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Adeptus Astartes (all Chapters) · Heavy Weapon · Round 1 brief
Heavy Bolter
The Imperium's belt-fed .998-calibre support weapon, nicknamed the Backbreaker. It has a thick, perforated barrel and a heavy receiver, and a long ammunition belt snakes to a backpack or ammo box. It's braced by a Devastator Marine or set on a tripod by a Guard weapons team.
What to focus on
- Muzzle flash, spent casings and the ammo belt clearly visible
- The gun large in frame, with the gunner secondary or cropped
- Any Chapter or regiment colours
Submissions open Nov 1 Read the full lore page →
The subject is the star. Characters and units are welcome, but the brief's subject (the weapon, vehicle, unit or battle scene) must be the clear main focus: large, central and instantly recognizable. Entries where a character overshadows the subject won't be approved.
Submit your artwork
Before you start
- Your own finished, hand-made 2D art: painted or drawn by you, digitally or traditionally, and fully rendered (no sketches).
- No AI generation or AI-assisted painting, no tracing, no photobashed renders, and no 3D or clay renders.
- No Games Workshop official or commissioned work. If you've worked for GW, that's fine; the piece itself just needs to be your own independent fan art.
- The brief's subject must be the clear main focus. If characters or units appear, the weapon, vehicle, unit or battle scene still has to be large and instantly recognizable. Entries where a character overshadows the subject won't be approved.
- You keep all rights. By entering, you only give Lore of the Warp permission to display the piece on the site with your name and a link to your portfolio.
- Lore of the Warp is a non-commercial fan site. We never sell, print or license your art.
- Every entry is reviewed before it appears, and so is every comment. One vote per visitor per entry.
Entries
Approved entries appear here with full credit. Upvoting opens Dec 13 and runs until Dec 20.
Every approved entry stays in its page's gallery with full credit, win or not. If you pick up a brush for this, you're part of the archive, and we'll be cheering every one of you on.