Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part III

Skull-dron at the ready.

A quick update on Mephiston, just to keep track of some of the details and not forget what I did. There have been some metallic areas added since last time, although they won't be entirely finished until after I coat the model in Purity Seal - a step that's still a little way off.

Cabling for the most part is:

• Leadbelcher
• Ironbreaker
• Runefang Steel
• Black Templar (Contrast, thinned with some Contrast Medium).

The contrast paint gives a different feel to the standard Nuln Oil wash, and I wanted to highlight it beforehand so that it shows through afterwards. The contrast paint also removes any shine, but I'm ok with that for the cabling.

Mephiston's gloves are another bit of an experiment:

• Dryad Bark.
• Nuln Oil.
• Warpfiend Grey, to highlight raised edges.
• Gore-Grunta Fur (Contrast paint). This was thinned substantially with Contrast Medium to make it more of a glaze; I found the previous step a little too cold, and wanted to bring a reddish brown tone back into the model. I'm not sure it's entirely worked.

Many models have a far more saturated brown for his gloves, but I wanted something a little closer to black. This may or may not balance out in the end, and I'll simply have to wait until more of the model has been done before I decide to change the tone slightly more or not.

The right pauldron, essentially a skull, has been painted very similar to how it was done for Lemartes long ago:

• Dryad Bark
• Nuln Oil
• Baneblade Brown, multiple thin layers in most areas except the deeper recesses.
• Purples and reds on the wet palette, applied in "shallow recessed" areas; normally I'd use shades here, but I was lazy and just used what was on hand. The effect should be similar in the end.
• Ushabti Bone on raised areas, in multiple thin layers. This included blending into the previous step, or glazing over it if it was too purple or red.
• Screaming Skull, highlighted on selected areas (mostly the most prominently raised sections).

There's still a slightly less clean look in the end. I'm not sure if this isn't partly from the nature of old sculpts in finecast: the surface itself isn't as smooth as plastic models. Still, it looks more like bone this way, perfect for Mephiston's armour, so I'm not going to try smooth it out.
The temples of the skull I'll probably do in Grey Seer, followed by Black Templar contrast paint. If I don't mention it in a later post, then that will be what I've done.

-- silly painter.