Saturday 14 May 2016

Fulgrim Conversion/Scratchbuild


It's been a busy couple of months without much hobby time or clear direction for my new Horus Heresy army, but the drought has finally broken and I'm back with a new model to share with you guys! After finally having a game or two using official source books at larger points levels (and with updated Emperor's Children rules), I decided it was time to 'speed' convert a Fulgrim model using an equivalent 40k sized character, an Avatar of Khaine. This gave me a great head start in the proportions and I eventually completed the conversion in one week. I have included some progress pictures below, though I may still change the hands as they are too big!


After one evening's work I was able to remove most of the unwanted parts from the Avatar model, as well as pose the limbs in roughly the right position to match the official model so that even if my conversion wasn't spot on it would still be recognisable on the table. It was at this point I realised the hands were way too large and had to go!


The next few nights were spent building up the armour with the assistance of some brass wire, adding in details and generally avoiding the harder parts like the hands and head. With a goal to finish in under one week I was up early mixing and applying green stuff before work to ensure the next stage was ready to go without clumsy fingers wrecking the previous sculpting. After a lot of image searching it became obvious I would never match all the details on the official model, and I relaxed my goals a little and let the detail work begin with a gaming model in mind rather than display piece.


The head worked relatively well from a rough blob on a piece of cork, modifying the forehead, adding eyes and then working on the hair. This was the first time I used a scalpel for the sharp lines and I was happy with how the hair turned out especially. I also purchased a rounded oil paint putty tool which was great for smoothing out surfaces without leaving sharp edges. At this stage I was already seeing the model coming together and keen to see it finished!


All of the next steps involved a compromise between detail, the conversion timeframe and knowing I am a clumsy gamer who knocks models over a lot! I sculpted the cape flat in the bench before molding it to the rough shape and gluing it to reinforcing brass wire drilled into the model's back. Likewise the leather straps were often glued to the model at another point to prevent them breaking, and the small green stuff balls received a layer of super glue to keep them in place once dried.


These are the photos from the last evening of modding before entering it into a local store's conversion competition. I was resigned to the fact I couldn't finish the hands in time, so did my best to sculpt smaller versions of the Avatar hands until I have a chance to return to the model in future. A beautifully modified and painted Mechanicum conversion from a Necron C'tan model beat me in the competition, so I was able to get the model back early and have a couple of games with him. After three losses without Fulgrim, my Emperor's Children are now undefeated since their Primarch joined them on the field of battle! I look forward to sharing some of my painted models in future, I am still dreaming up new ways to paint purple, so far a blue undercoat looks to be a winner...