Rogue Heresy: Rogue Trader

Showing posts with label Rogue Trader. Show all posts

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

Friday, 14 February 2025

Rogue Trader - RT01 Space Marines - Flesh Tearers Part 6

Greetings, I've not posted for a while as I just haven't had the time however I am still getting in one hour a night painting so miniatures are getting finished slowly, in between all my other Oldhammer and D&D miniature projects I managed to finish another batch of nine Flesh Tearer Imperial Space Marines, this time focussing mainly on specialists. Let's have a look.

My latest batch of Space Marines

First up we have the first Space Marine Medic, Kribbins (bit of an odd name, maybe there were a few stoners at the GW studio😉), advertised in White Dwarf 93 September 1987 and credited to Bob Naismith. The medic carries a Carnifex bolt gun to grant the mercy of a quick death to fallen comrades, during the build I had to remove the backpack mounting knob to add the later Medic Marine biker Narthecium backpack as it just didn't sit right (thanks for the advice there Curis). This miniature belongs in my Medics and Casualties project but that is going slow so I dropped him in here, keeping on theme with that project I gave Kribbins teal coloured space latex gloves and free handed the conical flask badge and other icons.

There are loads of illustrations based on him in era Rogue Trader material, (also pictured as Medic Kildare after the 1960's TV doctor drama).

Space Marine Medic Kribbins - front

Space Marine Medic Kribbins - side

Space Marine Medic Kribbins - back

Space Marine Medic Kribbins - side

Space Marine Medic Kribbins - front

Note that the Space Marine medic backpack has the Integrated Squat Medic backpack with the Marine power exhaust stuck on the top and maybe a bit of a sculpt tidy up, see below.

Next we have Brother Martins heavily armed with a Hand Flamer and a Plasma Gun, this miniature is one of the later 1988 Space Marines advertised in White Dwarf 100 designed by Mark Copplestone and Aly Morrison, he is quite chunky which makes me think it's a Mark Sculpt, initially named as number 6 before getting a proper name in the RT3 Flyer. Checkout the huge skull on his shoulder pad reminiscent of the black and white marine illustrations in the Rogue trader book. The plasma gun seems to integrate into his armour in places and I had a go at painting the plasma coil a glowing green it compliment the red of his power armour. I have a photo of a variant of this marine with a studded shoulder pad but the image is rough (see below).

Space Marine Brother Martins - front

Space Marine Brother Martins - side

Space Marine Brother Martins - back

Space Marine Brother Martins - side

Seen in the wilds a Brother Martins variant?

Staying with the specialist theme we have Brother Leach armed with a Plasma Gun, another White Dwarf 100 Marine this time number 1 and again got a name in the RT3 Flyer, I love the chain bracelet with skull and rams skull on his shoulder pad with the surrounding studs, it goes to show the nonuniformity of the Rogue Trader era with female warriors and early librarians both sporting ram skulls on their shoulder pads, before W40k lore was fleshed out.

Space Marine Brother Leach - front

Space Marine Brother Leach - side

Space Marine Brother Leach - back

Space Marine Brother Leach - side

Next we have Brother Roberts armed with a Bolt Pistol in a really nice dynamic pose, he also first appeared in White Dwarf 100 as number 13 and again got a name in the RT3 flyer, I always thought this was a variant of Brother Repp but now placing them side by side I am not so sure, maybe a bit of him. Check out the sculpted bandaged hand and battle damage, there's a lot of little details in this miniature that can be missed if you don't look carefully and once mounted the backpack covers some of the damage.

Space Marine Brother Roberts - front

Space Marine Brother Roberts - side

Space Marine Brother Roberts - back

Space Marine Brother Roberts - side

Moving on we have Brother Stalker armed with a Bolter and a Bolt Pistol, he is one of he first Rogue Trader marine releases back in White Dwarf 93. Stalker is in one of those classic RT era poses where he is running forward leaning over making him a tricky paint and photograph. I feel he has a lot of similarities to Brother Dedmole with those smaller armour pieces and helmet, you can read my thoughts on this in the Brother Dedmole post linked.

Space Marine Brother Stalker - front

Space Marine Brother Stalker - side

Space Marine Brother Stalker - back

Space Marine Brother Stalker - side

Here we have advertised in 1988 White Dwarf 99, Captain Newmar armed Bolt Pistol, it really looks like he is a veteran of many battles with his bionic arm with brutal blade attached and his head held together with metal plates. I've painted this miniature so many times over the years, my last version was blue skinned!!

Space Marine Captain Newmar - front

Space Marine Captain Newmar - side

Space Marine Captain Newmar - back

Space Marine Captain Newmar - side

Appearing in White Dwarf 100 (number16), this one always raises an eyebrow with the more modern W40k crowd, Brother Fielding and his Shuriken Catapult, the sculpting aid version of the catapult was certainly used here, I had a go at a shuriken weapon badge on his shoulder pad and the gems on the catapult didn't turn at out great, a nice little detail is the Eldar shuriken cartridge pouch on his side.

Space Marine Brother Fielding - front

Space Marine Brother Fielding - side

Space Marine Brother Fielding - back

Space Marine Brother Fielding - side

Another 1988 White Dwarf 99 Space Marine, Brother Gorshin armed with a Needle Gun (or Needler), I can't really say much about this one, I mentioned the Batman reference in my first post other than I really enjoyed painting it. I hear modern Space Marines are being equipped with sniper weapons again.

Space Marine Brother Gorshin - front

Space Marine Brother Gorshin - side

Space Marine Brother Gorshin - back

Space Marine Brother Gorshin - side

Lastly we have the First Space Marine Scout miniature (White Dwarf 107 1988 Nov) designed by Bob Naismith, what can I say about this miniature other than it's Snake Plissken from Escape from New York, from the eye patch, wrist device, the biker boots and being festooned with exotic weapons, once you have seen it you can't unsee it. An interesting detail is the pistol on his back that appears to have a chain blade attachment. I suspect this was a drawer 101 miniature as by August 1989 the look of Space Marine Scouts had completely changed in line with the release of 1990 Advanced Space Crusade and associated artwork.