paints things requested by viewers on her Twitch channel, where she often streams her painting. Next on the painting agenda will be a duck, a cat, and Claptrap from Borderlands.

More of her work can be found on Instagram as well as Twitter – where she has shared more unusual squigs, based on characters ranging from Super Mario to The Hitcher from The Mighty Boosh. Crystal says her favourite squig to paint overall was “the Witcher skwig I painted”.

“The skwigs I paint always go down really well,” Crystal also tells Wargamer. “I feel very supported by the hobby community and the growing community around my discord and stream.”

In reply to one Twitter comment, Crystal also hinted more PokéSquigs could be possible in future. “These squigs are made on my Twitch stream,” she said on May 15. “People can use currency by viewing and interacting with the stream, and then use them to request silly squigs”.

Crystal’s creative kitbash came not long after the end of the ‘paint pot challenge’, where Warhammer fans turned their pots of paint into strange and hilarious Warhammer minis. Between this and that Imperial Knight made of cardboard, the creativity of Warhammer mini painters never fails to impress.

Want to create some PokéSquigs of your own? Take a look at the basics of painting miniatures to get started. Be sure to check out the best paints for miniatures, too.

Update: This article was updated to include further quotes from Crystal on March 17.