Eldar Harlequin, painted

Posing Eldar Harlequins is fun. Their theatricality gives even more of a permission to put martial practicality on the backseat and just do what looks good. Furthermore, their bright colours form an interesting contrast with the more muted browns and greys of the bases.

 I still have to find a better way to paint gradients without an airbrush than drybrushing, but it looks fine on single miniature sized models. I used the same method on the model's crest.

I painted the left side of the model's halved face gold, to make sure it looks theatrical enough.
I painted the lozenge shapes on the cloak and limbs by painting a grid on a red background first, blacking out every other rectangle and then drybrushing the area white, focusing more on the bottom areas, then redoing the now faded black rectangles. The end result ended up working better than any masking system I have tried so far.

Eldar Harlequin Skyweaver Jetbike

I'm not a big fan of Craftworld Eldar, nor Dark Eldar, but when they put on clown costumes and become Harlequins, they're suddenly cool. I think it's because they're the only kind of Eldar I can imagine laughing at themselves, as well as anything and everything else. Also, Cegorah is possibly my favourite deity in 40k universe.

I find flyers and skimmers look more interesting when they are banking to one side or another, with the pilot looking slightly to one side. I followed this advice when assembling the jetbike.
I decided to arm the jetbike with a haywire cannon for some anti-armour ability, as even though Harlequins can be armed with sort of melta weapons, blowing up enemy vehicles at point blank range doesn't mix well with fragile and numerically few space clowns.

Harlequin Troupe Master

One of the things you don't get to do with a Space Wolves army is to make models of female characters. That's fine, in the lore, there are no female Astartes at all, and even if there were, realistically (as far as the term applies to 40k at all) they would be nearly indistinguishable from male Astartes, considering how much of an applicant's body is completely reworked to fit the Astartes mold.
However, sometimes all the whiskers and overdeveloped muscles get a little boring, and I find myself wanting to model a female character. Now, the Eldar are the easiest way to get to do that, which, funnily enough, is a result of male and female Eldar being very similar physically, too. However, what mildly annoyed me with the Harlequins box is that there was only one Troupe Master torso with the greatcoat, and that character was clearly intended to be a male. As I plan mean to have at least three troupes of Harlequins, I don't want all of the troupe masters to have identical torsos, as that would just get boring. It's easy enough to sculpt a pair of breasts on the torso, though, and as I mentioned, male and female Eldar resemble each other greatly.

 

 I wanted to decorate the model's base somewhat more than with just the piece of debris in the kit with the legs, and glued a piece of cork and a resin skull to it.

I intend to somewhat improve the final shape of the model's breasts before I paint it. As it is, the entire sculpt was made in one take, so to speak, without any time to let the putty cure in between. To finish the look, I find that a detail usually needs at least a few finishing touches after it has cured. This may be different for professional sculptors, of course.

 

I decided to give the model a horned female mask, and in process probably ended up deciding that this would be the Troupe of the Dark. As for the armament, I decided to take the most out of the Troupe Master's higher BS and A stats. I also like how expressive the Caress is.

I hope to get at least some of the models I have built painted by next week. Until then.

Harlequin Death Jester

Last week, I mentioned having bought the Death Masque box. This time, I thought I might actually show something from that box. Of course, Death Jesters are available elsewhere, as is nearly everything else in the box, now that Artemis is included in the Deathwatch's Start Collecting box set.

Death Jesters are among my favourite Harlequin units, both in fluff and in appearance. At the same time, however, I don't really like the model, mostly because the pose is too specific. Either I'd have to customise the models fairly heavily, or, if I ever have several, I'd have a whole group of squatting Eldar heavy weapon specialists.

What I decided to do was to give the miniature a new pair of standing legs.
I have to say, if I disliked the miniature before I assembled it, I dislike it now more. The various pieces of the miniature need to be attached in some sort of a parallel universe where time is not linear or something. It definitely was not designed to accommodate my preference to prime the model assembled, then disassemble it for painting.

It remains to be seen if I paint this or some other model for next week.

