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I figured I might as well post a photo of this thing here. It's been on my workbench for a few years now, and today I decided to finally call it "complete". It features pieces from about two dozen GW plastic kits, from Dark Angels icons to Baharroth's wings, hand a Lizardman drum, storm bolter components, a voxcaster backpack, etc. If I could do it all over again, some things would go differently, such as the choice of scale, overall desigh and so on. But it is what it is, and there aren't many others like it out in the world.

The throne doesn't look very epic or ornate, but I like it. The Emperor looks like he's almost dead, and the throne instantly gives the message that "this represents the Golden Throne of the Holy God-Emperor". I can't really describe the feelings and thoughts it gives in english though... finnish would be much easier but the forum rules sadly don't allow me using it on comments.
Anyways, parts of the model would look a bit dull alone, but as a whole it looks really good!

nice detail...the weathering and colors are appropriate.

I've always liked the backstory that the Throne was originally not intended for its current use. It was a part of the Emperor's webway research, a kind of psychic amplifier and control interface. It was converted to a life support function because, well, needs must when the Devil cracks the whip. To that end, it's nowhere near as skull-encrusted as 41st century Imperial tech, but has those rounded corners you also see on Heresy era vehicles and devices. The canonical John Blanche version is much more imposing and monolithic, with blocky angles and Gothic decoration.

Sawing the Emperor's legs and arm off appealed to my sense of aesthetics here, I wanted to get across "coma patient" in a way that a bald dude in a a robe sitting on a chair would not have. I don't think the full extent of the Emperor's injuries has ever been canonically specified, with various illustrations each portraying him slightly differently.





Both of these were close to my mind when I was constructing my iteration of the Throne. From Blanche, I took the idea of steps leading up to the Throne, this idea that it's on the top of a series, perhaps, of platforms that each supplicant must traverse in turn to reach the foot of the Throne. Of course, in order to keep the model at a sensible size, I can only hint at this. The second picture, from Rogue Trader, gave me the idea of not having the Throne be at all neat and clean, but a hodgepodge of machinery, wires and thingamajigs. That Emperor is also very clearly not all there, all you see are the head and a bit of torso, the rest disappears into a forest of tubes.

This is awesome! Is that a marble on the left? (the crystal ball thing)

No, it's actually the top of a plastic pen. Originally just a ball made of red plastic, I first painted it black, then a dark blue, and then just started adding more and more of that emerald green in vaguely cloudlike swirls. I call it the "Thunderball". What it is is anyone's guess. Maybe a pre-Fall Eldar television, now tuned to a dead channel?

The actual battle has never been written in the Canon Sense I don't believe, at least not by Black Library, but there are supposedly details of it, this particular excerpt coming from the Wiki.

"The Emperor and Horus engaged one another in the throne room of the massive Battleship, a battle that was both physical and psychic in nature. Though the Emperor's psychic gifts and martial skills were unequaled, He found Himself unwilling to summon His full strength against His beloved son. The Emperor suffered grievous wounds at Horus' hands, and after a score of thrusts, parries and counter-thrusts between the Emperor's Runesword and his own Lightning Claw, Horus sliced open the Emperor's chest armour, then opened his jugular and severed the tendons in his right wrist, disarming the Emperor. A psychic blast seared the flesh from the Emperor's face, destroying one of the Master of Mankind's eyes. After tearing the Emperor's right arm from its socket, Horus raised his father's broken body high over his head, and broke his back over his knee."

Ahh, I was not aware of that. Looks like I got the magnitude right, even if some of the specifics are off. The facial injuries are way beyond my sculpting skill to depict, but I suppose I could have given him a Phantom of the Opera mask

hahaha yeah they kinda mauled each other, Emprah got the short end of the stick for a good portion of the fight until a Custode ran in and Horus vaporized his ass, it was at that point that the Emperor knew his son was gone and blasted his soul from his body with an immense psychic blast.

It´s the most depressing mini I have ever seen and that alone would earn you a lot of kudos but it´s not only sad it´s oozing the 40k spirit out of every pixel! This mini alone redefined how I image how the golden throne looks like

I always pictured the Golden Throne a lot more, well, Golden. But your interpretation is still very nice and I can see lots of work and thought went into it.

