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.

Horus Lupercal - Part V

A couple of legs to stand on.

There's starting to be something resembling progress on Horus at long last. The main armour is just about filled in, and actually I could attach the model to its base now if I wanted. I will wait longer for that step however, just because painting Horus is somewhat easier in the current setup anyway.

No change to how the Warmaster is being painted, however I am overly familiar with some of the manufacturing flaws. They're fortunately hidden on the inside of the right leg, and really won't be seen, but annoying to have any such flaw on a Primarch model in the first place.

Some details are yet to be completed either because I just haven't got around to it yet, or because I'm still deciding on how to paint them. The latter point applies to the legion icon on the right knee-pad. It's supposedly the symbol for the Luna Wolves, white crescent moon, black for the rest of the circle, and an outlined white wolf head, or possibly outlined black wolf head (I've seen both). I'm leaning towards a white crescent, dark grey rest of the circle, and black wolf head with red eyes and silver engraved XVI (very small detail that's actually on the wolf head itself).

I'll have to start on the upper areas of armour soon too, before moving onto pteruges that fit below the waist, and of course the right arm.

-- 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.