Eldar Harlquin Shadowseer

The Harlequins embody the main problem I have with some of the later Games Workshop models, in that while the models themselves look great, there often really is only one pose they're meant to be assembled in, so if you have anything other than the one kit, you're going to be repeating poses very soon. This becomes a problem especially with the Harlequins that tend to have rather recognisable poses, as they should, considering their lore.
Fortunately, the Harlequins don't have many armour plates with straight, mechanical lines on them, so remaking parts of their limbs with green stuff isn't that difficult.

 Having recently read Andy Chambers' Masque of the Vyle, I decided I wanted my Shadowseer to be female. Since 40k miniatures aren't known for being terribly subtle, that pretty much meant just sculpting breasts on the miniature's torso. Considering how much the model is pushing its chest out, it's fortunate the model's hat somewhat covers the chest area, otherwise the end result could have looked crass.

 I also reposed the model's feet so that it's no longer leaping off a stone to the unknown, but balancing on the arch rubble. I also glued a couple of resin skulls to the base to give it some flavour.

The model's right arm was also reposed, mainly because I don't care that much for the original bent arm pose, made up for movie posters to fit the actor's face and the gun in the same picture. The straight arm looks more relaxed in my opinion.
The model will be painted in the following week and I'll append this post once it's finished.

Three Eldar Harlequins, painted

The first models of any new army are always the most challenging ones to paint. They establish the way you're going to paint the other ones. Sure, you can and will always improve your techniques, but you will have to do it subtly enough that the older models still share a consistent look with the newer ones.
As I guessed last week, I ended up painting my Harlequins as members of the Masque of the Twisted Path. Being known for allying with non-Eldar and for fighting against the Thousand Sons, they are about as natural an ally for my Space Wolves as Harlequins are ever going to be, which is still not very. Besides the frosty bases, I don't really expect to tie the two armies together too much.

 The combination of motley and gradient is not a simple one to pull off. I eventually ended up painting the diamonds first, as described in GW's YouTube tutorial here, then drybrushing the area with thinned down White Scar and finally carefully repainting the black diamonds.

 I decided that my first troupe would be the Twilight Troupe, as evidenced by the rune on the Troupe Master's knee. Admittedly, it was a little strange that he has a shuriken pistol magazine on his belt, but isn't wielding a shuriken pistol. I imagine him throwing the magazine to one of the other players gracefully during a firefight.

The Harley Quinn harlequin ended up looking pretty good, even though purple isn't in the DC Comics character's colour scheme, and honestly, she should have a laughing mask. For now, however, this will do, at least until I custom sculpt a laughing mask with more feminine features and make another go at the character.

I already am working on a Starweaver for a transport for these guys, and the kit still makes another three Harlequins, so there will definitely be more in the future.

Two Eldar Harlequins and a Troupe Master

So I decided to take a little break from the armies of the Imperium, and the one army that interested me the most was the Eldar Harlequins. They balance out my Space Wolves well with their trickery and androgynous look. I haven't quite decided on the masque yet, though the Twisted Path seems a likely candidate at the moment, as the common enemy in the Thousand Sons would make it somewhat plausible to ally them with my Space Wolves.

 First, the Troupe Master. I was a little disappointed by the fact that there was only one troupe master torso, and it was a male (well, boobless) torso. I chose to arm the model with a Harlequin's Caress, since the he has more attacks than other members of the troupe, and a Neuro Disruptor due to his higher ballistic skill.

 Harlequins, at T3 and with just a 5++ save, are quickly killed by shooting, so I decided to have at least a couple of models with no upgrades in the troupe. This was the first one. Incidentally, I didn't notice that there was a nearly identical model in the assembly instruction until after I had made this one. I probably would have made it differently if I had noticed it, but didn't want to bother to go back.

I'm pretty sure most Harlequin players have had the same idea, but I wanted to have a Harley Quinn model in the troupe. I originally wanted her to be the Troupe Master, but the master's chestpiece and Harley's established DC Comics female character physique meant that wasn't to be.
I gave the model a Harlequin's Embrace, but left the shuriken pistol, as I don't want to put too many eggs in one basket.

I hope to paint these by the end of the week, depending on how tough the diamond pattern turns out to be. We'll know more next Sunday.