Harlequin Carnival - La Danse Macabre

Thanks Plastikente. I have a box sitting on my shelf at the mo, just deciding what to do with them. A friend is poss selling me his metal ones, so I might kitbash them with some scourges for aome funky winged things

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Ok folks, now the painting comp is over and results announced I thought I would share my entry and the wip pics of him.
I seriously love the new harlequin plastic models that GW have recently bought out, and knew I had to have them to paint and use as conversion bits for the rest of my carnival, and the mask of Cegorath comp that Gobsmakked was running gave me the perfect opportunity to get one and paint him.

The solitaire immediately took my fancy, not only for the awesome fluff, but also the new model is incredible. The pose is just so dynamic and I love the base too. The only part I did not like was the face mask as I felt it looked a little silly. The glorious thing with plasic is that you can modify it as you wish, so thats what I did

As usual I could not resist the urge to do a little converting. I wanted the model to fit into the theme of my carnival, so I had a rummage through my bits box and came out with a talos arm and a finecast wrack hand. These replaced both the right arm and left flattened hand and electrical wire was added for tubing to the new claw and mask. The face was shaved off to make it look more of a flat faceplate. The result is suitable creepy I think.

I struggled at first to decide on a colour scheme for him. It is so easy to just add a load of colour and pattern and end up overcomplicating the mini, which I did not want to do. In the end I decided on two core colours of blue and orange, with the punk as a third. The others were there as more complimentary or contrasting colours for the whole scheme. I only added a couple of hearts onto the back of the cloak, as the space allowed for a little freehand. The whole thing works well overall I think, I just wish I had taken better pictures, as it looks a little dark And the colours are alot more vibrant to the eye (I am trying something new for the next few photographs, so hopefully things will improve). Would love your feedback on him, what works or doesn't. I was a little disappointed that he did not do so well in the comp but there were some cracking entries, and Calypta's winning one was absolutely awesome. Anyway here are the pics in case you missed them, along with the wip's.

Thanks for the kind word! As I said in the competition, your entry was my favorite. It was also the only one which I could tell who did it, which I think is a good thing - your distinctive style and vision are both excellent.

I may need to go invest in some electrical wire for tubing, now that I know how you did it.

As for constructive criticism, I don't have much. I think the hearts are great, but I think the model could have benefited from more of them. Your shading and highlighting are solid, but I think taking the highlighting up one more notch to dot highlight corners and pointy bits would help the model to pop.

Hey Calyptra. I really appreciated your comment in the comp log, and likewise above. The praise for your entry is truly deserved, such a fantastic scheme you came up with, and the execution is really excellent

The electrical wire is a godsend for comverting. I use it soo much now, as it adds alot to a model for very little effort really.

Thanks for the pointers. I was worried with the hearts that it would over complicate the model, which is why I did not do too many. Originally I Painted the trousers a black and white diamond pattern, but it really did make the model look awful so I repainted it. Prob why I was so cautious with the hearts. On hindsight maybe a few more would be cool .
I will work on my highlighting a little more for my next model, although alot of 'zing' was lost in the photo taking as it has really flattened the colours. I now have the new gw edge highlight paints, which are excellent, so will use them for the corners and top raised areas as you suggest


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If I ever start to feel a bit jaded with this hobby I only need to look at this tread again. The humour, creativity and slightly off kilter joy in all you work is just the most infectious and inspiring thing I have seen in years. Thank you so much, even if you have made me realise how MOR and unchallenging my own stuff is. Right that's it I'm off to consider how to add flying monkeys and Cat girl Wyches to my army

thank you very much punk possum, that is great to hear, I really appreciate it. I am glad you enjoy my stuff. It really is a joy to convert and paint them as well

Oh and you can never have enough flying monkeys

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The brothers Grimm are coming...........

I have seen a few kit bashes around the web and here on TDC using the new storm fiend box set as a base for some nice talos conversions.

I want to run the corpse thief claw formation with my harlequin carnival, and wanted 3 more talos to run with my other two Inhave already converted. Because they were plastic I jumped at the chance to order a box (and being my bday I had a bit of spare change, although I got told off by my partner for 'buying more toys again' ) and have been working on some conversions for a couple of weeks now. Here is the first one I have finished.

"Hands off me beach ball Roight?"














