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

Rogue Trader - RT01 Space Marines - Flesh Tearers Part 5

Hello, it feels like I haven't post ages so I had to pull my finger out and get this one finished, my Flesh Tearers Space Marines project was back on the workbench while being constantly interrupted by Oldhammer Citadel C-Series miniatures I am knocking out for our D&D games.

Here's my latest batch of 7 Space Marines.

My latest batch of Flesh Tearer Space Marines

First up we have Brother Sawyer who first appeared in the White Dwarf 100 advert (April 1988) designed by Mark Copplestone and Aly Morrison, in my opinion he is the archetypal Space Marine whose pose is based on the cover of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook, people still debate the weapon type used by the cover art marine today however the later advert lists him as armed with PowerFist and Hand Flamer, I think it fits.  A plastic banner pole from the later backpack sprue when metal backpacks were being phased out was pinned into place for his Flesh Tearer banner.

Space Marine Brother Sawyer - front

Space Marine Brother Sawyer - side

Space Marine Brother Sawyer - back

Next we have Sgt. Burgess armed with Bolt Pistol again from the White Dwarf 100 advert where he is painted as a Mantis Warrior looking splendid in the green power armour.

Space Marine Sgt. Burgess - front

Space Marine Sgt. Burgess - side

Space Marine Sgt. Burgess - back

Next a decided my chapter needed a Chaplin 410602 from White Dwarf 108, really enjoyed this one, nice cyclops skull on the banner pole.

Space Marine Chaplain 410602 - front

Space Marine Chaplain 410602 - back

As usual I tend to paint every part of a miniature only to then cover up lovely detail with a backpack :D

The back before being covered up by backpack

I followed with a Space Marine bodyguard in a nice guard/at ease pose from the RT105 Imperial Commander set, for some reason I have loads of these so I can imagine the are loads of Commanders out there without a bodyguard, I really must revisit this set.

Space Marine bodyguard - front

Space Marine bodyguard - back

Next I did a Death Eagle marine 410612 from White Dwarf 123 March 1990 in Flesh Tearer colours, another Mark Copplestone sculpt, I wasn't going to do the white and purple colour scheme of the original advert, there's been a lot of speculation on the history of these marines over the years, I am sure I remember them getting an official story in the noughties.

Death Eagle Space Marine 410612 - front

Death Eagle Space Marine 410612 - top

Death Eagle Space Marine 410612 - back

Here we have Brother West with Bolter and Combat blade from White Dwarf 99 advert (March 1988), he is in a good dynamic pose and I love this combat blade much better than the RTB01 chain blade.

Space Marine Brother West - front

Space Marine Brother West - back

And the last Flesh Tearer in this post is a RTB01 Plastic Space Marine, this one was a fun project in itself as I did some extra modelling using Troll Soup OOP Rogue Trader style metal parts, a chainsword, bolt gun and backpack with two mars_forges 3d printed decals, one the chapter icon which I have been using on others where possible and a terminator honours icon, I also built the neck up a bit. I tried to do this RTB01 proud giving him a more detailed paint job as these old plastic lacked all the lovely lines that the metal marines had.

RTB01 Space Marine conversion - front

RTB01 Space Marine conversion - back

RTB01 Space Marine conversion - side

RTB01 Space Marine conversion - side

RTB01 Space Marine conversion - side

Lastly we have a Female Astronaut in power armour a one off fan sculpt from based on the C100 Imperial Space Marines, this was a fun miniature to paint, the backpack was a dream to paint.

Female Astronaut / Femme Marine - front

Female Astronaut / Femme Marine - back

Female Astronaut / Femme Marine - top

My Flesh Tearers are now up to 39 miniatures, I might have enough for a game now.

If you want to read previous posts on this project follow the links below:

Flesh Tearers part 1
Flesh Tearers part 2

Flesh Tearers part 3

Flesh Tearers part 4

Flesh Tearer Medic Marine

Flesh Tearer Jet Bike

thanks for stopping by.

J

Confrontation 40K Diorama & Scavvies - Fan Sculpt

Hello, in today's Oldhammer post I show you my completed diorama based on the 'Confrontation 40K' painting by Les Edwards. You may remember I completed the Necromunda Blood Drinker Space Marine back in March 2021 and since then the accompanying Scavvy gangers have been sitting around my workbench getting the odd flick of paint here and there.

The Scavvy gang miniatures were again sculpted by Drew Day Williams of Satyr Art Studio, please visit the website for some great limited edition Oldhammer inspired miniatures. 

As you might remember from my previous post on this subject, I planned to build a diorama of the painting and faithfully recreate the paint schemes of the characters involved on the miniatures, well today the gangers are finished and I knocked up a quick diorama based out of plumbing supplies, I feel the base is a little small but that was the only piece of mdf I could find lying around the house, my original plan was to integrate the bases in drilled recesses but I ended up just placing the miniatures on it, time is always my enemy.

Anyway here's the photos, they quite didn't come out as I wished but hey ho, enjoy.

My take on Confrontation 40K

From above

"kill him you scavvies!"

Scavvy Gang line up

Scavvy Gang line other angles

Enemies of the Imperium receive swift justice

Here's a couple of shots of the original painting for reference.

Confrontation 40K - Les Edwards

Confrontation 40K image from the 1989 Blood and Iron book

Thanks for visiting, I will be back soon with something cool

J

Rogue Trader - Bombots - Fan Sculpt

Hello, quick Oldhammer post today, a few months ago I was pleased to be offered a trio of fan sculpted Rogue Trader homage Bombots by their creator Curis over on Ninjabread and quickly assembled these five piece models and slapped on some paint. (I love saying creator when referring to robots :D)

Imperial Army pioneers - Bombots and Operator

He's done a really fine job from concept to final piece, working with very little source material, a quick description and rules on page 121 of the Warhammer Rogue Trader rulebook and a small snippet of what looks like was once a larger illustration.

Bombot illo from Rogue Trader rulebook p.121

Bombot rules

I went for a simple codex grey colour scheme for these miniatures with the dangerous bits in red, a bit of weathering and shinny 'ardcoated green lense, they were a fun paint job although I am a bit out of touch now when it comes to batch painting.  

Once I had finished the robots I felt they needed an operator, I'd recently seen what Curis had done with his over on his blog with a Space Marine operator and how the colours married them up perfectly, I loved the effect.  I wanted a someone who would compliment the low tech Bombots and fit in with the unit codex grey colour scheme then I thought who better than a candidate from the Imperial Army.  Initially I was going to go with the Rapier spotter holding the binoculars but then opted for the Tarantula operator as I think he is a perfect fit with his smaller gun slung over his shoulder and operating a remote control, I guess that was for the Tarantula, it was a simple tie in which works for me.

Now for some more photos.

Imperial Army Bombot Unit out in the field

Bombot 1 - side

Bombot 2 - side

Bombot 3 - side

Bombot 1 - front

Bombot 2 - front

Bombots on the move

Imperial Army Operator - front

Imperial Army Operator - side

Imperial Army Operator - back

Imperial Army Operator - side

Imperial Army Operator - higher angle

The Bombots remind me of the WWII German pioneers Goliath remote mine and I would hope they were in the mind of the author at the time of writing, here's a Goliath model kit below, stick a R2D2 on top and you have a Rogue Trader Bombot.

German Goliath Team

Here's a link to 'the Creator's Blog post here and another super job on these miniatures here.

thanks for dropping in

J