Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part VI

Chief Librarian Mephiston, the Lord of Death.

And so do I consider another model finished.

There's no doubt about it, the finished model is amazing and a great improvement upon the older version. There's also no doubt that it was one of the most frustrating assembly experiences I've ever had.

With the Purity Seal applied and some of the last details completed (Bloodstones, some 'Ardcoat), I decided that I would not add any further details to the black cape. The highlighting of it already naturally gives it something to prevent a bland appearance, and lack of additional details makes it fit better with the red cloak. Additionally, I don't feel that it unduly draws attention from the rest of the model - giving something more on the cape might do that. Freehand practice will have to wait for another model.

Considering so much of the colour scheme was based on the previous model of Mephiston, I thought it appropriate to compare the two side by side. It also helps put the scale of each into perspective.

Seeing double.

In short, an excellent model, the fundamental design of which has stood the test of time remarkably well. I am eager to see what comes next for the Blood Angels (hopefully refreshed Sanguinary Guard).

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part V

Whatever he's looking at is about to have a very bad day.

Finally enough has been done to fully assemble this model of Mephiston. Naturally, the frustration continued throughout the entire process.

The syringes threaded through with cord was not aligned correctly to the attachment points, and I couldn't bend the plastic beforehand. So it was a case of trying to glue it in one position, and then bend it across to the other. This caused the first position to come loose naturally, and so it took a few tries to get it right. The end result was scratched paint and it not quite fitting correctly either (green-stuff again being used to fill a small gap in the area of the right hip). Just another frustration with the assembly of the model, but I didn't want to leave the syringes out - it adds a bit of colour and detail to the area, and means I now don't need to free-hand the hem.

The sword glued into position easily enough, and green-stuff to fill the join seam along his left glove worked quite well. A close up shows a few imperfections, but I just wanted to get the model moving along.

I thought long and hard about how to paint the sword, being partly the reason for the long break since the previous post. A sudden flash of inspiration was to paint it by taking cues from the Nekima model: dark at the end, blending into some kind of energy glow towards the hilt.

• 1:1 mix of Leadbelcher and Abaddon Black the length of the blade.
• Introduce more Leadbelcher to the mix, blending towards the hilt.
• Repeat again by adding more Leadbelcher.
• 1:1 mix of Leadbelcher and Grey Knights Steel, blending towards the hilt. It should be about one third of the blade by this point.
• Add more Grey Knights Steel, keep blending.
• Add Talassar Blue, just in the area near the hilt. There is also some along the tips of the spikes near the end of the blade.
• Straight Talassar Blue, but very little, to give that extra brightness in areas.
• Aethermatic Blue, just around the energy nodes on the blade.
• Abaddon Black, thinned with water, in multiple layers towards the tip of the blade.
• Leadbelcher from the palette, just in thin lines to highlight extreme edges.

I intend to put a very small amount of Drakenhof Nightshade around the energy nodes as well, just to define them better.

There remain a few edge highlights on the model to be done, and of course all the gemstones, before Purity Seal is applied and then final metallic highlights.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part IV

Bad smell alert.

A little more progress on Mephiston, even if painting has been less of a priority of late. I've managed to put the hand into a position that's a little better than the default pose, which looks more like a facepalm than anything else. Once again, I'm most displeased with the assembly design decisions made for this model.

Much of the attachment point of the arm was cut and filed back, and then green-stuff used to position it a little better, obviously after painting said arm. I was not overly concerned with neatness of the attachment point because the shoulder pad will cover most of it anyway. Once the green-stuff was completely cured, I then drilled a hole through the arm and glued a small metal pin in place. I was a little concerned that the adhesive qualities of green-stuff were insufficient longer term, and pinning it in place is much more easily done before the shoulder pad is attached. If the arm does fall off later, then there's a convenient pin to correctly realign and glue everything back into place.

Painting wise, not too much to add. Still following the steps of finecast Mephiston. The psychic hood cranial attachments I'm not entirely happy with right now, but haven't decided on what more to do. Brass based metallics and Talassar Blue for the moment, but I might re-highlight with Runelord Brass soon; too much blue there for my liking.

Shoulder pad and backpack are works in progress, and the belt of syringes are still yet to be done, before starting on the sword hand. And blood drop gemstones remain to be finished as well. Much work to be done, but with enough effort to fix all the little issues it's starting to come together nicely enough.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part III

Gap filler.

This is only a very short post, showing after the gaps filled in my green stuff were smoothed out and painted over. The cabling was painted as well so that I could see if any more needs to be done there (no, looks fine).

