Warhammer World 2023 – Exhibition Centre Part 2

After covering the Bugmans Bar and the fantasy parts of the exhibition, we move further into the Dark Future of Warhammer 40,000 and the Horus Heresy.

As mentioned in the first article, we've covered parts of the exhibition in the visits of 2018 (Warhammer Fantasy / Age of Sigmar, Horus Heresy / Warhammer  40k) and 2020 (Warhammer Fantasy / Age of Sigmar, Horus Heresy / Warhammer  40k), and will focus more on the novelties and some spotlights this time.

The first small hall with the history of Citadel and Games Workshop covers some Rogue Trader Imperial Space Marines (RTB01), the very first plastic Space Marines, along with some iconic vignettes.

Mike McVey recreated the amazing Artwork of The Emperor and Horus by Adrian Smith in a vignette in 1995. It was the first of a series of dioramas he created in the mid-90s and it was in an ‘Eavy Metal Masterclass article in White Dwarf UK 183. Horus was based upon an old Traitor Terminator, using the head of the original Leman Russ sculpt from 1987, while the Emperor is made from 8 (!) different terminator sculpts among others the classic Grey Knights. The slain Sanguinus used Captain Tychos body with a lot of scratchbuild parts for the lower body and arms.

Dave Andrews, who created the amazing Bretonnian Jousting diorama we've covered in part 1, also build this Imperial Navy hangar, covering an Imperial Thunderbolt, entirely scratchbuild and using lots  of the Necromunda bulkheads for the structure. Dave based the scratchbuild Thunderbolt upon the old Epic model from 1995. A lot of pieces from the Imperial Vehicle Accessory Sprue were used, like the missile launcher casing for the mobile generator, the search lights for the engine intakes. The crew and personal is modified from regular Imperial Guardsmen, like the technician from the Catachan Lascannon Gunner, the inspecting Navy soldiers from Mordian Iron Guardsmen (Sgt #1 and Mortar Operator), and the pilot probably from either a heavily converted Griffon Mortar Gunner (and not the Cadian Missile Firer as you might think at first).

Hall #2 starts with the Horus Heresy, the first diorama on the left is the Burning of Prospero, which we covered both in 2018 and 2020, so we skip the additional pictures here.

A new, huge display for the release of Horus Heresy 2.0was shown, The Fall of Outpost Sigma-12, a battle between the Imperial Fists and Sons of Horus. Breaching the walls of a fortress, including sub-terrain fighting with a Termite Assault Drill, a Warlord Titan of Legio Gryphonicus, and converted Minotaur Artillery tanks as defense positions. Parts of the wall were build using the old Imperial Bastion from 2009, introduced with the Planetary Invasion supplement.

This seems like a very recent addition to the exhibition, as it is not part of the book, and probably replaced the Muster Tredecemmia of the World Eaters from 2016 - we covered a few pictures in 2018 and 2020.

Next to the large diorama were showcases filled with 30k armies, and very prominent the two poster boys of the new edition, the Sons of Horus, including their Primarch.

And of course, the Praetorians of Terra, the Imperial Fists, along with their various named characters. I took a lot of pictures of both armies, as I wanted to use the inspiriation for the upcoming Legions Imperialis release and my according projects, the 63rd Expedition Fleet and Fists of the Third Sphere.

But of course, those were not the only 30k armies shown. The Adeptus Mechanicus, further Astartes Legions and a bit under the radar, the Solar Auxilia were shown. I took further pictures of the few that were displayed, as this will certainly become handy once Legions Imperialis is released.

From there is a seamless transition towards the armies of Warhammer 40,000, with huge Imperial armies, lots of super heavy tanks and various aircrafts.

Death on Khrendel IV

has been around for a while. Built in 2017, it shows a battle between the Dark Angels against the Death Guard including a lot of Nurgle Demons. This diorama has some really interesting highlights, from the heavily modified Chaos Reaver (from "generic evil" into Nurgle-possessed), over the 40k scale (so 400% upscaled) Manufactorum Imperialis terrain to the quite interesting kitbashes of the Sector Mechanicus terrain kits.

Retreat from Kitzu VII

This a new diorama, indeed so fresh, that it is not even covered in the exhibition book. It covers a battle between the Raven Guard and Tyranids, and was built along the Leviathan release of the 10th edition of Warhammer 40,000. A huge setup, with some OOP Forge World products of the Tyranids included, and quite the sight.

Surrounded by further display cabinets, with vignettes and armies.

Duty unto Death

A diorama from 2015, a dug-in Deathkorps of Krieg army. Very close to a model kit setup, lots of snow, camouflage on the vehicles and a damaged stronghold in the middle. Impressive sight.

The diorama is surrounded by multiple Imperial Guard pieces, from further Deathkorps in different paint schemes, to more Tanks and a more recent Thunderbolt vignette.

Warhammer 40,000 and its sister-systems is such a dominant part of the Warhammer brand nowadays, that is takes up around 2/3 of the exhibition and even after sorting and editing, about 140 pictures just covered the grim dark future. For that reason I decided to split this part of the coverage into part two (this article) and three (the next one).

Link: Games Workshop Warhammer World Exhibition Centre