The Emperor on Golden Throne - Part 01: building the main structure

I promised to do this last year. I kept putting it off but finally got around to sorting through the hundreds of images I had taken to try construct a step-by-step article on how I built my Golden Throne diorama.

Even after paring it down to be as concise as possible I decided it would be better to do this as a mini series of the project... and here we are at the beginning.

So where exactly did it begin?

Well at the beginning of last year I took part in the #GrimDarkCards community challenge on Instagram and Facebook. Everybody was creating miniature conversions based upon the art of John Blanche from a single card drawn for each of us from the Dark Millennium playing cards.

I had already made a figure as my entry into the challenge:

You can read all about my first entry in my blog post HERE 

But there was also a secondary challenge open to anyone in the community willing to give it a go. This "Wildcard" challenge was to attempt to create the art from the card back:

A classic depiction of the Emperor of man by john Blanche... I was still riding high off of completing my first entry and seeing as there was still a good 3 weeks left in the challenge I decided to have a go.

Handily I had bigger reference images to look at as I was figuring out how to tackle this project.

I decided from the get-go that I would go my own way with the pice mostly, but I wanted to have some recognisable elements in there. Mainly the look of the emperor.

The stairs, seals and skulls.

And possibly the Throne itself.

And I knew which model I wanted to use right from the beginning. Big guy, robed, seated on a throne. The Nighthaunt character Kurdos Valentian the Craven King would be a perfect base to work from.

So with a quick trip out to pick him up from my local GW and the use of my extensive bits collection, I was all ready to go. That was about the extent of my planning. I just dived in and started dry fitting and working on the fly.

At least I had the awareness about me to take pictures all through the build... so with the all the set-up to this project revealed... here's how the process went.

Building the main structure:

You can see from the start I wasn't actually planning on going that big. It started off as just the focus of the original image, the Emperor and his Throne, with a little detail and fitting onto a 60mm round base.

I always tend to play around with my conversions, dry fitting and tacking bits together to see how it is working.

Then I thought about doing it as a two-piece with the part above able to slot in and out of a large rectangular display base.

But it only took me moments to realise I didn't like how it was shaping up and pulled it all apart again. It was looking too stiff and linear and I wasn't enjoying the look of the Emperor pressed right up against the wall.

So out came a big oval base to knock off that linear look. But I was still interested in the wall sections from the Cities of Death terrain kits.

Kurdos' body was replaced fully with a skeleton torso to match the ribcage in the original art.

I actually started to commit the main pieces of the emperor and decided to build around him.

Even right at this early stage I could see where this was headed. I liked the new rounder look and the emperor being in the middle with space gave the piece a bit of breathing room.

Before it started to get cluttered with more miniature/terrain pieces I started to play around with different detailed elements as I sort of semi-planned ahead. I have a love of that often near gaudy aesthetic of religious relics, icons and art. And the emperor and his Throne are all of these things.

I have a bits box full of jewellery making elements for quick and easy baroque detailing. I recommend picking some up, you can buy whole lots cheap online.

You can see some of the elements fit right away and survived all the way to the finished model.

The following piece I kept on fiddling around with, adding it, removing it. Not really sure how to implement it. At one point it was going to be more like a window or skylight.

Some more combined jewellery pieces and decorative box corners were combined to start creating the look of a vaulted ceiling. The space between was still being considered as a window opening.

As it started to come together at this stage I felt the Throne was competing with the walls for height/attention. So I increased the height of the walls to lean in to that vaulted look and give the Emperor more space around him.

These aquila on filigree plates were the first glued and fixed decorative pieces. Sometimes if something feels right, you just roll with it.

Games Workshop did a lot of the heavy lifting with the Cities of Death terrain kits supplying all sorts of useful bits and pieces. The walls obviously.

And here the whole Throne/dais is made from Cities of death parts.

The decorative winged skulls flanking the stairs which are girders/supports from the same kits with some styrene sheet.

The sides and spires and the eagle head you see off the side also from the same kit.

Also from the same kit is the arch above the throne made from two flying buttresses glued facing each other with an aquila at the apex.

You can see at this point I'd discarded the idea of a window. I just used a piece of foam-core cut to fit and clad in styrene to fill the gap and give something substantial to build upon. I wanted to add some more overhead detail because it was looking a little too plain.

I'd also decided to actually use the throne that came with Kurdos at this point, I mean, he was made to fit it right? So why not build off of it?

A few minutes dipping into the bits around my desk and I threw together a rather decorative winged skull to take up the centre space of the roof.

Quite by accident I realised the piece I'd considered for a window still fit into the recess of the roof. It looked gaudy and ostentatious... So of course I loved it and became part of the plan!

The following decorative plate was almost one of a pair that would have gone either side of the throne/dais. But it was a bit too large and after finding more fitting parts I used it to break up the big open space on the roof back/top.

At the far left and right you can see I took one of the jewellery elements and cut it directly down the middle and glued it in place for more decorative detail.

Also in the following images you can spot two gargoyles at the top of the side support columns, another Cities of Death bit, I was really getting my money's worth out of those terrain kits.

I started to build up the throne sides with some square styrene tube and other styrene pieces to try to match the inspirational artwork a little more closely.

And with that all the solid foundation work was done. I had the basic shape of the diorama complete, the throne pretty much built and much of what I wanted to have recognisable from the original art was fitting into place.

Next up was to start adding all the extra detail and elements that bring the whole thing together.

Part 01: Building the main structure

Part 02: Detailing the diorama

Part 03: Painting and final details

Miniature candle tutorial

The Emperor on Golden Throne complete