Case Study: Editorial Web Design for Brush & Bolter
A niche publishing platform for Warhammer 40,000 news, commentary, and community-led long-form content.
Website Platform:
Wix Studio
About The Business
Industry:
Media & Publishing
Brush & Bolter is an independent editorial website focused on Warhammer 40,000 news, commentary, hobby culture, and community-led discussion. Rather than operating as a generic fandom blog, the platform is positioned as a niche publication with a clear point of view: thoughtful long-form writing, human-authored content, and a cleaner reading experience free from intrusive advertising.
The brand needed a digital platform that could support both editorial credibility and long-term growth. That meant building more than a blog feed. Brush & Bolter required a structured publishing system capable of organising content by faction, topic, and editorial theme, while also supporting audience trust, search visibility, and a premium support model through Patreon and the Sanctioned Signal newsletter.
The Challenges The Business Faced
The obstacles that Modemkiller would help overcome:
Brush & Bolter needed to launch with the presence, credibility, and clarity of a serious specialist publication, despite being a new independent brand in a crowded content space. From a content strategy perspective, the challenge was to build for scale before volume existed. The platform needed to support long-form articles, category-led browsing, topic-based discovery, and search-friendly structure from the outset. This required a content model that could grow with the publication.
There was also a commercial and operational layer to solve. Brush & Bolter is intentionally positioned as an ad-free publication, which meant the website needed to support a value journey built around reader trust and Patreon-backed support. Lastly, because the brand comments on third-party intellectual property, the site needed an appropriate legal and editorial framework to support that positioning responsibly.
