Here is my next completed miniature, a minimally converted Grey Knight Librarian. I'm getting closer to finishing off my Grey Knight army with only a few squads and vehicles left. I also think I've finally found the photography technique that I will continue with from now on.

Miniature Review

There have been several Librarian miniatures come out over the years. Recently the previous miniature went out of production and this one took its place. I think both the old, and the new are great miniatures with a very similar style and pose. I think if anything the new Librarian is less cluttered and slightly more dynamic with the out-stretched hand and billowing cloak.

The hand itself could be replaced with a Storm Bolter. However, I felt this took away from the Librarian mystical look and made him look more like a standard warrior than a powerful source of magic. The only adjustment I made was to replace the right shoulder-pad with that of a Grey Knight Terminator. I felt that although there was probably more I could do to, like replacing the stave with a nemesis force weapon, replacing the other shoulder-pad and even replacing the chest piece I felt that the one little change was enough to tie the model nicely into my army.

Painting Techniques

For this model I used a few new techniques and colours. I hadn't planned to do so, but as I made progress the new ideas came to me. Most of the techniques I used can be found under the tutorial section of the website, with the following additions:

The Pink Cord

There was already a lot of red and cloth on the miniature so both colours were ruled out. The next colour choice I would normally go with is black, but I wanted a bright colour to stand out, but other than blue which I reserve for force energy there wasn't another colour in my usual pallet to use. I decided to stick close to the usual red and went with Pink Horror. I washed the cord with a few layers of Druchii Violet, then re-highlighted it with Pink Horror. I feel it adds a slightly more magical feel to the Librarian and helps to make him stand out more as a character.

The Green Books

Again I usually paint books a deep crimson red, but again I felt there was enough red already on the miniature, and I wanted them to stand out. I thought back to RGB, I had already used plenty or red and blue, but my army lacked any green, so I thought it was a perfect opportunity to apply some to once again really help the Librarian stand out. I started with a base coat of Caliban Green, then slowly highlighted them up using several thin layers of Warpstone Glow. This gave a very nice worn effect but looked rather plain, so I added a white border to the right hand book just to add enough detail to break up the large flat area.

Cloak Wash

I base-coated the cloak in the usual way, but after applying the wash it came out very patchy being such a large area. I highlighted it up brighter than I normally would to give it contrast to the parchment, using a heavy highlight of Screaming Scull and Pallid Wych Flesh but didn't feel I had blended the colours quite smoothly enough as I had focused more on covering the previous wash on the raised areas.

Rather than spend a lot more time blending I thought the quickest way would be to just add another wash. To stop it drying patchy again I did a 2:1 mix of Lahmian Medium with Agrax Earthshade. This meant just enough pigment was applied to the raised areas to blend the colours together and helped add extra shadow where needed to emphasize the recesses.

The only issue I had was having too much pool in the lowest recesses and giving a cracked appearance. I was unsure where to use a knife or file to remove the excess pigments I didn't want to ruin the miniature at this stage. In the end I painted it to look like dried dirt so that I wouldn't make a bigger mess. Hopefully it isn't too noticeable!

Roundup

All in all with the additions of new colours and thee addition of the shoulder pad I'm very happy with how the Librarian came out. It really stands out in my collection, but has enough of the usual colours to not make him look out of place. I think my text on the books is slowly starting to improve, although I wish I had highlighted the books slightly more beforehand to make it stand out slightly more.

I think the Librarian has one of the best faces I've ever painted (it really helps when you only have to paint one eye!), and I always really enjoy painting skin so hopefully will be able to do more in future projects. I also quite like how the highlighting came out for the blue and black areas, giving the feel of psychic power flowing all around the miniature.

Please let me know what you think, improvements you'd like to see, what you like and don't like. Also, if there's something you'd like to be covered on the blog just let me know, and I'll do my best to include it in the future!