Games Workshop swore no AI in the design process, then dropped Horus Heresy MkIV splash art where the Marine appears to have a sixth finger on his bolter.
Back in January, GW’s CEO put out the “no AI in the design process” line in pretty plain English, and a lot of the hobby community took the win and moved on. So when the new Horus Heresy MkIV reveal art went up on Warhammer Community this week with what appears to be an extra digit on the Tactical Legionary’s bolter hand, the question came back in a hurry.
We covered the CEO who said no AI in the design process when that statement first ran.
Honestly, this is not the first time hobbyists have been counting fingers on official GW art. Games Workshop already got caught using AI art on the Red Gobbo promo with the double-goggle situation, and the controversy has not really quieted down since.
The Bolter Hand Everyone Is About To Zoom In On
- The image: the MkIV Tactical Legionary in the new Horus Heresy splash art appears to have a sixth finger on the bolter hand.
- The contradiction: GW’s CEO said earlier this year that AI is not part of the design process, so any “looks AI” detail in an official splash art is going to get questioned.
- The kit itself: new MkIV Tactical and Assault Legionaries arrive in the Maximus Battle Group, alongside a Contemptor Dreadnought and a Sicaran Battle Tank.
Look, this is the kind of thing the hobby community spots in five seconds. Pull up the new Horus Heresy MkIV reveal art and count along on the bolter hand. The Tactical Legionary in the foreground appears to have one digit too many wrapped around the grip, and once you see it, it is hard to unsee.
Now, there is a plausible non-AI explanation here. The bolter is mid-fire, and a spent casing ejecting from the action could be sitting right in the same spot where a finger would be. Take a closer look, and you can see how maybe that could also be the case.
The problem is that the legionnaire behind this one does not have 6 fingers, so clearly something is amiss with this render.
Why Some Folks Are Calling AI On This One
So the theory is straightforward. If GW (or a vendor working for GW) fed the older Age of Darkness Tactical Legionary artwork into an image generator to refresh it for the MkIV launch, the model could easily mistake an ejecting shell casing for an extra digit.
That is exactly the kind of detail AI art tools get wrong, and it is the same family of mistakes that came up on previous GW art that the community flagged.
None of that proves anything 100%, though. It could be a human artist misrendering a small detail, but that seems unlikely, as a human can literally look at their own hand as they draw this to see how it would grip a rifle’s handle.
The other thing to consider is comparing the two artworks side by side: the one from 2022 and this new Maximus box. The composition between the two pieces of art is very noticeably different, and the new one definitely has a lot of telltale overtones of being AI-generated, whereas the previous one looks more human, so to speak.
GW’s Own Stance Says No AI In The Design Process
The reason this question comes up right now is the CEO statement from earlier this year. GW said the design process does not use generative AI, and they backed that up by citing the Golden Demon AI ban on competition entries. That is a pretty clear public position.
The thing is, GW has been called out before for AI usage popping up on the marketing side of the house, even after the design ban, and AI has slipped into Warhammer lore and articles, too.
To us, it seems GW’s CEO may have either misspoken about the company’s use of AI in general or has no actual clue what the departments under him are doing with it currently.
Either way, it really shows a lack of confidence in the company as a whole that something like this was actually presented in a final product form.
What Is Actually In The Maximus Battle Group
The actual kit news here is solid, though. The Maximus Battle Group box comes with 20 MkIV Tactical Legionaries, 10 MkIV Assault Legionaries, a Contemptor Dreadnought with a wide weapon selection, and a Sicaran Battle Tank with accelerator autocannons. Pre-orders are coming soon, and the rules sit in the Liber Astartes or Liber Hereticus army books.
The new MkIV plate is the upgrade from the plastic models first released in the Betrayal at Calth box in 2015. It slots into the existing plastic Heresy range alongside the MkII Crusade, MkIII Iron, and MkVI Corvus kits, and the new minis are compatible with the regular upgrade sets for heavy, special, and command builds.
For the full breakdown on the new battle group and armor kits, see our write-up of the Maximus Battle Group.
Final Thoughts On The MkIV Reveal And The AI Question
The MkIV kits themselves look great, for sure, but that isn’t where everyone’s eyes are going to be looking now. Regardless of how you feel about the extra digit on the bolter hand, the community is going to keep zooming in on every piece of official art and looking at the fine details, because GW set the expectation themselves when they put out the “no AI” line.
If it turns out to be a bolter casing-and-hand overlap, fine, the community gets a “look closer” lesson.
But, if a vendor, marketing, or creative team used an AI tool on a refresh pass, the question of where the CEO’s policy actually sits in “the design process” is back on the table.
But to us, the design process is the art, because it’s what they use to reflect the background and to inspire and create new models and kits going forward.
🔗 Related Reads:
- New MkIV Space Marines Hit Horus Heresy in 32-Model Maximus Battle Group
- Games Workshop Caught Using AI Art And Warhammer Fans Are Not Happy
- Games Workshop CEO Bans AI (Except Behind Closed Doors)
- Despite Banning AI, Games Workshop Uses It Themselves
- Games Workshop Bans AI Art After Controversy
- GW Let AI Take Over Warhammer’s Lore, Articles & More
- GW’s New Horus Heresy Roadmap For 2026 Releases
What do you think, extra finger from an AI refresh pass, or an ejecting bolter casing playing tricks on the eye?
