Welcome to the unboxing of the second kit on the Horus Heresy Character Series from Forgeworld in the Workshop. This week I’m tackling Fulgrim, the Primarch of the Emperor’s Children, which is arguably the most complex kit I have ever attempted to assemble and paint in my hobby career. In this post you will find detail photos of the pieces out of the box (this time with Foldio assistance!), post-cleanup comments, a few pointers on how to assemble the figure and lastly a fully assembled and tacked figure at the end with closing words. If you’re interested, do come in and be illuminated by the Phoenician!
Fulgrim is chronologically the second Primarch to be released by Forgeworld, following Angron. Like all other Horus Heresy Character Series models it comes with the collector box with the Horus Heresy trademark. Inside the box we get a sheet of minor instructions for assembling the smaller details on the figure as well as the fully assembled resin miniature from the “front”, followed by a segmented box that houses the pieces.
The instruction sheet has a link to further assembly help on Forgeworld, and for your convenience I’m putting the file as a screenshot in case you want to take a look to see how your pieces should look like. This is invaluable especially considering the size and position of the vents but I’ll touch on this later. The document is also not available on the downloads section on Forgeworld for some reason, and the link seems to have expired. The housing for the figures is a little disappointing still as 1. the two segments are fully packed to the rim, even bursting forth with the pieces which increases the chance for damage to the parts and more importantly 2. there is no amount of foam to stop these pieces from moving around! For a model like Fulgrim where there are plenty of fragile pieces I find this to be a major packaging problem, especially for intercontinental shipments. So, if anyone is reading this from FW, please consider adding a bit of foam for future products!
Let’s take a look at the separate pieces, starting with the sturdiest ones forming the base.
Story-wise the base and Fulgrim’s pose are directly taken from the final duel between Ferrus Manus, the Primarch of the Iron Hands and Fulgrim on Isstvan V during the onset of the Horus Heresy. The base is littered with Space Marine casualties, one of them clearly belonging to the Iron Hands chapter due to the prosthetic leg that can be assembled, the rest belong to the Emperor’s Children reflecting the aftermath of the battle between the two chapters. The 3rd Legion banner is shown cast down with Fulgrim gracefully and fiercely doing a feint at quite possibly Ferrus Manus himself, wielding the deadly Laer Blade that cost him his soul.
Fulgrim’s scenic base comes on a 60mm round piece with an indent for a 40mm smaller base in the middle. Similar to some of the other Primarchs, the smaller base can be separated to field him in tabletop games of Warhammer. However, unlike his brothers Fulgrim’s base becomes locked in if fully assembled with glue since the larger base pieces interlock over the smaller base. As mentioned in the assembly download file, the larger base is recommended to be tacked rather than glued if the model will be used in games. This is pretty much redundant for me as I do not foresee using him as a piece in a game, he will sit safely in a display case and thus I’ll assemble him fully.
Moving on to Fulgrim and the detail pieces.
When I first saw this on Forgeworld my first concern was Fulgrim’s pose. Having a fraction of his foot on the base and the rest poking away from it filled me with dread as I imagined it would be hell to pin the model without damaging the feet. However the base attachment is clever as the stone Fulgrim steps on is also a part of the body and attaches flush to the rest of the rock. Even tacked to the base the assembled model doesn’t make the model topple as you will see in the later parts. To my luck the “straight” parts such as the blade and the cape were not warped so there was no need to cure them. Highly detailed pieces with negative space such as the banner and the cape have a lot of flash but they’re easy to remove with a soft brush after washing the release agents away. The persistent ones can be removed carefully with a sharp blade.
Clearly the kit is aimed at more experienced modelers since the material used is resin which can be toxic if sanded without proper protection and requires some caution and in order to properly assemble the model with all details intact you have to be very careful not to damage anything that comes with the box. This I state primarily thinking of the “pteruges” (a new word I learned thanks to Forgeworld!) and the scrollwork all around the model fluttering as Fulgrim glides, in addition to the eagle talon iconography that are attached to the ends of these pieces. These pieces are the smallest in the kit and are about as large as pin heads! Working carefully with a fresh modeling knife or scalpel is a must in my book and thankfully resin is a very malleable medium to work with using a fresh blade.
