Ultramarine Librarian

As promised, here is mini to match the picture in my last post. It has bits from multiple kits though the majority come from the Sanguinary Guard and Grey Knights but there are bits and pieces from the SM Command Squad as well as random dodads from the bits box.

The interesting thing is that after I finished painting this guy I counted the number of colours I used. All told it came to 26. I was shocked at the figure as I didnt realise that I had used that many. Granted some of the colours are only used in tiny amounts such as the yellow and orange on his gems but they are present.

A few comments. For some reason I couldnt get the camera to focus in as crisply as I would like. Also, his sword does not have an abnormally long hilt. As in the picture, his right hand is actually gripping the pommel stone

Lastly. this is my current work space. Since I have been unable to source a desk since the big trans-Atlantic move I have had to use my bathroom sink. Its not ideal and sitting sideways on the toilet is absolutely killing my back. Still, its better than nothing and has allowed me to get the job done plus you get the benifit of unlimited clean water.

Kitbashing - fun for the whole family

Recently, Ron over at FTW put up a post on converting your independent characters. (http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/04/converting-your-independent-characters.html) In it he talked about a number of ways to do this.

I want to talk about my favourite method which is kitbashing. With the plethora of plastics this makes things much easier than it used to be.

Because I am at the stage where my army is fully built I find myself spending much of my time making my IC's looking awesome. I am also on a drive to purge all metal from my Smurfwing army to make it as light and easy to transport as possible.

I enjoy kitbashing as you can get a great look without resorting to too much greenstuff or cutting. I love going through my bits box or perusing bits sites looking for inspiration for my next mini.

Anyways, on to my 3 IC's for my army. Captain, Librarian and Chaplain.

Captain:

First up. Captain Agemman of the First Company. I have previously posted this chap but I am going to explain a bit about how and what I used to build him.

Firstly, he is mostly based off the Chaos Terminator Lord. His legs, torso, arms and cloak come from that kit. Other bits come from: Tactical Marine Box, Venerable Dreadnought box, Dark Angels Veteran upgrade, Space Wolf Terminator box and forgeworld.

Firstly I greenstuffed in all the holes in his cloak to make it less tatty.I then cut away the chaos bits off his legs and replaced them with a DA terminator shoulder shield and a banner top.

Torso was made by cutting up the chaos torso and then cutting and fitting in the front of a venerable dreadnought. Some minor GS was used to make sure they blended into each other.

Apart from that everything is standard. So with a nights worth of cutting and GS I have made a very unique looking IC that looks good and that stands out.

Librarian.

When I saw the new GKT box I just knew I had to use the bits to make a librarian. They came with a ready made Hood for instance. I have also previously posted a model I made to use as a librarian and I admit that I used the arms off that model for the new one.

The majority of the chap is from the  GKT box. However there are bits from the Sanguinary Guard, Assault Terminators and the DA veteran box. There was no cutting involved in making him and only a teeny bit of Greenstuff to cover up some of the GK iconography on the left leg and the hip guards.

Not much work but again, I am left with a unique and good looking librarian who stands out on the table top.

Chaplain

Now this guy is my pride and joy. I am so thrilled with how he came out. He actually has the most GS work done on him, primarily on the helmet. I used one of Rons tutorials for this(http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010/11/chaplain-skull-helmet-conversion.html)
I learned that this takes a lot of effort for a novice like me so have commissioned him for a second helmet that is going onto another Chaplain that I have planned.

This guy has bits from all over. Torso came from from the Chaos Terminator Lord with the iconography removed and a random skill put in its place. Legs from the GKT kit. Shoulder pads from Forge world. Storm bolter arm from the Terminator Kit. Combat arm from the Chaos Lord kit and the horrifying flail bit from an Empire Flagellant. The skull that makes up his helmet came from one of the new Tomb King Boxes.

I wanted to make him as vicious looking as possible which is why didnt give him a traditional Crozius. This flail makes him look like he is bringing it down onto the bodies of the Emperors Enemies.

So there we go. Three IC's that have been built by kitbashing and looking good. Have a look in your bits box and see what you can come up with.

TDA Librarian / GKGM "Counts as"

My latest creation is this fellow. He fullfills 2 rolls. He can either be a normal TDA librarian for my Ultrawing or normal C:SM army or he can fill the roll of a Grey Knight Grand Master counting as a suped up librarian.
In his role as the GKGM he gets a Hood and Icon of the Just (the storm shield counts as the icon since the actual Demon Hunters storm shield is awful - 4+ invuln in CC only vs a single attacker) for the 4+ invuln. He maintains his WYSIWYG by having his storm bolter mounted on his back.
 
If playing as a DW librarian then I ignore the Storm shield as a decoration and as a normal C:SM Librarian I ignore the storm bolter as decoration.
 
He is entirely plastic and only comes from 4 kits. Terminator Box, Assault Terminator Box, Sanguainary Guard and DA Veteran Box.
 
I am actually quite proud of his right shoulder pad as that required a bit of GS work since I had to break the book in half to make it bend backwards over the shoulder pad.
 
He has grey hair as he is a grizzled veteran, long versed in the use of the warp.
 
With this guy I now only need to make up a TDA Chaplain from bits and I will have a 100% plastic / resin army. No more heavy metal.