There is one area on the rear of the psychic hood that was messed up a little from superglue, and I thought it would be fine once painted over, but it's still visible to me. I'm not going to sand it back now however, and instead just hope I can continue to try and conceal it under paint. Perhaps if I paint some circuitry, similar to the Grey Knight weapons, around the connector points (or whatever they are) it will help. Something to think about.

I've started to fill in more of the right arm, although I'll consider darkening it later. Depends how it looks; right now the arm area is just a little too bright compared to the chestpiece, but perhaps I can freehand some muscle lines around it as well, just to continue that effect and tie the armour together more. On a related note, I tried to highlight some of the raised areas and accentuate the muscle lines a little more on the chestpiece. There wasn't as much contrast as I'd liked - in hindsight, perhaps this is an area where contrast paints would have been really useful. Perhaps one day on another model.

On the cape can be seen a small scratch were I missed the mould line and used the mould line remover to flatten it out. Still intend to fix that with an airbrush.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part II

When duct tape isn't available, use green stuff instead.

This is only a short update on assembling Mephiston. Again, I've been running into problems.

As can be seen, green stuff was used to patch in a gap in the join of the cape to the main model. I hope it will be smooth enough once painted - it's kind of hard to tell at the moment, and I may have to paint, file back, and repaint if it's too out of place.
There's also a small amount there the right cabling joins the main cape component. I could have left that alone, but I'm not sure right now how well it will be covered by the arm and so decided to plug it a little as well. There won't be ribbing in that spot, but a little clever painting and that won't be noticeable.

The left cabling, however, was a massive pain. It simply didn't align correctly. I was almost going to just scrap the plastic component and make something entirely out of green stuff, but then decided to see what I could do to bend and refit the plastic. There was nothing to lose.
I filed back underneath the top area to make it fit a little more flush with the model, carefully bent the plastic (it's thin enough that it bent rather than snapped), and cut it in one place (sort of directly under the armpit, because that would be least visible later) to make it fit and align correctly. Using glue while fitting wasn't an option - it moves about too much, and needs a little time to get the piece to sit right. Instead, blu-tac to the rescue: use blu-tac to sit the piece in place, then apply a little glue in key areas to keep it there. Remove the blu-tac once the glue has dried, and add a little more glue if necessary to make sure the piece stays in place.
Once painted, the slight plastic butchery shouldn't be noticed, however I'm still a little annoyed that it was necessary in the first place.

I did paint the book at his left hip, although that's not visible in the photo. Just easier to do that before assembly. The same goes for the gun holster at his right hip. I'll be focusing on the left arm area next, and getting enough done to then glue the sword into place - which will later need more fixing of join seams. I will perhaps try place green stuff into the seam while attaching it, simply filing it back later to smooth it out before painting.

Lastly for this post, the head should really be done before the right arm. I've been reading that in the default fit, the arm I intend to use can look more like Mephiston is wiping his nose rather than his mouth. To counter that, position the head first, and adjust the fit of the arm so that he doesn't look like he's just encountered a soiled nappy.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (Primaris) - Part I

Mephiston. Mark Gibbons pose. Pure awesome.

Finally some more work on the Primaris version of Chief Librarian Mephiston. I've been preparing the model for a little bit, figuring out the best approach for painting and assembly, and making sure the colour scheme used on the finecast model would still match (it will).

Painting wise there's not much to say. I've dry assembled the model for a photo, but glue will have to wait a little longer. A few parts require painting first, before the back cape can be attached.

Instead, this post is a complaint about the fit of all the components. More precisely, the lack of fit. The robes were ok, but I can't help but wonder if some of the joins could have been better hidden. On the model's right, I had to use multiple coats of liquid green stuff (only because it was on hand, the proper green stuff might have worked much better), careful filing, some emery paper, and a coat of varnish to get a smooth finish filling in the join. The varnish was to help smooth the finish a little, but also to prevent the green stuff from coming loose. This worked very well, and once painted cannot be seen at all.

Other components, however, are a little more tricky. There's an obvious gap on the right torso where the cape is supposed to join to the main model area. I wanted to paint the cloak and cape separate with the airbrush, so that gap will have to be filled in later and painted over. There will be a similar problem on the left glove.

Cabling on the left torso is also to be added later, and it doesn't quite line up properly with the skull icon where it's supposed to attach. I'm actually contemplating making a custom piece from green stuff, although I might try first to bend and force the plastic into the right location.

The right leg was also a pain to glue into the correct position. I painted it first, the glued the cloak around it, but the attachment points were not as apparent as they could have been.

