Professional makeup artist Kathleen Victory was commissioned to bring Erebus, most-hated villain in all of Warhammer 40k, to life. The cosplay was created for No Retreat Gibraltar, an exclusive Warhammer tournament held on a super yacht in Gibraltar, and run by hobbyist group SN Battlereports.
On the weekend of January 21, SN Battlereports ran its first Horus Heresy No Retreat event in five years. This was also the group’s very first narrative based event. So naturally, it wanted to pull out all the stops, and that included creating a professional cosplay of Erebus, architect of the Horus Heresy, arch schemer of the Warhammer Chaos factions, and smuggest bastard in the 41st Millenium.
According to a behind the scenes Facebook post, it took three hours to complete the famous face alphabet of the Word Bearers first chaplain. That’s a long time to keep still, but the effect was clearly worth it. It was created by Gibraltarian SFX makeup artist Kathleen Victory, whose recent work for film includes The Curse, The Mount, and Aberration.
According to Goonhammer’s account of the event, the Erebus cosplay was more than just window dressing, as the character would regularly interrupt games with a broadcast in which he would “bestow gifts” on each table. 24 players took part in the event in total, fighting across the span of five games on 13 lovingly decorated tables.
SN Battlereports looks to be planning more narrative-lead competitions in the future, as its website has a new narrative events section, promising more details “coming soon”.
Check out our Warhammer 40k codex guide to see what’s coming up next in the world of Warhammer.