Crimson Fist Librarian

With the weather getting colder in NY, I'm back to being inside and painting. I guess from now on, I should let folks know I might not post much in the summer. Something about that weather makes me not want to sit in front of a computer updating my blog or in front of models. You'd think with more sunlight, I'd want to paint more by natural light, but it just never happened!

I'm back in the saddle though and preparing for my first Planetstrike game (post to come). I've got bastions to build and a few Crimson Fists to assemble and prepare for the fight. With the release of the Space Wolves codex and the amount of psychic powers my local opponents have the potential to play, I've decided that my Crimson Fists need a Librarian to keep things honest. Plus it was about time I get around to painting another HQ model for my Fists!

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This is an older model, though I don't think he's more than a few years old. He's not available from GW catalogue anymore, but he's in the How to Paint Space Marines book. I liked him cause of the book strapped to his armor. I decided that my Crimson Fist librarians take the red fists (on both to denote veteran) and use red for the distinctive horned skull.

My Crimson Fists work as my table-ready army with experimenting…mainly cause I spend so much time on my Dark Angels. I wanted a "Vanilla" marine army that could get on the table relatively fast and didn't frighten me when it comes to painting. So I usually skimp on the work and details. No mixing too many paints, and no agonizing over color choices. I make a list and don't really deviate.

Here's detail on the Force Axe which I was fairly proud of. Previously, I tried the Sepia wash on power swords for my Vanguard, but the more I look at them, the more I think they look lazy rather than awesome. A Librarian's Force Weapon should look a little different and ancient anyway, so I tried something different (And yet...entirely by the book!). I'm considering giving the metal a wash of sepia just to make it look slightly more ancient, but I'm digging the gold detail.

For the hood/helm, I went all out, painting individual wires and highlighting them up from black primer. Camo Green, Blood Red and Sunburst Yellow were my final highlights. I'm beginning to feel much more comfortable with my highlight work. I think I might try some new techniques on future models as I have my Fists down to a science. I completed this Librarian in about 8 hours…all while watching movies (Embarassingly: Conan the Barbarian, Red Sonja, The Woods and People Under the Stairs) at the same time. Prolly could go much faster on the next one if I didn't watch tv!