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Hey all, here comes the blah:
Last night was drinking with a lady-friend of mine, and ended up telling the story of the Emperor and the 'road to 40k'. She's French, a born-again Catholic and a student of Literature so she was pretty hooked in by all the Christian themes, the myth, and the literary references, (plus I am a pretty good storyteller) and asked for a novel involving war as opposed to detective stuff (her pa's Army) so I've got her started on Necropolis. For me it's always been the story that's kept me hooked into 40k, and it's the desperation of 40k as opposed to the testosterone-fuelled insanity that I focused on to hook her in. And yes, I made sure Ollanius Pius was in there.

So what I'm trying to do is find a piece of 40k artwork - any old piece - which as opposed to being crazy-badass-teenage-hardon, illustrates the more subtle themes of desperation and sacrifice that pop up throughout 40k. I've already got the original Rogue Trader cover in my head, but what I'd love is to get all you guys involved. Even the Rogue Trader pic is a little too OTT in the badassery, but at least there's people in obvious pain and getting shredded while still trying to stand and fight. I'm sure there's more out there but I can't remember 'em just now, and crowdsourcing is the new google, amirite?

TL; DR
Please use this thread to post all the 40k images you know which are inspiring as opposed to pure hyperbolic mansauce. Help is much appreciated!

And to get things started...

For me, it is the original black and white version of the Emperor versus Horus, with Sanguinnius lying dead between them.



The colour re-do just does not work for me.

There is an Iwo Jima-esque image of some marines on P198 of the original Rogue Trader book, but I am not folding it back far enough to scan properly, and can't find online...

 Fifty wrote:
For me, it is the original black and white version of the Emperor versus Horus, with Sanguinnius lying dead between them.



The colour re-do just does not work for me.

Yeah I've got scans of the Realm of Chaos books kicking around somewhere which is where I believe that image first came from - and it's that old-school version of the story that I was telling as well. The colour re-do has less emotion and dynamism, it's too stiff and baroque for me. Thanks!

No contest.

This struck me when i saw it in White Dwarf

I'm not so sure that fits the vibe Griddlelol but thanks for trying And that's really cool madtank, thanks - just the kinda thing I mean.

@sigvatyr - It's a cool image but as a homo sapien I find it quite difficult to be inspired by this murderous scythe-wielding robot

and Fifty, you know what I'm feeling, keep it coming. I've got a scan of 1st ed rulebook and sadly that image of the Iwo Jima marines is split across two pages there, with quite a big dent in the pic from gentle folding.

More please ladies and gentlemen...

Or

I have always liked this one. A Templar fighting alone in the midst of a horde of enemies, with only his bolt pistol, yet still unwilling to drop the company colors.

Captain Roderick wrote:So what I'm trying to do is find a piece of 40k artwork [which] illustrates the more subtle themes of desperation and sacrifice

The best one that I have that fits this specific criteria is...

Desperation and sacrifice?


Either the one posted by madtankbloke or Ailaros

Thanks all so far!

Madtank - great! I especially like how that lady is 100% Mordian without fitting the cookie-cutter. I always liked Mordian uniforms but hated their heads.

Coolyo, that second one is really good - where's it from?

Ashrog - agreed, even though he's superhuman, he's up against it, and I did have that one in mind

Ailaros - spot on, I've never seen it before - really good. Is there a story behind it?

Please keep pumping me full of your lovely gifs, pngs and jpegs people...

There's tons of them.

Wow, those are nice.

I don't know where mine came from. I just saved it onto my computer from somewhere one day.

I know this was partially in the OP post, but it needs to be seen in its full glory..



And I remember looking at these kinda pictures and wondering what kind of world would spawn that kind of person.



Very alien looking, something that is lacking from later versions of 40k.

and this one for the sheer bleakness of it..



now all we are subjected to is this.


Not that I have anything against UM, but the art has no real mystery to it, and no real reason for me to other than glance at it.
Guess I am getting old

When I look at this portray of Russ I get chills down my spine....IMHO this is the best looking picture of a primarch in full battle mode ever and the main reason I love SW so much...

Like the cover of Rogue Trader, it's clear to me that the Crimson Fists here are losing. I kind of like the more defiant tone of this piece, featured in an advertisement that hangs in the crapper at my local game store. I've been staring at this picture for years, even since I got into gaming, and for me it kind of encapsulates a lot of the things that attracted me to the hobby in the first place.

I think this one really speaks to one guard's desperation against impossible odds. Fuelled on by bitterness and spite. And the fact "the emperor protects".

Some more:

The Black Templar posted by Ashrog was my first thought, along with this:



That banner bearer (who turns up more than once in Codex fluff, by the way) has had HIS ARM COMPLETELY BLOWN OFF. And yet, knowing his duty, he stands there unflinching, still holding the banner high.

Loving most all of it peeps, thank ye all. Some of it is a little too Michael Bay but hey, if that's what inspires you, I'm glad to see it

@Jimsolo, I understand what's so inspiring about it for you, but I'll always prefer the original Crimson Fists' Last Stand. The 3rd ed one is just a bit too clean and shiny, and they're doing so well in their lovely armour... the other one, there's blood and gak everywhere, and bandages, and people in pain.

@ Super Ready, missing arms definitely add to the level of percieved dedication!


and Avatrass, thank you kindly for that lovely spread

The Night Lords pic in the bottom left hand corner in the new chaos 'dex, as well as their cover art on Soul Hunter/etc.

Maybe I'm a bit daemons biased but...gawd this is an awesome image

But I have to admit, the one with the plaguebearers advancing on the guardsmen...Damn, it makes me glad i'm not being called up in the 41'st milennium

 Evileyes wrote:

But I have to admit, the one with the plaguebearers advancing on the guardsmen...Damn, it makes me glad i'm not being called up in the 41'st milennium

I'm with you there - thankfully, I'm not competent enough to get drafted into normal Guard units. gotta be the top 1% of the PDF or somesuch. Probably end up as a conscript...

Not so sure if Kairos is so much inspiring as shiny and pretty though

@soo'vah'cha yeah I get the jadedness utterly. I have no huge problem with Ultramarines either, but that image is pretty sue-ish, it doesn't attract me to them. And I definitely think it's a sign of age, when I started playing 15 years ago, I had a 425pt Chaos space marine lord and as many Khorne Berserker Terminators as I could fit into army... 2+ on 2D6 baby!

Ailaros - ah yes, the old '400 photos in your downloads folder' trick. I've been cultivating that for some time, but 90% of mine are science jokes from facebook.

This is one of my personal favorites, not only because it has my boys the Smurfs on it, but because they are killing filthy necrons. Also, its very grim and dark, but not too dark. The gold on their armor will not shine if its too dark

I will trawl through some old WDs too.

Personally my fave images are Ian Miller's page spreads from Slaves to Darkness.