He was inspired by Jeff Vader's awesome work over at the convertorum, and his slaaneshi conversion for the Iron sleet invitational. Of course I had to add a little carnival flare to my hulking brute, and the pose of the torso really lent itself to a more leaning and threatening stance. I decided to knock up a beach ball and for him to be leaning on it, as if he had just stepped off from running on it or kicking it. I made a few additions to the back of him, with some tubing and a plastic star as his power pack, and added a meaty buzz saw to the one arm and a talos claw to the other. A few bits and bobs later and he is all ready to start beating some joy into a hapless victim.

I am incredibly pleased with how this conversion has turned out. It has an extremely sinister and menacing tone, but with just that added touch of lightness and humour that makes it fit into my carnival nicely.

What do you think of him?

i love him. I think makes a great Talos

With that head, only one thing comes to mind. "I am the Imperium's reckoning."

@Ciirian. Thanks very much glad you like him

@DingK. Lol yeah the head works really well I think

Was he born in the dark? We merely adopted it...

Mate that looks awesome, of all the things you've done, i think I like this the most!

Thanks @The_Burning_Eye much appreciated. He was alot of fun to build and really had my imagination fired up

Love it! Perfect size, perfect aesthetic. Keep on rocking Spellcheck!

That is a brilliant conversion there Spellcheck, the bullgryn head perfectly comes together with the body, it gives it a very oddly 'human' look which works really well! Reminds me I need to finish my Corpsethief as well!

@Cavalier. Thanks Dude mucho appreciated.

@PartridgeKing. Cheers yeah the haed works very well I think. I like the fact it could be a mutated space marine pumped full of drugs and a few modifications under the haemonculus's knife

Oh wow this is awesome.
I love the head too but its the beach ball I like the most. I'm just imagining him slowly and purposely rolling it forcefully over him latest "playmate", maybe saying squishy squishy in a manically cheerful way.

@punk possum. Lol yeah that image makes me giggle just a little . Thanks for the compliment

Amazing work, you are a true artisan of the most inspiringly twisted kind. You make the work of the Haemonculi look unimaginative.

@CurstAlchemist. Thanks very much your comment is much appreciated

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Amazing, inspiring and imaginative pieces. I do like your last entry, the talos usimg the stormfiend kit, I would sure like to take some of those ideas and use it for Grotesques.

I agree on your nod to the scourge legs. I've used them myself for some more dynamic posing of Kabalite Warriors so they appear to be jumping from their Raiders. Also, used the legs for my Archon conversion.

@kabal_jagged_eye. Thanks

They are deceptively large models so they might not work as well for grots (unless you want them huge). The vargeist models make excellent grots however. I have a conversion planned for them swishing around my fevered brain.

I love the scourge legs. They are so dynamic. I plan to use them on my raiders too like you have mentioned. I also ordered a load of the new harlie legs from a bits site to splash into my army and vehicle crews, as they are incredibly dynamic too

Aww I want to see what you come up with for Grots. But I'm guessing you might be a bit distracted with thunder wolves at the moment...
I hadn't thought of using scourge legs for kabalite raider crew, so that one has just gone in the cool ideas to steal bank

punk possum wrote:

But I'm guessing you might be a bit distracted with thunder wolves at the moment?..

You can say that again. I am sick to death of them tbh. Getting six painted is a bit much. Cant wait to get them finished so I can get back to my carnival (and dropzone commander)

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Just put the final touches to this chap and am so excited by the result I thought I would post it asap and share it with you all. It feels so good to get back to painting my carnival stuff after a whole bunch of thunderwolves nearly drove me potty














I did not want the scheme for him to be too garish, so I did not go for any major patterns on the cloth areas, prefering to let the colours do the talking, apart from a little lava lamp effect on the bottom of the toga. This was also used to tie the head colours in with the base a bit. I think it works pretty well.

I also like that the orange compliments the pink nicely. I paid a bit more attention to my highlighting, using the very edges for a final bright line only on selected raised parts. I was given some great feedback from Calypta about how I could improve my highlighting more on my harlequin solitaire paint job so I hope it has paid off

He has a great story and character to him, and I am really pleased to add him to my slowly growing Carnival.

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Whoah. I can't stop looking at it. It's beautiful, but also a complete head trip.

Also and unrelated, the musculature on the left arm reminds me of the Too Many Elbows faction from Vor: the Maelstrom (the Zykhee).

I'm really glad my comments were useful!

By the way, when I eventually shift back into painting Harlequins, at least one of them is getting lava lamp patterns.