Artscale Librarian (Ezekial)

by Lamenter-Admin · November 22, 2010

One of my favourite Games Workshop miniatures of all time is the Dark Angels Chief Librarian Ezekial. It’s just a really characterful model in an awesome pose and I want to make an artscale version to include in my Lamenters force. I’ll be keeping the original head and resculpting the rest of the model in the same pose and with most of the same details too.

I began by replicating the pattern on his force sword onto an old Grey Knight Nemesis Force Sword which I feel is suitably big enough for his scaled up version. I then made a push mold of the pattern in Blu-Stuff so that I could repeat it on the opposite side of the blade.

I could of course just cut the head off the original model but it made more sense to me to use the existing model as a sort of armature. First I used some heavy duty clippers to clip away the arms and any details, trying hard to make sure I didn’t damage the head in any way. I also cut what was left of this body in half at the waist and glued a plasticard spacer in between. I made a couple of replacement boots from greenstuff and glued them to a 30mm base, then pinned the mangled body of this model to those feet making sure that the height to the head was accurate (in this case 38mm is about right for an Artscale Space Marine).

Admittedly it looks total crap right at this point, but essentially other than the head and feet the whole model will be sculpted over it. It does however make a great correctly shaped skeleton/armature on which to sculpt over.

This was my first attempt at sculpting the robes and as you can see it’s pretty awful. I figured whilst doing this that there was no way to effectively create the right shape (general mass) of the object and also achieve the high quality smooth finish I was after at the same time.

After it had cured I took a scalpel to it and cut it back ready for a new “skin” of surface detail, but leaving more of the required mass and shape in place.

I learned a valuable lesson doing this. When sculpting with Green Stuff it is best to separate sculpting the general mass and form of a figure from the sculpting of it’s surface detail, especially with stuff like robes and cloth.

I sculpted the surface layer in two parts, the side that lies underneath first (allowing it to cure). I made sure the mix was soft (extra yellow) and used my usual method of applying one big piece of GS, flattening and trimming away at it. I made sure to also take my time and work with very gentle strokes of the clayshapers. Note: the back of the model was tackled at a later stage rather than take on too much at once.

I then gradually started adding layer after layer of structure and finally surface detail. The pistol holster is from the Thunderfire cannon techmarine model, and is the perfect size for Artscale Space Marines.

Shoulder pads cast from a Blu-Stuff mold of an original sculpt.

Note: I didn’t sculpt the keys, but cast them from the original mini that I had to hack up.

The reinforced bracers are inspired by the Mark III models released by Forgeworld a few months back. I wanted to add something to the mini to mark it out as different from the orginal Ezekial and because the Lamenters are of Blood Angels descent I opted for blood drops much like the details on the Space Hulk Terminators. The little icon hanging from his belt is from an Inquisitor scale model that I’ve been saving for a long time.

I’ll leave the painting of this model for a separate post, as I’m really not sure what colour scheme to use. I do however have a name for him: Chief Librarian Castiel, Keeper of the Book of Tears. Thanks to Toyship on Warseer forums for that suggestion.