The Emperor and Horus diorama Fan Sculpt Tribute

Hello, today's post features a Emperor and Horus diorama fan sculpt tribute. 'The Emperor and Horus' diorama by Mike McVey 1993 which was based on artist Adrian Smith and writer Bill King's illustration and description of this pivotal moment in the Horus Heresy.

Mike Mcvey's stunning piece appeared in various White Dwarf's on the years but the most memorable to me was the March 1995 White Dwarf 183 'The Emperor and Horus' 'Eavy Metal article on page 40 where Mike gives breakdown on how he built the diorama.

I have seen the diorama a couple of times on my visits to Warhammer World, I took many photos of it which can be seen here.

Note: This fan sculpt was not commercially available and was converted from the original citadel miniatures.

This project was a lot of fun, and I could have easily disappeared into it, expanding it into a much larger setting. However, after spending a couple of weeks painting Horus, I realised I needed to stay focused on what it truly was, not a direct replica of the original piece, but rather a small snippet of the diorama. Keeping that in mind made it feel much more achievable.

The miniatures stay very true to Mike’s original converted pieces. Most of the original conversion parts were sourced to recreate them, with only a few minor deviations that are barely noticeable. For Horus, I aimed to match the original paint job as closely as possible, using a chaos decal as a base to make the freehand work on his shoulder pad easier.

By the time I got to the Emperor, I was running out of steam and didn’t want to invest too much time in all the intricate patterns on his armour. Still, I remained faithful to the original colour scheme, free-handed the shoulder pad which from the original piece is really hard to interpret, and again used a decal cut to fit around the purity seal on the power glove.

Neither miniature was glued to the 3D-printed base; they were only pinned since I created a separate base for Horus and have plans for one for the Emperor in case I ever want to game with them. To complete the tribute piece, I quickly painted a backdrop of Earth from space on a piece of stiff card. I was tempted to add a plastic Marine’s upper half in the void beneath Horus, with a fallen Khorne Berserker outside but in the end, I had to decide how long I really wanted to keep going with it.

The Emperor and Horus 1

The Emperor and Horus - a bit closer

The Emperor - another perspective

A few shots of the miniatures without the base

The Emperor - front

The Emperor - side

The Emperor - side

The Emperor - back

Horus - front

Horus - side

Horus - side

Horus - back

Now for the base and backdrop without miniatures

Base and backdrop

Another fan sculpt which landed on my desk is the female Gunfighter, this exciting miniature is based on Pete Knifton's illustration in June 1988's White Dwarf issue 102 Illuminations article, page 6, I don't remember if the artwork was done for Rogue Trader or Dark Future and if it ended up anywhere, she looks like the scum type right at home in Helsreach.  

Sculpted as limited run by Bigmrtong and it came in 54mm scale too, the sculpt is a great rendition of the image, the power armoured arm is just lovely.

As for the paint job I tried to pay homage to the illustration giving her all black clothing and equipment, I am still tempted to get busy with the gloss varnish to give the clothing that black PVC feeling. I added a couple of 3d printed beer bottles and tuffs to the base for effect.

Female Gunfighter - front

Female Gunfighter - back

I hope you enjoyed this projects output, thanks for dropping in,

Cheers

J