Harlequin Carnival - La Danse Macabre

I have recently taken to converting. I have to say your log is very inspiring!

@RedRegicide. Thankyou

Converting is a lot of fun to do. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. The GW kits just lend themselves so well to kit bashing and conversions, and the universe and background is just a minefield of inspiration to create some fantastic things

Managed to crack on with this Creepy balloon merchant yesterday, and I hope to get a load done this eve too.

I basically blocked in the dark green base for the poison tubes, and leather straps, as these are fairly easy to do and did not require any colour choices. Once these were down I could concentrate on the larger areas which I needed to make decisions on.





The first I chose to do was the ragged skirt around his waist as this in the largest area and will inform everything else. I needed a colour that was different from the last Talos I painted, so pink and turquoise were out the window for the main colour. This slimmed down my selection somewhat, and I wanted something bright that was not yellow (I hate painting yellow).... so I chose a nice vibrant Orange . It will be a lot brighter than this base colour you can see at present, as it was mixed with a darker foundation paint for better coverage, and then washed with Fuegan Orange in the recesses.

Now this was done I could look at the next prominent bit, the shoulder pad armour. A nice opposite colour to Orange is Blue (colour wheel is fab for making choices like this) so I went with a mid tone that will be highlighted up to a fairly light & bright edge. Having the whole shoulder pad blue was a bit much so I used a complimentary colour, purple in this case, to break it up (I also used it for the armour pad on his leg).

Now all the colours were chosen I could start on some other features. The last thing I did before taking the pics was to do the gold on his belt and arms. These have been washed and highlighted, but it is not very visible just yet.

Now onto the highlighting stage. I will start with the Orange dress, then go straight into the skin.

It will all make sense soon I promise

SC

Looks fantastic stunning modelling as always, and it's really useful to get an inside perspective of your colour choices and painting process

@Ynneadwraith. Glad you are finding it interesting, I certainly am enjoying charting it. Writing about each stage does help crystallise my idea process a bit

Been working on the lower half of the Talos over the last few days. Not my usual way as I tend to work by colour rather than section, working through each colour stage until I am done. I did not go this way on this chappie though, as some features are quite large and I did not want to get fed up painting areas of the same thing over and over (I am doing this for enjoyment after all )

So with that in mind I decided that I would be concentrating on the area below his waist, not only because I felt it was interesting and more achievable, but also because my fingers would not rub off any of the paint when doing the rest of the mini as it is not raised like the top parts (I usually mount my minis on old paint pots so I don't have to touch them, but on a model this large it is impossible to do so)







the skirt being the largest area I went with that first. The base is troll slayer Orange, washed with Fuegan Orange in the recesses, the a 50/50 mix of troll slayer and Yriel Yellow. After that a pure highlight of Yriel was applied on the more raised area, with a very fine highlight of flash gitz on the very top parts. Finally I add the yellow edge paint right on the most raised areas/edges and glaze all over with lamenters yellow to tie it all together again. Pretty darn pleased with how it has come out. Nice and vibrant without being too garish, and it works well with the blue shoulder pad, especially when it will be all highlighted.

after that it was the flesh, my favourite bit. Just the RH leg and a bit of the left I did on this pass, and then I worked on a few smaller fiddly bits such as his man piece armour and poison pump. The bit I am really pleased with is the verdigris on the balloon pump. I usually struggle achieving a convincing patina but I only applied small amounts in the recesses and added a turquoise paint to the Nihilaik Oxide to further shade recesses. Works well I think, and I feel confident I can pull it off again on the other copper bits scattered about the model.

next update I will show you most of the top half and face hopefully

SC

That looks phenomenal dude! I love the way you've done the orange. Whenever I try to build up depth in colours I always go for different sades of the same colour, but the way you've used red for the recesses and yellow for the highlights looks really really good

I'm with you on the normally doing things by colour...but every now and again painting everyone's legs all the way to completion because I don't feel like the same black shoulder pad 30 times in a row...

Thanks! I am really pleased with the result tbh. Using the yellow to work up the shading has given it a nice vibrant tone, which will work really well with the blue I hope

Batch painting drives me crazy, especially when there is no end in sight, so I totally agree with finishing bits to get a sense of completion from a whole load

Can't wait to see the yellow on blue shading sounds like a great idea!

Yeah i'm painting 27 Corsairs at the moment and i'm considering sticking a paintbrush through my hand so i can go to a&e instead

Will be worth it in the end though

Quick update folks. Poison tubes are coming along nicely, and I am really pleased with the bruising on the flesh

Just wow. I can hazard a guess as to how the bruising is done (which looks great btw), but how on earth did you get the little light patches on the poison tubes?

You sir, remain a hobby champion of the most elite pedigree. Its been WAY to long since I stopped by man, but I'm not surprised you are continuing to rock so dang hard. Wow! Everything looks fantastic... the Talos guys look sickening as ever.... the pack of Lions is UNREAL!!!... the latest Raider is absolutley sickening and those Jetbikes have me totally intrigued. I'm gonna continue to go back into the log and check out other things I may have missed... but seriously Spellcheck... everything looks fantastic man. Keep it up... I'm still stoked we were featured on the same podcast together. Keep up the great work man you are killing it

@Ynneadwraith. Thanks! The bruising is down with a red wash in the recesses, followed by bloddletter glaze on gradual stages, mixing in with the base skin tone as I go out.

