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Really cool and interesting idea. Model looks great!

As for the lighting, paint it up and see i guess. But i'm for any sort of experimentation

For the wire, maybe use something thinner? Or paint an energy pattern on the force weapon perhaps?

maybe use same effect of wire coming off the wings at the back? after all powerfists are meant to be covered in lightning, but to show he's a librarian more of the dread should have lightning arcing off it.

As for painting, I'll leave that to people who've been doing it a lot longer. I'm a modeller lol

Just thought i might suggest this for an alternative way to show the lighting... well not really lighting but more energy


something outta the Aus WD (Iss 332). Not sure how its done but it looks alright

Oh I LIKE! btw what chapter is that?

Hey there Grimmy! I have 3 thoughts for you:

1: Should the hood project forward a little farther? It seems like most libby's have their hoods push over the middle to front of their skulls. I don't really know though, and that looks fine if I don't think of it.

2: I think the left arm might want to rotate back a little so that the blade or "hand", whatever is the center of mass, is directly below the shoulder instead of projected forward a little. That should make it look more at rest than slightly extended.

3: I think you should go with more of a blue eldritch flame sneaking out of his left hand, like he is gently holding a source of such power as he considers the situation. Just a few tongues of flame sneaking out between his fingers and up would really look nice I think.

Now that that is out of the way, AWESOME model. Kind of makes me want to drop what I am working on and build that Thunderhammer/Stormshield Ironclad dread I was knocking around. DAMN YOU!

Can't wait to see some paint on this bad boy.

Frodo wrote:Lightning most definitely YEA, especially if you add some OSL to it it could really make it stand out, however bulking up the bottom of the bolts with a little greenstuff and a few 'lightning veins' trailing across the fist might really make it pop.

I like the idea of the lightning veins across the fist. I think the wire needs more acute angles than it has now

Wow, thank you all for weighing in on this. While I was painting my Lootas last night i kept glancing over at the dread here, trying to figure out what to do about him.

Seems that more folks would like to see the power being demonstrated, so I'll go with that for now. I think that I'll just drill the small holes into the power fist, so if I don't like where the conversion is going I can just putty them back up and call it quits on the idea.

I'd like to get more angles and small arcs and offshoots off the lightning wires, I'll have to see how possible that is with Magic Sculp. The wires are pretty thin as they are, so I'm not sure how well it will work. I'll have to put a thin coat of super glue on the wire, just to make sure that the paint has something to stick to...

Wehrkind - thanks for the crit! I can look at making the hood come farther forward, that might be a possibility. By his left arm with blade do you mean the force weapon arm on his right? The reason it sticks forward as it does is because it's rather large, and it can't really point down any further without contacting the ground. Flames might be a way to go, and would look cool, but for a chapter called the Storm Hawks with a lightning bolt in their badge, I thought arcing power might be more appropriate.

Here's a thought I had the other day, and Jake's fine picture post prompted me to post it. Since my chapter has a somewhat tribal and animal and ancestor worship thing going on with it, maybe show the psychic power in a way relating to that, like in the pic below... ?

Thoughts?

If you can pull off the eagle lightning, it would look really cool. But dont have the eagle be too big.

The rest of the dread looks fantastic.

Hehe yea sorry, left/right is a little rough for me before the second 16 oz.s of coffee in the morning I see what you mean about the sword, and there probably isn't a good way around it without cutting down the wrist a little to shorten the entire arm.

I dig the lightning hawk thing too pretty well. I didn't realize the Storm Hawks' badge had the lightning bolt (though it sounds obvious now!) so that does make some sense, though how to pull off "smoldering" lightning? I dunno. Maybe hit the lightning theme with the sword, changing the shape? I could also see just doing some arcing discharge between his fingers to show the latent power.

I prefer the random crackle of lightning instead of something that looks to be an eagle.

Must say I like the lightning Hawk if you can pull it off i think it would look ace.

Great conversion work on a great kit. I recently put one together myself, really really sweet kit.

