Mime Time

Mime Time! 

Back in May of last year my Harlequins took to the field of battle for the first (and still only) time. It was my first (and still only) game of Shadow War: Armageddon). In that game I had two "juve level" models called Mimes. It bothered me that the models were not WYSIWYG and I set about correcting that problem. After acquiring the models I wanted to use, in this case two of the passenger models from the Shadow Weaver kit, I kit-bashed them with a few Dark Eldar bits, most notably the mirror heads from the Wyches box set.

Kitbashed.

After some time I picked these clowns up again and began painting them in the Reaper's Mirth scheme that I have selected to paint my Harlequin force in.

Base coats.

Happily I can claim that it didn't take very long to complete these two.

Already finished?

 I will note a few changes to this scheme: The backpacks on the plastic Harlequins are a bit more dsitinguished then they are on the really old metals, so following the guide in the Warriors of the Laughing God paint guide I opted to paint these in a metallic color. I did this with Bolt Gun metal, Nuln Oil and a highlight of Mitheril Silver.

Back pack units. 

 The mirror masks, sword and knife were painted in Mitheril Silver, then a glaze of Drakenhof Nightshade, the highlighted slightly with Mitheril Silver again.

Final Highlights.

After that, I drew their icons onto their knee pads using a micron. I deviated their placement with the justification that these are 'juve-level' Harleys and this is a another way to distinguish that.

I have also started on another model used in that Shadow War game, but I will include him in a future Clowning Around post.

For the future.

Clowning Around (Part 5)

The Reaper's Mirth rebounds!

Goodness, it has been a good while since I posted about these mirthful clowns huh? Well, over the course of a year I have dabbled and poked on some of these miniatures but it was done in a random and chaotic manner. While doing such an activity I noticed that this particular miniature looked...odd.

Something is wrong...

When I got this miniature it was primed black, which hid the issue surprisingly well. It just appeared to be in a dynamic leap and stretching his back to the extreme as it is doing so. But when I sat down and started applying basecoats a problem became apparent: it had a broken spine! There was no way this thing was assembled correctly, so I pried it appart.

What the heck kind of glue is this?!

It was glued together using the strangest of glue. I don't know what this stuff was but it was stretchy and did not want to come off of the metal.

Seperated at last!

After getting it seperated I went about scrapping this goopy stuff off of the miniature to reveal the proper joins.

The glue is removed.

I decided to paint the miniature almost all the way before reassembling him.

Rejoined and mostly painted. 

And with just a bit of focus I completed thia miniature. The icons were the hardest bit, of course, but I am OK with how they turned out. Especially the triangular Prism icon which I liked so much I decided not to fill it in!

Finished with icons. 

I was tempted to add some diamonds to this model but I decided that the white was such a harsh and punchy color that it was best to let it be. Maybe I will do that on some of the other models as I get around to them.

Diamond free.

 I chose to go with green on the gems with this Harley for the sake of contrast. Like I did with the Death Jester.

Green gems, truly outrageous!

As I worked on this I was also working on a few of the other Harleys, particularly the three from the last post. But will hold off for now and will instead show you those, and perhaps more, in the next part.

Clowning Around (part 4)

After taking a small break from doing much with the hobby, mostly because of the holidays, I decided to pick things back up a bit by painting some more Harlequins.This time I decided to do more Troupers so I can have a minimum squad size of painted models. Perhaps with maybe getting them into a Kill Team mission?

As I stated way back in Clowning Around part one, my Troupe is based on the Reaper's Mirth from the Harlequin Codex. In part 2 I broke down how I painted these models but I decided, for my own reference anyway, that I needed a slightly more in-depth guide. So 'ere we go:

I started out with a black base coat. The white areas I used a very dark grey. The red areas I used Scab Red. I used an old rust color from the old Citadel Range called Tin Bitz on the areas that I will build up to gold.

Base Coats

The mid coats followed, I used a dark blue on the areas that will be black to make for a "leather" sort of look. I painted a lighter grey on the areas that I am building up to white.

Mid Coats.

The leather areas were next highlighted with a light grey. I used that same light grey on their mohawks, painting both sides in this fashion. Evil Suns Scarlet was built up over the Scab Red.

Light Grey on their pants and hair.

This is where I decided to deviate from the steps I showed in Part Two. Instead of washing the black areas with Black Ink, I chose to wash them in Drachenhof Nightshade Wash. I liked how this turned out a lot better, I will still add black ink some places but the areas that are building up to the final highlight will be left like this. Also, I used  Carroburg Crimson on the read side of the mohawk, and Nuln Oil on the other.

Inks applied.

Next I dry brushed White Scar over the white side of the mohawk to bring it out to white. I also used White Scar to complete the White areas of their uniforms as well.

