Lexicanium Calistarius, Space Hulk Librarian

The Space Hulk Librarian is complete!

 

Since the Black Templars don't employ the use of psychics, it would not have been appropriate to model a Black Templars Librarian. I still wanted the model to relate to my marines, so I settled on their father chapter, the Imperial Fists. (Both the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists are second foundings, descended from the Imperial Fists.) I figured the Templars might work in tandem with an Imperial Fist Librarian at the behest of the Emperor.

The model itself didn't require much in the way of conversion sculpting. There was a surprising lack of Blood Angels embellishments, and the right shoulder pad was completely blank. Perfect for sculpting an Imperial Fists icon! The rest of the sculpting went into touch-up work where the detail on the plastic kit had been smoothed out to avoid undercuts in the mold. There was no need to put him on a round 40mm base as he wouldn't see action in my 40K Templars army; I simply used some styrene card to patch up the gap in the back of the base and cover the Blood Angels icon.

 

 

The Imperial Fists chapter colors gave me the chance to paint something outside of my regular pallet range of blue-grey, black, brown, bone, and red. I dig painting yellow armor (at least, I always think I do until I actually start painting it). Black lining is an exercise in tedium, but the end result is so striking that I can't help myself. Thanks to everyone who offered tips on my Facebook page; I'll experiment with some of those techniques and see if I can save some time (and eye strain) on the next one.

 

This is not my first Imperial Fist model, though. Waaay back in the day, I painted this guy for Games Workshop. I used mostly the same techniques– A light undercoat, yellow, and a bit of orange for the wash; then meticulous black lining and a white highlight line, with light yellow over that for the brightest highlights possible.

 

It was based on Games Workshop's image of this Pre-Heresy Imperial Fist. I recreated it down to the last rivet, using styrene card for the extra armor plates and crenelations on the shoulder pads. The elbow and knee pads were cut to match the shape, and the head and feet were taken from older, metal models to match the helmet style and the crenelation pattern on the feet.

 

The model appeared in White Dwarf #300 as part of this spread of Pre-Heresy marine chapters. Looking through the magazine brings back fond memories of the good old days at the Glen Burnie headquarters.

 

 

On a funny note– While looking for that image of the Pre-Heresy marine, I stumbled across my model from the White Dwarf photo on someone's Deviant Art site. The person was claiming to have modeled and painted it himself. I say that it's funny because he was using the same clipped model asset from the magazine (you know, the photo that used to have my name right next to it?) and the quality of his other models by comparison was, shall we say... lacking. It was an older post from about 5 years ago, and (other than my comments calling him out on his thievery) there didn't seem to be any recent activity on his page. Still, there's no expiration date on being an ass-hat.

Here are some more shots of the Librarian. One image with detail insets for the gallery, and the full shot from which each detail pic was pulled. Even though Librarians typically wear blue armor as the symbol of their office, I really wanted to paint this model with yellow armor to make him stand out. The blue is represented on his shoulder pad.

 

 

 

And with that, the Space Hulk Terminator challenge is complete! 12 marines in 12 months, converted from Blood Angels into my army's chapter. I made an effort to replace every detail removed with an equal embellishment across the entire line. All the bases are magnetized so I can use them in my 40K army and swap them onto squares for use in the Space Hulk game.

I keep toying with the idea of making a 30K Pre-Heresy army. It would obviously be the Imperial Fists– the Pre-Heresy version of the Black Templars. The Betrayal at Calth board game has a nice selection of Pre-Heresy marines, but I already have two sets of Dark Vengeance marines (with all those Terminators!) so I can't really justify buying more, especially considering how rarely I get to play these days. We'll see what the future (or rather the past?) holds.

'Til next time!