Rogue Heresy: Fan Sculpt

Showing posts with label Fan Sculpt. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 February 2026

Rogue Trader - The First Terminator Marine and Fan Sculpt Tribute

Hello! Today’s short post features a real Oldhammer gem, the first Imperial Space Marine clad in Terminator Armour, designed by Jes Goodwin and released in December 1988. It originally appeared in White Dwarf 108 on catalogue page 28, coded as 410609 with the rules following in White Dwarf 109 and 112.

This miniature has been sitting on my painting desk, prepped but untouched, for at least two years. The gathering dust was starting to bug me, so I finally decided to tackle it. I wanted it to tie in with my Flesh Tearers project, so I used my red scheme without the black helm and pauldrons to represent a First Company veteran or something like that.

It was a fun miniature to paint, with lots of line work to bring it to life. I’m pleased with the results, and I’ve decided to complement this little mini-project with a fan sculpt tribute based on Jes Goodwin’s original concept artwork, a beautiful miniature to paint but the most exciting thing was it's weight, it really reminded me of the good old days where you could break a toe if you dropped the miniature.

Not made my mind up on banners yet, they may come in the future.

Fan sculpt terminator along side the first Terminator marine

First up the original 1988 Citadel Miniatures Terminator Marine.

White Dwarf 109 page 32 Terminator Marine art

First Terminator Marine - front

First Terminator Marine - back

Next up the Terminator Marine fan sculpt, see how faithful this miniature is to the original concept art.

Jes Goodwin's Terminator Concept Art

Fan sculpt Terminator Marine - front

First Terminator Marine - back

Terminators Rogue Trader style

This Terminator armour design made a comeback in the Horus Heresy with the Saturnine Terminators, where the resemblance to the original source is clearly visible.

Horus Heresy Saturnine Terminator

A couple of notable images of painted Terminator Marines that appeared in various Games Workshop publications, the painters creativity is out of this world!

More Imperial Space Marines to come in the near future.

Thanks for dropping in,

Wednesday, 12 March 2025

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 - back

Horus - front

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

Monday, 25 March 2024

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

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.