It's these little details that add up to a feeling of missed quality on the model. Almost as if it was rushed a little bit, and Games Workshop felt these little nuisances wouldn't matter. While the design of the finished model is very impressive, and the detail of the plastic moulding process gives finecast a run for its money (and without the associated problems), I can't help but be a little disappointed with the assembly issues.
At least I'm proficient enough by now that I can fix everything. It's a little extra work, but the final model won't show these nuisances.

-- silly painter.

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.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part IV

Yeah, go for a staring contest with this guy.

This next update on the progress of Mephiston mainly centres around the face, although other details have been filled in. They're small, so I'll get them out of the way first.

The plasma gun glow is Corax White, with Aethermatic Blue over it. That's it. I'm not sure I want to do more to the charging coils - it's good enough, and I daresay would work better on more precise sculpts. I have some Hellblaster marines that this should be tried on at some point.

The wings of the Blood Angel symbols purposefully have an edging of black. This signifies the Black Rage that Mephiston had to overcome, and is a part of who he is. The rest of the wings:

• Corax White
• Apothecary White (Contrast), applied over the entire area.
• Talassar Blue (Contrast), but thinned with water (not Contrast Medium) and with a very fine brush kind of shaded into select recesses to outline the wings. The water in this case helped it settle only into recessed areas, and thinning is important because I didn't want a stark blue against white wings.

Mephiston's face I wanted to be very pale, and so it's very different to the usual approaches I've been using.

• Corax White, very thin, mostly used to generate a little depth so that I could pick out details. Part of this was painting in the eyes, but they were painted over later so I won't go into detail there.
• Rakarth Flesh over the entire face, except for the eyes.
• Druchii Violet, using a very fine brush, under the cheeks, lips, a little around the brows, and just under the eyes.
• Reikland Fleshshade over the whole face, excluding the eyes.
• Rakarth Flesh again, to highlight the nose, cheekbones, chin, forehead, and to lighten areas where the previous shading steps were too dark.
• Deepkin Flesh for additional highlights. At the time I though I might have gone a little too pale, but with white hair (something Mephiston normally has in the artworks) it turned out quite well in the end.
• Talassar Blue, thinly applied around the eyes, and a little on the upper cheeks. This is meant to be a glow of power emanating from his face; originally I had "normal" eyes painted in, which looked good, but I basically wanted to experiment and try make the model feel more like some kind of powerful psyker.
• White Scar, applied across the eyes.

I'm still debating adding back in pupils to the eyes, but that might end up making him look like he's wearing blue makeup, so for now I won't touch it.

The hair is quite simple, and though an older model it was also designed very nicely and so I didn't have much trouble here. Still, a fine tipped paintbrush is really useful here, as it was for the face.

• Administratum Grey, two or three layers to get an even coat.
• Nuln Oil, just enough to add to the recessed areas without overloading everything with black.
• Administratum Grey to highlight the hair.
• Ulthuan Grey to further highlight the hair.

I didn't do any further steps. There seems no need. White Scar could be used later to add further highlights, but it might be too much in this case, so I'll likely just leave it as it is.

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.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) Part II

Showing of his muscles.

Continuing with Mephiston, I thought it a good idea to fill in some of the armour and juxtapose it against the robes. This is the step that really starts to give definition to the model, and provides some insight to the feel of how it will finally look.

The chest armour is very similar to my standard approach to Blood Angels, just with a different shade applied. The different feel to Mephiston's armour comes predominantly from the form of it rather than the colour; Blood Angels are blood red anyway, so there's little need to change much to give that flayed appearance.

• 1:1 Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red over the whole armour. Actually I'm still using some of the artificer tint mix I did, but it's very similar.
• Mephiston Red, applied in thin layers and building up to highlighted areas.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet, used for additional highlighting.
• Mephiston Red again, glazed to pull back the previous step to a more pure red.
• Druchii Violet, applied carefully with a very fine brush in between muscle lines and other recessed areas. Used rather than the normal shade to increase the contrast a little further, and to help set aside Mephiston from other models.

Edging of the armour has so far had Balthasar Gold applied, and will be highlighted later: likely with Gehenna's Gold, and perhaps a very select amount of Auric Armour Gold if I feel like it. There's not much of the edging, and I don't want it to detract from the red, so highlights will be thin and few.

The skulls along the cloak are a simple matter of Corax White covered with Skeleton Horde (Contrast). Some mistakes need fixing, but there won't be much more done. This is more due to the detail limitations than anything else, and is perhaps the area where the model most shows its age.

Overall I'm happy with how the armour is going. It shows the red of a Blood Angel, but subtly darker, more menacing, as befits the Lord of Death's demeanour.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast)

Face of the Black Rage.

