How the Primarchs were designed

[alfred_the_great]

Interesting article on WarCom now

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/01/06/we-asked-forge-world-how-they-designed-all-18-primarchs/

[Captain Idaho]

=][ An interesting article but this is not news as such so I've forwarded it to the correct place. =][=

[Valkyrion]

Nice article, but I don't think there's a single sentence in there that describes how they were designed!

[WrathOfTheLion]

Nice article, but I don't think there's a single sentence in there that describes how they were designed!

There's a little bit on their starting points, but yeah, not much. The article dedicated to the Khan actually goes into a good bit on the subject though.

 

This article is more in depth, although only on the one:

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/01/04/jaghatai-khans-sculptor-reveals-what-it-takes-to-craft-a-primarch-when-youre-not-the-emperor/

Edited January 7, 2022 by WrathOfTheLion

[Robbienw]

Its an interesting article, I love stuff like this on the design process.

 

For anyone who is wondering who sculpted the 4 Primarchs that Sam Egan didn't Sculpt - Lorgar, Perturabo and Mortarion were sculpted by Edgar Skomorowski, and Alpharius was sculpted by Rob Macfarlane :) 

[Valkyrion]

I don't know how to quantify 'best' when it comes to stuff like this - I know which sculpts I like (Lion) and which I don't (Mortarion), but I couldn't give you any sort of technical reasoning for my choice.

 

For those that do have such know how, is one primarch sculpt demonstrably better than any others, or is it purely a matter of taste?

[Dark Legionnare]

I don't know how to quantify 'best' when it comes to stuff like this - I know which sculpts I like (Lion) and which I don't (Mortarion), but I couldn't give you any sort of technical reasoning for my choice.

 

For those that do have such know how, is one primarch sculpt demonstrably better than any others, or is it purely a matter of taste?

I feel like it comes down to pose mostly, and a magic "sculpt quality" I can't really ever seem to quantify, second. Seems like they learned early, then unlearned, and then relearned?

 

For example, when it comes to the old ones, I don't think Angron holds up well at all, but at the same time (and near same release period) Horus holds ups immaculately. Despite me liking both their poses.

 

I feel like they they may've definitely figured "Well, it is HIS namesake, so let's put extra time into him." In Horus' case?

 

Pose is the big one though, I feel. There's a good number or ill-fitting/silly ones; Sanguinius especially. As an OG Blood Angels player from 3rd edition, I was so crestfallen when he came out. Looked silly even with the demon super-scenic base, now without said base, he's extra goofy to the point of me almost outright hating it. A slam dunk would've been a pose like the cover art from "Lost and the Damned".

 

Another example: the two dueling primarch sets. I feel like other than Magnus, they're all hindered/hurt by being paired poses. Russ comes out second of the four, I suppose. For a "seemingly natural" pose.

 

</two cents>

Edited January 7, 2022 by Dark Legionnare

[Corswain]

It's a shame they stopped releasing design videos pretty early on in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed those.

[Noserenda]

Yeah that was my main thought reading this, the old videos were a damn sight better. Still up probably at least.

[Karhedron]

I was hoping this would be some new fluff offering a glimpse into the Emperor's creation of the Primarchs. Oh well.

[Corswain]

Yeah that was my main thought reading this, the old videos were a damn sight better. Still up probably at least.

Still up on the Forge World Visual Feed chanel on youtube. Which hasn't been udated for 7 years apparently.

Horus looks to be the last one they did a video for. Still not much to them but better than a 3 sentence blurb.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Corswain

[darkhorse0607]

 

I don't know how to quantify 'best' when it comes to stuff like this - I know which sculpts I like (Lion) and which I don't (Mortarion), but I couldn't give you any sort of technical reasoning for my choice.

 

For those that do have such know how, is one primarch sculpt demonstrably better than any others, or is it purely a matter of taste?

I feel like it comes down to pose mostly, and a magic "sculpt quality" I can't really ever seem to quantify, second. Seems like they learned early, then unlearned, and then relearned?

 

For example, when it comes to the old ones, I don't think Angron holds up well at all, but at the same time (and near same release period) Horus holds ups immaculately. Despite me liking both their poses.

 

I feel like they they may've definitely figured "Well, it is HIS namesake, so let's put extra time into him." In Horus' case?

 

Pose is the big one though, I feel. There's a good number or ill-fitting/silly ones; Sanguinius especially. As an OG Blood Angels player from 3rd edition, I was so crestfallen when he came out. Looked silly even with the demon super-scenic base, now without said base, he's extra goofy to the point of me almost outright hating it. A slam dunk would've been a pose like the cover art from "Lost and the Damned".

 

Another example: the two dueling primarch sets. I feel like other than Magnus, they're all hindered/hurt by being paired poses. Russ comes out second of the four, I suppose. For a "seemingly natural" pose.

 

</two cents>

 

I think Sanguinius is the one that hurts me the most. Especially since, as I am painting him (or rather putting off doing his wings right now) you can tell they went all out on him as far as detail goes. I've painted a few Primarchs or at least gotten my hands on them and none have had this amount of fine detail while still feeling balanced (IMO). I don't know where the decision came to do the base as a limited time offer (although I can't say I'm surprised with FW), but it seriously hurts the model without it