Fulgrim’s pose and detail parts are a clear display of Simon Egan’s skill at sculpting expressive faces and heroic poses. The greatest highlights I find on the model are the ultra detailed legion iconography and the gold filigree on the artificer armor, the signature weapons of the Primarch and the sheer amount of tiny little details that is both a pleasure to behold and a reason for awe. As stated above with careful planning and lots of dry fitting the model comes to life but it’s extremely difficult to work with the tiniest pieces without damaging them. Patience is key.
I washed the pieces with dish detergent and water as usual with all resin and metal pieces and started the sub-assemblies.
This is the part where I critically approach the model. While there are almost no significant mould lines apart from some on the base’s underside with limited visibility, a huge casting shift is visible on my order that goes through the middle of the gold filigree on the left leg. This is covered to a great extent by the Volkite Culverin and some of the pteruges as well as the cape which is the saving grace however I was deeply concerned with how I can solve this problem when I first saw the error. I worked with a fresh blade VERY carefully around the filigree and leveled most of the errors but I think I’ll lean towards concealing the error with the weapon and the cape. A pity as this is a great detail on the armor and my luck really as a lot of the unboxing posts on the net show different amounts of damage due to casting.
Another iffy point is the lack of a “proper” guide, with the word proper alluding to a comparison with GW’s kits with 3D step-by-step instructions. It’s a given that more experienced modellers would eventually figure out how to assemble some pieces (there’s the internet also) and the document on Forgeworld helps a ton with the pteruges but I would have really liked to have at least close up shots of how pieces attach. With some dry fitting action I was able to figure out how to attach the cape, the scrolls dangling from it and the left arm on to Fulgrim’s body.
Here are my remarks for the sub assemblies:
- Refer to the instructions above for the smaller pteruges. They go mainly to the right arm on the back.
- The pteruges on the sprue with the head and the Laer blade is for Fulgrim’s back, below the waist.
- You can safely assemble the sword blade and hilt without making your painting time a torture.
- How to assemble the cloak and left arm:
- Assemble the cloak’s two pieces. Fill gaps as necessary.
- Then clean up and tack the left arm to the torso. This will help with the final pose of the arm and cloak.
- Align the assembled cloak (without the scrollwork) so that the right side touches the pteruges on the right arm and slide the left side just under the pteruges on the left arm. Putting a finger gently on the arm helps.
- Then you can safely remove the tacked arm, finish painting it and glue it to the socket.
Here’s a set of photos without the details such as lappets and weapons to give you a sense of what goes where. Obviously all parts are tacked together and will be primed and painted separately. I’ll post more assembly photos in future WIP posts.
Overall Impression
This model is quite extraordinary on several accounts, be it the pose, the level of detail or the sheer complexity of the assembly so as an experienced modeler I have found Fulgrim to be a delight to tackle. Save for the casting errors that comes with all copies, the sculpt is fantastic, the pose and details true to the artwork on Fulgrim. Around the model I have seen some gaps to be filled, and one serious miscast on a marine casualty on the shoulder armor. Not the worst case scenario as these can be easily corrected with Liquid Green Stuff and some careful application of Superglue. I find dry fitting during sub assemblies helps a lot, especially with the more delicate pieces like pteruges or the cape itself. If you ever tackle this model, remember to be patient and you will have a model worthy of a showcase in your collections. Since the kit has been out for more than a year now, there are plenty of paint jobs on the internet for reference and a lot of source material in form of book covers, GW artwork and more.
Verdict: ♦♦♦♦♦ Excellent
I hope you found this review entertaining and helpful, so let me know if you have any comments below!
Filed under: Fulgrim, Horus Heresy, Review, WIP Tagged: assembly, emperor's children, fulgrim, horus heresy, miniature hobby, primarch, tips, WIP