The tubes are done with varying shades of green lines, which are then glazed about 5 times to tie them together and make the effect more subtle. I then paint the little bubbles in and give it a final glaze. Works well I think, especially when the gloss varnish goes on at the end

@Cavalier. Thanks so much dude. I am chuffed you are still enjoying reading through this project . Been a labour of love for me, so when I get positive responses like yours and Yneads it is really encouraging

Still got work to do on the jetbikea but I like what I have achieved so far. Got the new corsair IA and I am cooking up a few conversion ideas to make a couple of corsair units I can slot into La Danse Macabre to have a truly flexible force (which is great, coznsidering the rumoured changes coming for all the Eldar)

Ah, so glazes and witchcraft thanks for sharing, it's a really cool effect

Looking forward to your creepy clown corsairs too! I'm sure they'll be both ingenious and disconcerting in equal measure

spellcheck2001 wrote:

The tubes are done with varying shades of green lines, which are then glazed about 5 times to tie them together and make the effect more subtle. I then paint the little bubbles in and give it a final glaze. Works well I think, especially when the gloss varnish goes on at the end

I've been wondering about this too. Your effect looks a lot cooler than the usual effect. It really looks like the tubes are flowing with a particularly nasty and reactive liquid.
As for the conversions and paint job, I'll leave it to Eugene Struthers to explain how I feel about those.

@Ynneadwraith. No problemo I do have a couple of wacky ideas using hellions and ork rocket packs/pogo sticks for all the jet pack infantry. Will be a lot of fun to convert then I think, but I have a bit of a painting backlog I need to get through first

@Scrz. Thankyou, I am pleased you like it, and the movement is coming across (sometimes an idea does not always translate well when painted on a mini). Tried to google Eugene Struthers but still none the wiser, so I will presume it is a magnificent compliment and accept it with joy

I must be one of the rare 4 or 5 Mexicans that watched that show.

spellcheck2001 wrote:

@Ynneadwraith. No problemo I do have a  couple of wacky ideas using hellions and ork rocket packs/pogo sticks for all the jet pack infantry. Will be a lot of fun to convert then I think, but I have a bit of a painting backlog I need to get through first

You have a deranged mind and I like it

Scrz, that is funny

I think one must have a slightly deranged mind to play and collect DE, so mine is only slightly more deranged I feel (just a teeny weeny weeny bit more.....ooh look, balloons!!!!!!)

Just a teeny weeny update. Added some purple to the irritated flesh on his back, and finished the blue armour plates. Pretty much finished now, just waiting for a nice day so I can varnish the bugger (twice) and then complete the base



SC

Love the little hearts dude very twisted

Also, this angle really makes the poison tubes look spectacular. Such a cool effect

Thanks . I am looking forward to showing the finished thing now, but this damn Uk Feb is holding me back from doing the spray varnish coats . He is no 4 of five done now, so I am sooo close to finishing the corpse thief claw

Yeah it's really not spray-painting weather at the moment. Having to hold off on my mucking about with cars for the same reason!

Doing a whole converted Corpsethief to this standard is a hell of an impressive feat!

Greetings! After a thoroughly enjoyable journey I have managed to complete my fourth Dark Eldar Talos for the Corpsethief Claw formation. You probably saw my WIP updates above as I progressed through the paint job on this chappie (which hopefully was interesting for ya all), and after a glorious Saturday where I managed to get both varnish coats done and finish the basing, I can now call him complete!









I had a vague idea of colour choices for him when I started, but this quickly changed as I worked through the standard base layers of flesh, red and metals (I always do these first as they are a constant throughout the army, and it gives me a good platform to start making the colour choices). As is usually the case I picked the largest area on the model for my first colour choice, as this will be the lynch pin that all the other colours work from, which in this instance was the vibrant Orange of his ragged skirt. I basecoated this and then went on to choose the blue as the next large colour, and the purple/pink secondary colours (which hopefully tie the disparate areas like the balloons in with bits on the model such as the foot armour plate, and pink hearts on the shoulder. I am really pleased with how these have all come out. Both the orange and blue are really vibrant and work very well together, with the other colours being subtle yet complimentary to the primary colour areas.



I enjoyed painting the skin, especially the infected flesh around the ports on his back, which I think look really effective. It was the first time I tried the bruised look, using washes and glazes to bend into the skin tone. There is always room to improve but for a first attempt I think it came out well and I am very chuffed with it. Looking back, one of the things I think I can improve on is the blending on the skin. I think the final highlights are a little harsh, and a few more layers blended up to the white would have looked more natural. I will work on this for the next one.





The pipes and poison star also came out really well. I painted lots of green stripes all around the pipes (with two different shades) and then glazed it multiple times until it all blended together and looks more subtle. I then painted all the little bubbles with white paint and gave it a final glaze with waywatchers green. The star was painted in the same way, but with swirls instead of stripes.

He is a worthy addition to my burgeoning Talos collection, and only 1 more to go before I can call the corpsethief claw complete. He makes me smile with the balloon pump on his foot, and the bright carnival theme to his clothing and armour, yet underneath is a brooding menace, accentuated by the harsh face and poison tubes all round his body.

SC

PS. I have been playing around with my foldio 360 turntable to try and get some 360 shots of my models. Not had much success, as the lighting is not right, camera is slightly out of focus and my model is not central on the turntable. Still, have a click on the link to see what I am trying to do, and hopefully in the future I can get as decent 360 shots as I can the still ones above. (I also need to find a way to export the image rather than having to click on a link, but that is for another day

https://spinzam.com/shot/?idx=11860

He's stunning dude! Does he do children's parties?

Thanks for walking us through a bit of the process too really useful to see how you build up these phenomenal pieces of work