Terminator Librarian conversion advice

[Blank05]

Hey there, Blank here with a query.

 

In my Dark Angels army I like to have unique characters. I don't want the leaders of my army to look like anyone else's. So I am looking to you, Bolter and Chainswordians, for inspiration and/or advice on my Terminator Librarian conversion. I am currently in the process of converting my own Interrogator Chaplain out of the Terminator Sergeant from the Dark Vengeance core set and I don't want to use the same model twice.

 

Personally, I'm not a fan of the basic Terminator Librarian pose, hence my interest in converting one. I am looking for an interesting pose that will look different than most, if not all, other Librarians on the table. I am still a novice with Greenstuff, but I have no real issues with sculpting if need-be.

 

Thanks in advance guys!

 

Blank

[Durus]

The most unique you can get is to basically hack a plastic model apart, pose it and sculpt all the details relevant to it's rank yourself. With a scriptor that would involve adding a tabard, psychic hood, force weapon, lightning bolts on the shins and adding horns to any skulls on the model.

 

That's kind of excessive for a beginner though.

 

A good headswap and base can already really change the way a model looks. Change the direction the model looks in and you've changed the dynamic of the movement.

If you have the new DA terminators there are torsos with tabards in the kit. The command squad of BT sprue has PA torsos that you can use witha little conversion work too. If you use those on a terminator and paint him with the codex blue/yellow scheme you are off to a good start too.

 

Got to go, so that's all for now. Maybe if you think about how you want him to look (brooding, fighting, using his powers...) you get some other ideas.

[Disruptor_fe404]

If you have access to Grey Knight Terminators, you can hack off one of their psychic hoods and use that on your Indomitus-pattern suit (which would give your Libby a massive hood), plus I find that the Grey Knight sword-in-book icon makes a good Librarian badge when painted differently.

 

In fact, I'm using a building a Librarian almost wholesale from the Grey Knight plastics right now, but that's more to do with the Grey Knight Terminator armour looking a little more lean than Indomitus (the squad my Librarian is going into is all Tartaros, which are slightly narrower than Indomitus).

[The_Chaplain]

Really it all depends on three things: the equipment you want your librarian to have, if you want the model to have a static pose or moving pose, and lastly (and arguably most importantly) how much money you want to spend.

 

Go crazy with it, and have some fun- that's really the only way TO convert something in my honest opinion.

 

I've never been a fan of librarians- but by taking 5 minutes to decide what you wanna do, you can imagine and plot out a really cool conversion.  Here's what I came up with in a 5 minute span. 

 

Take the psychic hood from a grey knight box and cut it so that it will fit flush on the terminator body.  Figure out what body I'd want to use- Personally, I'd go Lysander- he's got a great sense of movement and a lot of things can be filed off of him and be substituted for details for your army.  I would take some actual fabric (like from a fabric store, old pillowcase, etc) and fashion a large scrollwork design- like on the chaplain in terminator armor, and glue it into place so that it is being dragged between lysander's legs.  If I wanted a tabard on the torso, I'd file it smooth and then use one of the new DA terminator knights to fit the bill- using sculpting materials to make the seam as smooth as possible before sanding the seam and finalizing.  

 

Conversely, on the back cape- which already has some parchment and doodads, I would cast the Ultramarines honor guard banner scrolls (that model is in abundance on sites like ebay- and you can shave off the ultramarines logos and use it for a command squad banner later); and slap the scrolls on the back cape.  Now it looks like Librarian Lysander is carrying around a bunch of secretive and potentially powerful "magic" spell scrolls.

 

Filing off the Imperial eagle from the storm shield, I'd replace it with an appropriate chapter badge.  Running guitar wire down the back of the shield to some appropriate generator bit I had attached will remove some of the magic handwaving as to how the storm shield works.  Replace the Thunder hammer head with something like the mace off of this guy for a suitable force weapon mace head.  Embellishments to the mace like grips on the shaft or purity seals, etc. can be finallized later.  

 

Shoulderpads are a lot harder to figure out- but lysander's are rounded in nature- meaning you can add on to them as you see fit- notably the horned skull which is really a must have on a libby.  I'd imagine you could cut away and use the new asmodai shoulderpad which is a large skull, and simply add horns to it, and it would look the job-- by purchasing asmodai for the shoulderpad, you've also given yourself access to his backpack with the cool smoking censers, for use on the top of the terminator armor on the relatively flat part.  An alternative is grey knight terminator pads which have words of power on them, and might work with your motif as well.

 

Again, it all comes down to what you want to accomplish with your model- take a couple minutes, look through the GW catalog and see what sparks your creativity.  Your conversion work can only improve by exposure to it and practice.  I wish you the best on your librarian conversion, the sky is the limit!

[Blank05]

Thanks for all the responses guys. You have all pretty much read my mind. I had considered kit bashing a Grey Knight with Captain Lysander.

 

@The_Chaplain: I intend on using a Force Staff and Stormbolter/Foe-Smiter.

 

I've never handled a Grey Knight model before, how exactly does one remove the psychic hood?

[Disruptor_fe404]

With a knife.

 

It's the bit that sticks up from the back plate of the torso. It should be able to fit on the rim of the 'hood' of a Terminator suit (though there might be some filing involved).