Scar White for the white bitz!

And this is where I am at with them so far. In the next part I will be touching them up and applying details. See you then!

Clowning Around (Part 3)

After painting all those earth-toned Brits for Bolt Action I needed the color fix that only painting a few Harlequin minis can give you. So I decided to clown around a bit more. Picking up exactly where I left off in December, I began with some dark gray mid-coats on the black area of this Death Jester

Mid-coat on armor and hair.

Next I applied even more red ink to the hair until I was satisfied with it. Then I used an even lighter gray for the highlights on the black areas of his suit.

With light gray highlights. 

You can see that the other Harley in the background is getting some color added to her mohawk as well.

While thumbing through the Harlequin painting guide, Warriors of the Laughing God, looking for inspiration I came across an alternate painting technique for the rock and ruins that most of the modern eldar figures are often modeled on. Basically you paint the rock/ruin a dark gray then wash it with Druchi Violet and highlight with Russ Gray. It's looked cool different in the book, and since I really am just clowning around with these models, I decided to give it a try...

Rocks washed with Druchi Violet.

So far so good, kind of a neat effect so far...

Russ Grey added to the rocks.

...and I'm not sure, but I think I hate it. They look OK in the photos, but in person it looks like I stuck cheap aquarium rocks on their bases. They don't appear right to me. So I am going to apply gray drybrushing to them to see if I like the result better. It's that or repaint them entirely to look like the traditional wraithbone look. I did like the look of the rocks with the purple wash, so we'll see what I can do to salvage this look...

The Reaper with the golden gun.

I decided my gray highlights on the black suit were just too intense and toned them down a bit with a wash of Nuln Oil. Then I painted gold onto the gun.

The rocks are corrected.

I decided to dry brush those funky rocks with Apple Barrel Pewter Grey and it seems to have done the trick. I can tolerate them now as they are no longer as distracting .

Next I decided to try another technique from Warriors of the Laughing God. This idea was to wash the weapon with Druchi Violet then highlight it with whatever they call Mitheril Silver these days.

Druchii Violet wash on rhe gun.

Mitheril Silver highlight on the gun.

I was very pleased with this effect and I will probably try this on some more Harlequins and maybe my Dark Eldar (whom I am considering for Kill Team).

Next up I finished off the mask and the gemstones that are all over this (and damned near every Goodwin Eldar) model. I changed his main soulgem from a red one to a green one just to break up the monotony.

More details done.

While working on the Death Jester I also completed this trouper by highlighting the red on her mask and adding some Mitheril Silver highlights to her gun and Harlequin Kiss.

Finished, front view.

On her back I finished off her gems and she was done.

Finished, rear view.

The rainbow hued mohawk came out fairly well. This was an experiment as well. I used inks on white to achieve the look of intense hair coloring. Also it's a bit of a call-back to the original paint schemes for these models from so many years ago...

Finishe Death Jester, rear view.

It's always fun to find a use for my old colored metallic paints, especially the Purple one. Here you can see I used it on the lightning bolt effect on the side of his cannon. Also I hand-painted the prism icon onto his right leg.

Finished Death Jester,  front view.

With exception to flock, these first few Harlequin models are done. I was having a lot of fun working on these and decided to prime up some more for the paint queue... coming eventually I guess... ;)

Clowning Around (part 2)

From my original bag of Harlequins I ended up thinking I had far more than I would ever need. So confident was I in this thought that I even gifted some away so that more Harlequins might hit the local battlefields (which they did, against me!). In recent times we are seeing GW actively bringing into production models that have only existed for decades as concepts and images in the WH40K's background, and one such boon from this is Codex: Harlequins. Reading through this book has been fun and inspiring and I think they would be a lot more fun to play with than their "win button" Kraftworld Kin.

As I touched on in the previous post it has inspired me to paint up some Harlies using The Reaper's Mirth Masque color scheme. Unlike last time, here's a bit of a step-by-step on the 2nd model:

Base colors applied. 

The black area painted up with a deep blue to a light grey highlight.

Black areas ink washed with Black Ink. Reds highlighted as well. 

Almost done!

The final pic shows the model almost done. With the white areas now white, the gold applied over the Tin Bitz, and the harlequin icons hand painted on. The hair is currently white and I am debating whether to give her a traditional rainbow color job on her amazing hairdo (I am a child of the '80s for sure).

Also, here is the the first of my five Deathjestors to get some paint.

More updates on this army will occasionally be posted as I really am just clowning around with them at this point.

Clowning around (part 1)

Recently for my birthday I got the Harlequin Codex. Not a big army for me by any stretch, but I have always loved their background. They were absolute bad-asses on the battlefield back in '88 -'89, but more on that in a bit.

Back when GW were the kings of flashy cool logos. 