 Now that there are two models for the Lord of Death, I thought it would be appropriate to have them both as models in the background. It's fair to say that the newer model is of a much more dominant presence on any shelf, with the older model showing its age from the tools used in its original design.
So despite the older model being nevertheless an impressive sculpt, I wanted to use it as the practice run for how I intend to paint the robes and cloak. The armour that has been painted is for now inconsequential - it will be repainted with a brush later on; I was merely testing my level of control of the airbrush.

The majority of the model has been so far done with an airbrush. More details on that in a moment, but first an explanation of the intent might be worthwhile. Mephiston is a powerful psyker, can carries a darkness within that should express itself in the colour scheme. I wanted the robes to impress a sense of artistic refinery, but still reflect a burden of terrible power. A burgundy velvet, growing darker towards the torso, to show the shadow of Mephiston's might. This will additionally help to later outline chest armour, with the highlighted hems balancing against what will be a pale face.
The same ideas for the robes is intended for the cloak, although the latter being based on black rather than the warmer burgundy.

The method for the robes is as follows:

• 1:1 mix of Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red, airbrush, applied all over. This is the same base as I'm now using for Blood Angels armour.
• Gal Vorbak Red, airbrush. I didn't have the air variant, so instead thinned some of the base paint. This was applied all over, but focused on raised areas to leave some of the previous step in recesses.
• Khorne Red, airbrush, applied over the lower half of the robe and again focusing mostly on raised areas. Some of the bend from a knee was also covered; an exact horizontal line across the lower half would look strange.
• Mephiston Red, airbrush, across the bottom quarter of the robe and again some of the knee. This was again only thin, and mostly used as an airbrushed glaze. The intention was to increase saturation of the red rather than tint the robe with further pink.
• Druchii Violet, normal brush, applied into the folds of the robe. This was slightly watered down, and more glazed than anything else to keep the transitions smooth.

Shiny cape.

The method for the cloak is much fewer steps:

• Corvus Black, airbrush, applied all over the cloak. Inner areas on the front are exempted because it would cover up some of the robe.
• Mechanicus Standard Grey, airbrush, over the edges of the cloak. This was done in several passes, building up the transition and focusing on raised areas of the folds in material. The dropper bottle I use was also pre-thinned, which helps this step, but the colour is an easy highlight against Corvus Black regardless.
• Deathshroud, airbrush, to darken some of the transition and to deepen the black towards middle of the back. I possibly had some cleaner still in the pot, as it's come out with a high degree of shine to it, but that will be fixed by a coat of Purity Seal at some later stage.
• Nuln Oil, normal brush, in the recessed areas of the folds, and applied in multiple thin passes to act as more of a glaze than a heavy wash.

Not shown, I've also started the backpack in the traditional method of Blood Angels armour. That will be glued on once it no longer impedes brush access to the surrounding areas.

A decent start, and encouraging results that hopefully will be replicated on the Primaris version when I get around to figuring out the painting and assembly order of that model.

-- silly painter.

Mephiston Base

Back to basics.

I'm not expecting to have the Primaris Mephiston done anytime soon, but rather as a model I poke around with in the background. To that end, and because I thought it would look cool, I started on the model's base.

I figured a black marble with inlaid red would be suitably impressive for something from the Blood Angels. Quite why Mephiston would be standing on a broken piece bearing the chapter icon I'm not sure - he became Primaris after the Tyranid invasion - but I suppose it's just for show.

Colours used are as follows:

• Abaddon Black over the entire marbled area.
• Corvus Black to add some lighter areas, edges, etc.
• Eshin Grey to create thick striations.
• Dawnstone to create thinner striation lines.
• Dark Reaper for edge highlighting along cracked areas. The marble is already black, and so shading recesses doesn't work; edges must be highlighted instead of recesses shaded.
• Word Bearers Red thinned to a wash and pooled into icon outline.
• A mix of whatever I had on the palette (Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, even a little Screamer Pink) to add some marbling to the icon. This was then glazed over with very thin Word Bearers Red.
• Mephiston Red in the grooves for the word "BAAL", and glazed over with Word Bearers Red.

I purposefully wanted a more burgundy colour for the icon, and something slightly more towards a purer red for the wording. This keeps the two linked, but separate, and makes reading the letters a bit easier.

Overall I'm fairly happy with the start to this. There's some dusting to be done yet, and I'm still deciding how to surround the base. It will need to offset against Mephiston himself, which will be a relatively dark model, so probably the normal desert colours for other Blood Angels will suffice.

Sadly, most of the work going into the base will be covered up once the model is in place, but at least I get some more marbling practice without worrying about messing it up.

-- silly painter.