Seduction of the dark side - DE/eldar harlequin fluff force

First off just wanted to say hey
New to the Dark city, been a long time poster on dakka but was browsing the Dark City and there's some great stuff here, so hoping to get some good DE advice to help peak my interest!

Not sure this is exactly the right sub-forum, but I have a few questions across the board, so a little intro.

I am planning on starting my second force come christmas and im in love with the whole eldar/DE background and fluff. As such I want to design a force of harlequin styled DE/eldar kitbashes, giving my force an outcast and renegade feel with a jester paint-up. I orginally planned on playing them solely as eldar, but have such since been seduced by some of the darker ideas

In terms of kitbashing, I will be buying a large bulk of kits at once, to allow me access to a variety of parts from the offset and I have found the DE kits seem to provide a much greater amount of dynamic poses across the board, which suits the harlequin look. Which kits would a DE player suggest? in terms of modelling harle-esque, I was thinking:

• wyches
  

• scourges
  

• hellions
  

I am going to mostly shy away from a too heavily mutated look, to keep the balance, although i am finding it hard to resist the mandrake models at the moment. ah damn  there finecast :/

The sticky thread with alternate models has had some great inspiration, but is there anything anyone who has experience with converting would suggest from perhaps fantasy?

My second question is more a tactical question for actual gaming, so im gona go do some research and come back to the other sub-forum Hope the wall of text isn't to wall like and I greatly appreciate any advice. I need to get my orders in! as the family have a habit of thinking all the GW models are the same thing meaning I could get anything

Just seen the dark elves witch elves unit, that looks like a perfect unit for transforming into some harle's. The kit is a double up kit, so not only will I get a whole load of spare parts for customisation, il also get a whole set of these masked heads, for some slightly darker/grim looking harlequins


The legs are also in great poses. Only thing is they'll need a little modification for any male models when combining with DE stuff.

Hi there. A man? After my own heart. I too have a harlequin-esque dark eldar modelling project (although mine is more carnival themed now) the wych bodies are a great base for starting with as they have a great sense of movement. Also the new dark elf wyches are great too and have just bought a box for me to start converting with. I also use alot of fantasy parts as well to give them a different feel to a standard dark eldar chappy. Try surfing various bits sites and just buy loads of random bits you like the look of. Alt heads, funky legs ect. Combining all of these will really give your army a unique feel and also be alot of fun to convert. Check out my project log - harlequin carnival la danse macabre - . Hope all this helps. Just do what you like and what excites you and you will quickly find a scheme you enjoy.

Depends on how you good you are, if you have some greenstuff knowledge, it's the best way to make your own harlequins from all kind of models. The empire has a lot of nice bitz, though I don't find they all suit the eldar aethetic, some greenstuff solves the problem.
I'm sorry to say greenstuff is a must, even if you use just a little, just kitbashing various kits together won't do it.

The wyches are the best for a starter pose, scourges mostly the leggs, but I would stick with wyches, scourges are more expensive, maybe just 1 or 2 boxes for the bitz. Hellions for the bitz, but I'd say it's even worse then the scourges, the leggs aren't usuable for harlequins, they're too static.
Weirdly enough a lot of old dark eldar kits have a lot of dynamic poses for harlequins, the old Lelith and Kruellagh has been used in a lot of harlequin conversions.
The warrior and wyches coming with the raider and the venom also have very good posses for these type of conversions, buying the full kit would be a waste, though for the venom, that is a transport used by harlequins, a different version, but still. You can find them on ebay or trade/buy from player, the raider warriors aren't all used by most players.

http://demonwinner.free.fr/france/2008/golden_demon_winner.php?categorie=6

sry don't have a better picture, I always think of this squad when people mention converting harlequins for some reason.


BTW there's no such thing as dark eldar harlequins, you just say Harlequins. They're not craftworld (though they tech is almost 90% craftworld, 10% of their own stuff), they're certainly not dark eldar, they use 0 dark eldar tech.

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One of the logs on this forum, it's mostly empire harlequin based, the guy is really talented, though it doesn't fully follow the eldar aethetic, it still is a very cool army.

http://www.thedarkcity.net/t6097-harlequin-carnival-la-danse-macabre

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I approached this differently, I bought all the oldschool harlequins dating from the rogue trader days, some are very ok, others need a lot of work, all the models have the correct bodies and poses to start with, weapons and a lil extra may need some extra work.

I also got the currenty harlequins to have all te harlequins released by GW. I actually changed some of the old ones, put them on a stone on a base, changed the pose somewhat ( this is when you love metal minis), put some extra cloth pieces and they look very similar to the new style harlequins.


Another important aspect on harlequins I see a lot of people ignore on the net, but it truly matters: the harlequins kiss. If you're converting for a cool looking army, for a painting contest it's okay to leave them with swords and other beautiful looking weapons, however if you want a squad good on a battlefield, you'll need the kisses. The kisses make the squad excellent, without it they're simply not as good. They're more expensive, but 100% worth it. Most people do keep a power on the troupe leader for a 100% garantee of no 3+ saves, though it used to be better and the low strength can be a problem.

I have some pictures about this on my warseer blog

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?254489-Dark-Moon-Kabal/page5

Khain mor wrote:

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Hey thanks for the replies spellcheck and Khain, they were both the kind of posts I was hoping for! sadly ive been buried in degree work at the moment so ive had to force myself to stop modelling
Both your logs have been really inspiring! I am actually feeling very very compelled to play DE solo, instead of my current plan to play DE and eldar But overall you've given me a great place to start with and think about bits I could use. I certainly plan on bulk buying kits so I have as many options as possible.

I am currently at a reasonable level with my GS skills, I have been putting plenty of time into getting better with my orks (as orks dont need to look perfect:P), so my hope is by the time x-mas hits and I get my DE/eldar force on the go il be where I want to be

Are there any bits sites you recommend? Ive been going through the lists over on dakka but its such a long list. The thread on thedarkcity about alternate models has been a great help. So thanks again for the replies, il keep you posted!

No problemo . There are a few bits sites I tend to use (I am UK based though). They are:- bits and kits, let the dice decide, bitz box and model bits. Ebay also occasionally has a few bits listed but they do tend to be a bit overpriced. I play DE solo at the moment too but have been toying with the idea of allied Eldar. However I still have lots of DE stuff to convert/paint too so it might be a while till I get to them. I am trying to build a unit then paint them as I can get carried away and have lots and lots of unpainted models all waiting to be painted, which can be a bit offputting to say the least.