Awesome

Looks great!

tommse wrote:
It´s the most depressing mini I have ever seen and that alone would earn you a lot of kudos but it´s not only sad it´s oozing the 40k spirit out of every pixel! This mini alone redefined how I image how the golden throne looks like

Thank you very much. A big part of my motivation was that there didn't seem to be that many interpretations in miniature of this key element in the backstory. I've seen a few in regular 28mm, so I decided to make mine bigger. The Throne was an interesting to me visually because I wanted it to hint not only of the gothic present of the Imperium, but also the less dogmatic Imperium of the Heresy and the Great Crusade. It's why there's not that many skulls. The Throne is the reason for all those skulls in architecture, but it's not in itself encrusted with the signs of death. Principally, because the ultimate symbol of just that is in fact sitting on it.

I just saw this live in Ropecon, and the photo doesn't do the model justice. Amazing job!

It only struck me a few days later how incredibly grim and depressing it really is. This is the closest I've come to creating a self-portrait-

 sluggaslugga wrote:
I just saw this live in Ropecon, and the photo doesn't do the model justice. Amazing job!

Thank you. Its technical deficiencies mean it will not place, I'm sure, but perhaps the work is its own reward.

My only small criticism Aga, is that its not "epic" enough for the GT.
Looking at artwork it maybe should be grander?

I love the severed arm though and the sadness in his face.

True, the design fails at that. If anything, the piece makes the Emperor seem small and pathetic, repulsive in his life-in-death state. This Emperor is not a figure of awe and veneration, this is something impartial eyes can view only in disgust.

Ah well. I will never do another Imperial subject like this anyway, I leave it to superior craftsmen to build a passable rendition.

Well, the judges found a lot to criticise, but I was awarded a Honorary Mention in the contest (and a new 10/0 size brush for my troubles). There was also a chance to ask them for more detailed feedback, but I decided against it, primarily for reasons of fatigue. I came home and went straight to the sauna to rejuvenate.

Still great work

Needs mopre gold, and well more grimdark. This looks like something froma different setting if I may be honest, but still a well done model

I actually really like the direction you took with it.

It's a cool concept to think about how the Imperium would portray the Golden Throne to the masses when the reality is this sad crumpled figure clinging to unlife.

Really nice work.

 Trondheim wrote:
Needs mopre gold, and well more grimdark. This looks like something froma different setting if I may be honest, but still a well done model

This is not to disparage your comment, which I think is fair enough, but I would love to see other people have a go at this. There's quite a lot of living Emperors modeled over the years (and even unofficially produced as commercial models), a few dioramas of his fatal fight with Horus, but damn few Golden Thrones. Mine is not the be-all and end-all of the topic, and I would love to see it surpassed in quality.

The fact you even attempted it and succeeded is amazing, I personally love it. Wish I was that talented.

 Agamemnon2 wrote:

 Trondheim wrote:
Needs mopre gold, and well more grimdark. This looks like something froma different setting if I may be honest, but still a well done model

This is not to disparage your comment, which I think is fair enough, but I would love to see other people have a go at this. There's quite a lot of living Emperors modeled over the years (and even unofficially produced as commercial models), a few dioramas of his fatal fight with Horus, but damn few Golden Thrones. Mine is not the be-all and end-all of the topic, and I would love to see it surpassed in quality.

Yes you raise a very good point. I know my limitations as a modeler and would not get anywhere near this type of quaility but I do hope somone at one point or the other have another go. Keep the good work up

Has anyone checked the galleries? There surely has too be a few.

The turret for the new Apocalypse bunker, the one with an eagle head and wings wrapping around it, could be made into a perfectly Gothic throne, I reckon. Too bad it didnt come out sooner for my project

I'm sure they do repairs on his throne, Maybe a Throne 2.0?

 ThouShallNotHeal wrote:
I'm sure they do repairs on his throne, Maybe a Throne 2.0?

Not by me. This one was ordeal enough.

How long did it take?