As challenging as they were to play against, they were always the models I found to be the most challenging to paint, I have painted harlequin models in the past, but these were always for a friend and always experimental, and I was never really satisfied with them. The clash of colors on top of the detailed Jes Goodwin models were just so difficult to balance. I have seen lots of people try to paint them and just fail. Often times it was due to palette selection; everything from the hottest neon pinks to something that looked like a crayola box melted on top of them, that contributed to the finished models not looking very good.

Flash forward 25 years now and now we finally have them in plastic and in even more dynamic pose options. It took a long time for them to get to this point. As noted above, they arrived on the scene in '88 with their very own boxed set (RTB06), In fact, they had not been out for long when I was introduced to the hobby at the Doctor's birthday party back in '88 and they were the rage of the moment as far as 40K releases were going. The Dr had one painted at this time, and I was enthralled by it. But, for whatever reason, I chose to play orks instead. I'm straying a bit here, but the point is that they were just vicious foes to have to face on the table top back then, and awesome to behold in action, and stirred up quite a lot of excitement, especially in regard to what their weapons could do. It was the first appearance of monofilament weapons in 40K, and it was nasty. However it had a counterbalance; the user could get stuck to their victim!

Rogue Trader took the concept of 'Instant Death' a lot more seriously back then!

So when I hear about how broken, nasty, auto-win, etc, that the Eldar can be with their latest broken codex (and I will admit, I'm usually hearing myself say those things LOL) I am sobered by looking at what they were like in the game's 1st edition! Scary!

They were of course, seriously toned down by the time Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition came along, and now decades later, we started this year off with them being little more than a pretty unit selection that no one took because, well, Guardians were better! So I was surprised to see them getting their own codex and now that I have it I have been pouring through the thing.

Over the years, I have accumulated a small collection of Harlies. There was a guy around 10 years ago that was selling them in bulk on ebay and I got a freezer bag full of about 40 of them. Far more than it made sense to own at the time. Looking at the codex, and comparing what I have, it's interesting to note the changes to the Harlequin Organization. Below is an image from WD 105 (vol 1):

From WD 105

Gone are the Avatar classes. At one point he was simply renamed The Great Harlequin, but now he's just gone. The Mime class never made it out of this issue and no models were ever released for them. The Harlequin Organisation as a whole is now referred to as a 'Troupe' and the individual fighters are no longer called Troupers but are now called Players (I giggle at this too). The High Warlock has been called a Shadow Seer for sometime now, and the lesser Warlocks have disappeared. Leaving only the the Solitaire and the Death Jester, arguably the two most iconic classes from the Harlequin army, to keep their original names. Also gone from the original list is the option to scavenge vehicles from any list, but let's face it, that rule was probably made out of desperate necessity. Although they did get a specific Elder Jetbike model back then and the faceplate from that was used to convert them into Harlequin Dreadnoughts for the 2nd edition era Citadel Journal list (issue 17?).

Glad I never spent the money to convert up one of those dreads as they are now gone from the list. However, I once painted one for a friend of mine, but I can't find a photo of it.  Also gone are the Venoms (from the their last list, the CJ 3rd edition one), which are now the property of the Dark Eldar. The new Starweavers and Skyweavers are acceptable replacements however, so no real loss.

Somewhat keen on this new Codex-Harlequins, I thought it might be fun to see if I have enough models to actually field them as a small ally force, and sure enough I do. But what color to paint them? I decided to go with this faction from the codex called the The Reaper's Mirth, which is appropriate because I have a lot of Death Jesters (more than I can use in a 'Bound' Force Selection actually) and also because the red in their attire would go with the colors I have selected for my Dark Eldar and Eldar forces (see here).

The Reaper's Mirth

 So here is my first attempt at painting a Harlequin from the Reaper's Mirth:

Note that I am going to count the Web Pistol, which doesn't currently exist in the game, as a Fusion Pistol.

On the model's left leg I decided to make a trio of diamond patterns to give a fading down sort of appearance. The triangle on the knee is from the Codex, and it represents the 'light'. The icon on the other leg is the symbol of the Reaper's Mirth and it was a pain in the ass to get it to look even sort of right.

So far, I'm pleased with it, but when I looked at the original paint schemes from WD105-106 I am just stunned with the caliber of detail that they painted on to those models back then. In contrast, mine look like highschool sports team uniforms, however I am telling myself that the image from the Codex (the book had no painted examples, just what I snapped above) are there  to be just a guide, and not a rule. Which means I need to paint a few more before I know for sure!

Oh, and one more time, for the love of GW's old unique logo designs:

NOTE: many images above were taken from GW product, these are intended for review purposes and not as a challenge to the copyright or Intellectual Property of Games Workshop,