I REALLY love the sense of motion and wind that you've achieved with the hanging detail and cloth.

+1 for the psyk hawk

I happened to stumble on into this thread and all I can say is wow!

The Lightning effect can go both ways though, so be careful with it.

All in all, a very good and stunning model!

The psychic hawk looks better then the lightning IMO. The dread's focus on his 'casting' hand merits something special, and this seems quite suitable.

Personally i would recommend using translucent or clear perspex rather than wires - i think it would be more effective looking, though it is harder to work with.

looks awesome though!

Vlad

Yay! i contributed to an idea =D

Though in saying that you took what i posted and made it 10 times better.

If you could even make a psychic hawk id be impressed. Only way you could do it that i can think of is to find a mini model of a hawk and blend into in some extra lighting.

Thats only what i think though. Im sure that you could think of a much better way to do it

Very wicked dread, I like.

Very inspiring, Thank you for sharing I was hoping somone would share some ideas on what a Librarian Dread would look like.

I might have to start up blood angels now just for the dreds!

Awesome - love the lightning effect!

I prefer the 'random' version, but I can definitely see why you'd want to go with the 'eagle' version...

And I have faith in you so I'll say, WHEN you pull it off, it will be fantastic!

Hey all! Thanks again for your comments and critiques. I've taken some advice and made modifications and additions to the Dread, so take a look at the pics and let me know what you think.

I expanded the size of the psychic hood, and it does look much better and more fitting this way. You can see how it was constructed from the pics, I think, but if anyone has any questions please ask and I'll do my best to describe what's going on there.

I also added more filigree pschic crystal-whatever effects that most force weapons have on them to the force weapon arm, should be a fun thing to paint, maybe I'll make them glowing, or maybe paint them gold, not sure yet.

I bulked up and changed the standard rocky dread base as well, as I don't want ALL my dreads to have the same base! I think this helps that 'standing on a wind swept cliff' feel a bit more.

Added as well is the sculpted psychic hawk power, still not sure I like it or not. Might have to paint it up separately and plug it in later to see. One way or another the power fist is getting a inner source light treatment, same as the force weapon, so if I really don't like the psychic hawk effect I can easily remove it and it would look fine.

I will likely be sending a couple of these pics to the GW site, and see if they like the look of this Librarian Dread. Be interesting to see what they do!

So, last call on his conversion - any thoughts on this before he goes to paint?

For a moment i thought it looked like a face hugger leaping in the air >.<
and the middle area even have the insertion tube out and ready!

Ah just saw the lightening phoenix , adding a few more forks coming from the finger like the concept drawing would be better?

One word. EPIC

I like it a lot; these small modifications you made upped the level on an already great model. I like the hawk, but looking at what you did with the wire, a Zeus-like spear of lightning might work out just as well if you decdide to scratch the hawk idea. Maybe you could change the beak a bit to have that curved 'bird-of-prey' look??

GrimTeef wrote:

I will likely be sending a couple of these pics to the GW site, and see if they like the look of this Librarian Dread. Be interesting to see what they do!

So, last call on his conversion - any thoughts on this before he goes to paint?

Dude, don't go to GW, go to FW!

Really nice job, I think the only thing that bugs me is the fist, the GW sculpt just doesnt look articulated enough. The thumb looks like it has no lateral movement traversing the palm, its just kinda lumped on. To improve on their job, maybe add a little detail in the palm of the fist?

Good job!

I like the dread a lot, but the energy effect is so-so, for a moment I thought he was holding a balloon.

I liked the first iteration of the lightning... this one looks like a facehugger . Having said that, the entire model is FLIPPING AWESOME and I want 8.

On looking at this again after a nights sleep, I think I'm removing the psychic effect from the power fist. It just draws attention away from the focal points that really make this dread a librarian dread - the psychic hood and the force weapon. So I'm scrapping that idea.

I'll just reposition the power fist arm so it's down at rest. This should help his headlong into the wind pose, as well as reinforcing the focal points.

Hopefully I'll have some paint on this shortly.