At this point in the process, I am beyond sick of painting battleline infantry. I therefore decided to give myself a break and to instead focus on the reason that I got into Emperor’s Children……Fulgrim.

This post will focus the various steps that I followed to paint my favorite Daemon Primarch. There will be some overlap with prior posts, but hopefully some of me pushing myself as well. Similar to the prior infantry models, I wanted Fulgrim to have “my spin” on him.  In this particular case, “my spin” was that I wanted to optimize for a darker look as I prefer my models to look dark, slightly dirty, and weathered and to focus on a color palette that is on the cooler side and includes blues, purples, blacks, and grays. I also like the slightly wet look that a heavy hand in wash gives the models as it makes them look to me like they just emerged from the Warp or have been involved in some really bloody fighting.

Now on to the model…….

First of all, whoever designed Fulgrim deserves a round of applause. he was relatively easy to assemble, with only the serpentine tail requiring some level of skill to put together. More importantly, he seems designed to be modular and you can easily paint him prior to full assembly, which I did. The specific modules of Fulgrim are:

1. Serpentine tail
2. Human Body, Armor, 4 Arms, and Weapons
3. Head
4. Backpack and Wings
5. Aquila

Once these were all assembled, I started by priming them all. The Head was primed Citadel White Scar, the Aquila primed Army Painter Greedy Gold, and the rest Citadel Chaos Black. I then built up momentum by completing the smaller pieces first.

For the Aquila, I followed a super simple process of simply washing it lightly (for me) with Agrax Earthshade. I held off on painting the gemstone until I could see how the rest of the model looked.

For the Head, I painted the horns Army Painter Speedpaints Grim Black and the hair Citadel Runefang Silver. I then Nuln Oiled the entire head twice to really bring out the shadows. Lastly, I painted the tips of the horns Army Painter Glittering Gold before washing them lightly with Citadel Agrax Earthshade. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the Head or Aquila separately, but you can see them below on the completed model.

For the Body and Wings, I followed up the priming by doing another set of coats with other spray paints to do a VERY rough zenithal or light highlight look. I first went over both Army Painter Alien Purple and tried to focus on the high points of the model that would catch the light. I then followed that up with an even lighter spray of Army Painter Ultramarine Blue, again focusing on the high points that would catch the light. The results is a slightly mottled blueish-purple look that I absolutely love. Pictures are below.

From there, I focused on completing the Backpack and Wings. I first used a watered down Army Painter Matt White to lightly brush all of the skin on the arms and bones running through the wings. I then touched up the claw tips on the wings with Citadel Runefang Steel before liberally washing the entire wings with Nuln Oil. The result came out as shown below.

At this point, I switched to the Backpack. Similar to prior Infantry models, I base coated the Backpack rather brightly with Citadel Kakophoni Purple and then used coats of Druchii Violet shade to darken them down to the exact color that I wanted.  This created the deep, dark color that I love on armor. 

Once the purple had dried, I moved on to a part that most folks hate but that I actually enjoy….Chaos Trim.  I trimmed the model with Army Painter Glittering Gold, and also touched up the various jewelry bits on the wings in gold, before washing the trim and jewels with Agrax Earthshade to give it a weathered, bronze look that I absolutely love. I once again forgot to snap pictures at this point (sigh).

Moving on to the body, I started by gluing the Human Body onto the Serpentine Tail. I then used Citadel Macragge Blue to lightly highlight all of the spines and center scales along the tail to add to the bluish look. Similar to the wings, I hit it with a very heavy layer of Nuln Oil to help blend the colors.

With that done, I followed a similar process to the Backpack for the Body Armor. I base coated the Backpack rather brightly with Citadel Kakophoni Purple and then used coats of Druchii Violet shade to darken them down before touching up the trim, sword hilts, jewels on his tail, and gloves with Army Painter Glittering Gold and Agrax Earthshade. For the weapons, I layered them with Runefang Steel before washing them with different colors – Drakenhoff Nightshade for his main sword, Nuln Oil for the Whip, and Biel-Tan Green for his Daemon Sword.

To finish up the details, I followed same process for his cape as I did with the Lord Exultants by layering it with Sybarite Green and then washing it with Nuln Oil.  True to my preferences though, I was more generous with the Nuln Oil than is usually prescribed.  This gave the cloaks and fabrics a more dirty and ashy tone that I really like.  It also created some black pools in areas that resemble dried blood, which I also quite enjoy. Lastly, I painted the various gems with a litany of brightly colored contrast paints that I had in my collection. The body at this point is shown below.

For the final touches, I cleaned up some of the trim and jewels with gold before painting the base black and then applying an Army Painter gravel to it (I like my bases simple). Finally, I glued the various modules together to see my main man in all of his glory. I still need to paint the eyes and mouth, but will most likely be asking someone with a steadier hand than me to help with that as I am terrified of ruining him at this point. This is easily the most work that I have ever put into a model and I am thrilled with the outcome. The final product is below.