Rogue Heresy

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

Thursday, 27 February 2025

Adventures In D&D

Hello, todays post is a bit of a photo dump of 40+ miniatures I have painted for use in D&D and other rpgs during our Tuesday night sessions over the last couple of years, lots of the miniatures are classic Oldhammer while others are from the classic licensed ranges, some are 3d prints that have been given to me as gifts, Mantic games and those marmite D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures (hate them!!!).

First up a 1985 Citadel Miniatures AD&D (TSR) medium level ADD3 Cleric with Mace (human male), this miniature is a perfect fit for my D&D Human Cleric character ‘Allutt, Cleric of Malavos, hero of Phandalin, speaker of the truth’. I put the description of my cleric’s appearance out on twitter (when it was good) and ask my followers to recommend a miniature and this one came up, the miniature wasn’t the easiest to source and in the end, I got one minus the mace, a bit of fixing was involved where I sourced more AD&D clerics and hacked the mace off the higher level cleric and pinned it on.

ADD3 Cleric with Mace - front

ADD3 Cleric with Mace - back

Cleric chop shop

Following on we have a 1985 Citadel Miniatures AD&D (TSR) high level ADD6 Paladin (human male), this is a really crazy miniature to paint, glamorous full plate, a very detailed cloak maybe depicting his deity’s religious symbol. (I think he is proficient in quilting 😃)

ADD6 Paladin - front

ADD6 Paladin - back

I also painted a selection of miniatures as gifts to give my friends to use as their characters.

‘Grungi’ , a Dwarf Artisan, the miniature is 3d print, I ordered off eBay, it was a tough miniature to source when the requirements were a fully enclosed plate armoured dwarf with an ‘Ironman’ vibe.

Dwarf Artisan

‘Four’, a D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Warforged Rogue Assassin (some sort of warbot), I cut up a d4 to add to this miniatures base to represent is name which was kinda funny when he died and come back as ‘three’.

Warforged Rogue Assassin (waiting for Mordant Earth on base)

‘Solbek’, a Tortle Mage, a lovely miniature from Iron Gate scenery (https://irongatescenery.co.uk/product-category/miniatures/) the quality of this print or mould is first class and the price point is superb.

Tortle Magic User - front

Tortle Magic User - back

A Fairy Barbarian!!, this is a ‘Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures’ halflings conversion where I swapped the head of the hammer from one miniature for the battle axe head from the other and then cut up a blister pack to make fairy wings, stuck it on a flying base and jobs was a good ‘un.

Fairy Barbarian Conversion

A few more ‘Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures’ which in general are a pretty bad experience but they are cheap and quick (when tasked by the DM to painted presupplied miniatures)

D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Mindflayer’s.

D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Mindflayer’s

D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Drider. This a a dark Elf (Drow) crossed with a giant spider.

D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Drider

D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Giant Spiders

D&D Nolzur's Haregon (these were a gift for painting the Mindflayer’s, I had to abandon the 4th miniature as it was so badly moulded.

D&D Nolzur's Marvelous miniatures Haregon

3d printed Bulette baby (land shark)

3d printed Bulette baby - front

3d printed Bulette baby - side

3d printed Kobolds, these are more lizardmen than the little dogmen I remember.

3d printed Kobolds

3d printed fighter, my mate offered me a few of these, one was enough.

3d printed fighter

3d printed Gnoll, I enjoyed this miniatures so much, I tried to give it this Hyena-man an African safari feel.

3d printed Gnoll - front

3d printed Gnoll - side

3d printed Bugbear, every warband needs some muscle.

3d printed Bugbear - front

3d printed Bugbear - back

Some really classic Oldhammer:

1985 C Series C15 Orcs (http://www.solegends.com/citc/c015orcs2/index.htm)

C15 Orcs

Left to Right:

Cyclops (Fangor Gripe - Bloodbath at Orcs Drift scenario miniature)
Warlord (Grashak Kra - Bloodbath at Orcs Drift scenario miniature)
Dwarfsmiter
Maniac (Magar Ironfist - Bloodbath at Orcs Drift scenario miniature)
Holg Stunty-Sticker (Archer)

Lesser Goblin (http://www.solegends.com/citboxes/bc1adventurersbc2monsters/index.htm)

BC1 Lesser Goblin

Chronicles N12 Hobgoblin – Thruster (these guys will tie in with my slow burner Nippon warband project)

N12 Hobgoblin 'Thruster'

DL2 Hobgoblin Warriors 1984 - Shaman

Hobgoblin Shaman - front

Hobgoblin Shaman - side

1985 Citadel Miniatures AD&D (TSR) ADD 56 Bugbears, one was a repair job and I had to source missing weapons for one of them.

Citadel Miniatures AD&D Bugbears

ADD56 Bugbears

The next miniatures were chance discoveries that were punted at me by the Amazon algorithm, at £15 or less these were a no brainer, the quality is pretty decent and the plastic is quite durable. The boxsets make excellent filler miniatures for encounters.

Mantic Games – The Green Rage – a superb box of 10 plastic Goblinoids miniatures, it contains: 2 x Goblin Warrior Miniatures, 1 x Goblin Spitter Miniature, 1 x Orc Morax Miniature, 1 x Orc Greatax Miniature, 1 x Orc Archer Miniature, 1 x Armoured Troll Miniature, 1 x Mawbeast Miniature (a big wolf or Warg type dog) and 1 x Orcling Swarm Miniature (lesser goblins or snotlings). All pre mounted on size appropriate grey plastic dungeon tiled bases.

Mantic Games 'The Green Rage'

Mantic Games – Evil Dead – another superb box of 10 plastic Undead miniatures, it contains: 2 x Skeleton Miniatures, 2 x Zombies Miniatures, 1 x Skeleton Archer Miniature, 1 x Armoured Zombie Miniature, 1 x Ghost Miniature, 1 x Dwarf Revenant Miniature and 1 x Zombie Troll Miniature. All pre mounted on size appropriate grey plastic dungeon tiled bases.