Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part V

Lord of Death

I was originally intending Mephiston to be a model done in the background between other projects, however I ended up finishing the model straight away. I consider the model now done.

The skulls on top of the psychic hood balance well against the light coloured base. I was worried a little about that, but it ended up ok, and the focus is still on Mephiston's face. Those skulls weren't anything special:

• Wraithbone
• Skeleton Horde (Contrast)
• Wraithbone, thinned down and used to highlight in places.

Contrast paints are useful for smaller details I find.

Stormvermin Fur was used to edge the skulls on the cloak. Small matter perhaps, but it frames the details nicely without going overboard.

The sword, Vitarus, perhaps could have gone with a red flame effect. It's sometimes described that way in books, and various artworks show that, however for this model it would have unbalanced everything. I also felt that the sword is too long to go with a similar detailing as was used for the Grey Knights, again because it would unbalance the model. The hilt however I kept to my "psychic weapon brass" scheme:

• Balthasar Gold.
• Reikland Fleshshade.
• Runelord Brass as a first stage highlight.
• Sycorax Bronze for edge highlights.
• Ironbreaker, just very small amounts on the skull icon to help make it stand out.

The blade itself I ended up playing around a bit with. I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it does match the glowing eyes and balances against the glow of the plasma pistol:

• Leadbelcher over all the blade.
• Nuln Oil over all the blade, keeping a little more in some areas to show the shape of the blade better.
• Leadbelcher higlight as necessary.
• Ironbreaker highlight to bring extra shine to areas.
• Talassar Blue, thinned greatly with Contrast Medium, to glaze some blue glow onto the blade.
• Aethermatic Blue, thinned greatly with Contrast Medium, for additional glazing.

The plasma pistol looks mostly as it was done. Nothing particularly special about it, however I wanted something around the heat vents to show it as having been used. Not the usual kind of burnt discolouring many people use because Mephiston would use something of superior make that would be less prone to overheating, but something still. In the end I just dabbled a bit of Balthasar Gold between the vents. It's quite subtle, and can't really be seen in the photo, but on the actual model it just adds that little something extra.

As for the rest of the model, those are details that I've covered before and are no different this time around.

The final note worth mentioning is what I didn't do. Mostly people will try to add edging around the cloak, embroidered details or some such. I looked back at the finished model and decided again not to do this. The shading gives enough difference that there's no need for additional details to help give form or balance of colour. Trying to add freehand would only ruin the cohesiveness of the model, not to mention that I would likely ruin the freehand itself as well. Better to leave the model as it is.

And so the finecast version of Mephiston is complete, and looking much better than the original metal version I once had. Hopefully all these notes will make painting the Primaris version relatively quick, and it would be nice to have the two models seen side by side.

-- silly painter.