Harlequin Carnival - La Danse Macabre

Greetings evil denizens!

I have long had a desire to do start a harlequin army but have not had the ideas/inspiration to be able to start one that would fulfill my modelling ambitions to satisfaction. Happily i have come across a couple of projects that have really got my creative juices flowing and given me bags of ideas to play with. A thanks goes to eye of error (check out his blog, amazing stuff on there) and speedfreak (for his harlequin macabre project log on this site) for the inspiration to start this project.

The aim is to do a dark eldar carnival themed army. I am aiming for a 750 pt army to game with to start, converting each model as I go so each has a different carnival theme. Below are my finished wych squad, haemonculus hq and work in progress raider. comments and advice very welcome! enjoy.

The plague doctor (Haemonculus)
[img][/img]

Geisha (Hexatrix)
[img][/img]

Baron musica
[img][/img]

Highwayman
[img][/img]

Thief
[img][/img]

Horror
[img][/img]

Knight of the danse
[img][/img]

Wee Willy
[img][/img]

The Bitch!
[img][/img]

Little drummer girl
[img][/img]

Raider
[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

Nice!

Very Nice! Glad to have given you some inspiration.

I really love all the unique characters and that raider is awesome.

Show us more!

Cheers guys. I am doing a bit more work to the raider but should post up the finished article in a couple of days . Next on the list is 3 reavers then I will try and sort out a paint scheme. I want a unifying colour palette that looks like a carnival but does not look like a bunch of random models with the same bases. Till next time.

Where did you get the top hat the guy at the rudder is wearing?!?!??

The original head is from the empire wizard kit. I chopped the bottom part off and added a ring of plastic to try and make it look like a ring master top hat. A little green stuff later and Voila, top hat. A little fiddly but well worth it to change the look of the original. Check out the baron musica photo, this is the same head I used for the raider dude.

Hi folks. Just a quick update on progress. The carnival boat (raider) and crew are now finished. Pics below. Let me know what you think.

Carnival boat crew



Carnival boat

[img][/img]

Excellent work, looking forward to watching as it progresses. Should be a nice looking army when you are all done.

Cheers.

Hi guys. Sorry for the delay in posting. Real life got in the way of my plastic little people below are the first three models in my reaver squad. I had a lot of fun making these although they were quite time consuming in the end. I wanted the models to have a sense of movement and occasion while still keeping the essence of the fever models ( fast and brutal). I have not modified the jet bikes much as I like the models as they are and think the riders create the party atmosphere. What do you guys think of them? Should I modify the bikes a bit more or leave as is?

Enjoying this very much, will be great to see them painted as well. Just make sure to include a Solitaire! Not sure what he should count as, but perhaps he could be some of the SC?

I really like all your reavers except for the one with the giant feather in his hat. \\

I think the feather needs to be repositioned so it looks like it's "swooping in the wind" and not laying down heavily. After all these bikes are moving at "break-neck" speed.

Otherwise though, awesome! And I love that each bike has a "hood ornament"

Saintspirit. Thanks very much. I have plans to start painting very soon. Recently purchased a spray gun and compressor and am in the process of building a spray booth for it. Will post up a pic of it once it is finished. Also got an idea of the colour scheme from an old model I once painted. Will take a pic to give you an idea of the scheme. I had not thought of doing a solitaire model but now you have got my brain churning........Maybe for a archon?!? Hmmmmm

Eye of error. Thanks again Yes I think I agree with you about the feather. Much too droopy and static. i will get it changed and post up a new pic soon.

On the workbench at the Moment are a succubus and my beast pack, which is a lot of fun and I am excited to get them finished to show.

Below is the basis for my colour scheme I have chosen for my carnival ( it is an old wfbengineer I painted over 10 years ago. Always kept it as loved the colours I had done but never had a chance to replicate it). The main colour will be red. White and black stripes and squares will break it up and add pattern and the blue will remain more of a spot colour. Although it is a harlequin/carnival project I still want to achieve a uniform look on the battlefield with random spot colours ( like the hair ect) to add variety and give it that carnival air.

I can dig that scheme, will look very "robust" not he Harlequins.

Ah cheers. It will look very different on the de models but just wanted to give an idea what was in my head. With the pale flesh i Think it will work quite nicely. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks i will have a painted unit to show. Got my new airbrush to play with (no idea how to use it though). I think i will need to buy a new gun to go with it as the ones it comes with are supposedly not very good (it was an £80 jobby from amazon) compressor is decent though. Anyone any advice on which type to go for?

Just a quick one. Changed the feather on one of my reavers to make it look less 'droopy'. Looks a lot better I think.

Ahhh.. Much better. Looks like it's flowing properly now.

Cool use of bits. The dolphin from the Empire cannon is hilarious!

My succubus. I absolutely love this conversion! I am a very happy evil space elf

Hag (succubus)

I dig. Always liked that axe.

You know, I'd say you should use some different painting schmes instead of just making all the harlies red, white and black... One of the things with harlequins is that they can have any kinds of colours. You don't have to of course, I just find that particularly engaging.

Thanks . Yes I hear what you are saying about the colours. The danger for me of doing that is that it can look like a bit of a mess on the tabletop and not have anything tying the models together coherently. By using red, white and black as the base colour it just ties them all together that little bit more. I will still be using many different colours to get that carnival feel but they just won't cover the whole model. I think it will be a bit of a case of trial and error when it comes to painting them at the time. I have some airbrush paints on order and once they arrive I am going to start painting and see what works

Hey folks. I have started my beast pack. Below are beast master and kymyrae. I am using the lions from the HE chariot to give it a bit of a circus feel. I have a few ideas up my sleeve for my razorwing flocks which should be a lot of fun. Comments welcome

Now that's just damn clever.....

I really, really, really dig the use of Lions instead of Khymera. Great idea!

Thanks eye. I have a few more on order to do 5/6 kymreae in a unit. For my razorwing flock I have some jokaeros ordered. Really looking forward to converting those monkeys up also has anyone seen the new radagast model? Rabbits anyone:)

Just a quick update folks. Still waiting for my paints to arrive so converted up my second haemonculus.