WIP: Grey Knights Librarian

Fast on the heals of DreadTober, I decided to get on with another Grey Knight character.  The Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight is a fine warlord, however he won't easily serve in low point games.  I have a number of Grey Knight characters waiting in the wings, all assembled, and some primed.  From this collection I plucked a terminator Librarian.  This model was built some two years ago now, I'm guessing.  Like most of what I built back then, he's been primed with an Army Painter silver/steel primer.

After completing the Grand Master for DreadTober, I was very much in the spirit of painting the Grey Knights so it was easy to dive right in. Like all of my Grey Knights, this model is on a custom cork base of my own design.  It is so very easy to break pieces of cork into interesting shapes, then even pile up the broken off pieces to add more interest to a base.  In this case, I have propped up a daemon skull on a small rocky mound at the Librarian's feet. I realized too late that I laid the brown down before putting on some Vallejo black lava for texture and to mask some of the obvious cork pattern. Perhaps I'll add a dab or two next session and repaint...

After three or so hours in the first session with this guy, I have locked in much of the details and overall feel of the model.  There is lots to do on the warding staff and the shrine/book arrangement acting as back banner for the Librarian. Little or no highlighting has been done to this point accept for a small bit to the blue robes. You can get lost in all the details on these models; its really fantastic to paint, if a bit intimidating at times.

So, coming along nicely.  The face is just roughed in with a base coat and a quick GW Reikland Fleshwash to define the expression and help me establish the mood of the piece for inspiration.  I look forward to getting in there with more colors to really bring the face to life. I'm experimenting with the skull on the ground at this point by trying out the contrast of black/grey horns on a basic bone cranium. I figure a daemon head should no look like just any steer skull. Most of the parchment is roughed in an washed along with the wax purity seals.  I see now that I neglected the left shin guard...which is funny since I made the same error on the Grand Master. I seem blind to the book icons on the leg armor when looking for books/parchment to paint.

All in all, an exciting model to paint.  I'm looking forward to the next session where this guy will be close to done. Once I close on this character I'll be going back to my Deathwatch Captain w/jump pack that got sidelined by DreadTober. I picked him up to paint first but just could get the inspiration for Grey Knights out of my head...so back in the case he went. Oh, and perhaps a dedicated article on how I go about basing models.

Cheers and Happy Gaming!