Masque of the Sybil Flourish: Papewaio's ETL Harlequin's

[Papewaio]

Alrighty, so there seems to be this ETL thing on, so may as well join the dance, right? I got back into 40k around the start of this year, after having sold all my World Eaters about four years ago (haven't picked up a brush since). So, naturally, I thought I should paint a very fiddly army to welcome myself back! The main draw to Harlequins is definitely that they look cool, but I'm a semi-professional circus artist and magician, so there's a certain pull from that as well.

So! Vow 1 is everything I currently have, being 2 Shadowseers, a Death Jester, a Solitaire, a Troupe Master, and a Troupe of 9 players, all armed with various weaponry. There's more ordered and on the way though!

The paint scheme I'm trying to do is based of this deck of cards:

And here they are undercoated:

And here's where I stopped last night: I think I need to make it a brighter blue, but that's for tomorrow, I think.

I also think i should figure out a proper place to take photos for them?

[Papewaio]

A slightly busted knee meant more painting! I brightened the blue, added the red, and once I highlight the grey that'll be the main colours all done (barring the black to come on the Solitaire and Death Jester). Then just details, and mustering up the courage to attempt some motley

And part of my next vow has finally shipped! But that's going to arrive in like three weeks, so plenty of time to try those diamonds until they work. Right? Right...?

[Bryan Blaire]

I really like the colors you used (that deck of cards looks awesome)! What color are you looking at for your details and weapon bodies?

 

As far as motley - Not speaking from a ton of experience in that specific department, but since I've been painting checkerboard patterns on my DA Successors, some things are similar:

 

When I need to make the initial grid, I paint it with a medium grey - I've found all colors, including bone, paint over it pretty well with no more than three light coats of paint, even white, since I usually do an initial base coat in medium or light grey and work up from there anyway.

 

Make sure to have patience with yourself - I've never gotten lines completely parallel, and even getting them "close enough" takes a bit of time. I always have to paint back over some of the lines with the base color, there's nothing wrong with this. Just keep practicing until it all gets easy for you.

 

If you find that you hate painting the motley, don't try and paint it on large areas of the models. Your cards actually depict an interesting "broken" pattern where the lines for the colors don't directly align and aren't symmetric. That would also be interesting on some of the larger surfaces. Then you can pick a small area or two, such as one side of a vest or the raised bump areas on the bikes, to put the motley on. Save your sanity. I have plans for a motley scheme that will likely drive me insane when I try it, because I'll get cranky about the lack of parallel lines down a leg or arm, and I've only ever done checkerboard on small areas of my models.

 

Wish you the best in your endeavor on it! Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

[Papewaio]

Grey is done, and black started on! Initially I was going to do the Solitaire very similar to all the others: but I got some ideas from browsing here and now I have other plans for him. Which also makes sense because he's not quite a part of the Masque like everyone else.

Weapons and details are going to be a combination of brass and silver, to help them stand out from the solid colours on the models already.

I never actually thought of going along with the pattern on the cards - that might actually be something quite cool to try. Thanks for the tips!

[Papewaio]

Well, its been a few days since I've been able to paint, but here we are. Finished the black, and put the basecoat on the brass for the weaponry. I realise it's quite dominating at the moment; it is certainly going to get faded in the process of highlights. After that, silver detailing and touch ups, motley, and bases! Then we can think about vow 2, hooray!

I don't really have an idea of what I want to do for the diamond bases. Any suggestions as to colour/patterns?

[Draakur]

Looking really nice, love seeing people do Harlequins on this board :) Keep it up, they’re going to look smashing when they’re finished!

[Papewaio]

Couple days, no updates, but hey! Now you get one!

Just highlights on the brass and silver to go! (Sort of.) Still stuck on what colours to do the bases in. On the one hand, I'm thinking very dull and drab, to help make the players pop a bit more. On the other, there's a ton of diamonds on the floor, and any fluff reason I can think of for them to be there sort of demands a little bit of colour. Maybe a deep purple? Idk. But I'm hopeful that there's only (maybe) nearly a week or so before I call these guys finished.

hich would be bang on time for the new codex, which I am quietly SUPER FREAKIN HYPED about, and also slightly worried. No one else seems to really care too much, as far as I can see, but that's not super surprising. Oh well. Onwards, to motley!

[Papewaio]

More updates! Still no clue on where the bases are going. All highlighting and everything is done though, so it's now a case of fixing all the mistakes made during the process. And then the fun part...!

All sarcasm aside, these are actually heaps of fun to paint, especially the Shadowseer and Death Jester, miles more fun than the marines I used to have. Let the dance continue!

Low key hyped about the forms and (some) of the leaked stratagems. No real idea on what I'm going to run - leaning towards Midnight Sorrow for more movement shenanigans, although I feel Soaring Spite is probably stronger. But now a freakshow list is basically begging to happen...

Still need thoughts on the colour for the diamonds on the base, 'cause I got nuthin'.

[Papewaio]

Real life has struck, unfortunately, and I haven't been able to progress as fast as I was hoping. On the upshot, I played a couple of games with the leaks and previews from the new codex, and these clowns have some new tricks!

I tried out the Midnight Sorrow rules, but they didn't really come in handy too much. Shadowseers casting twice, though, is a Big Deal. And with haywire cannons now having a reason to exist in the army, Skyweavers have more of a role rather than just screening my Starweavers. So I'm pretty happy, and can't wait to try with everything they get (rather than just cobbled together bits and pieces from photos). I think I'll want to try Soaring Spite, as my gut feeling is that's where the money really is. Although, I've been hearing good things about Dreaming Shadow Death Jester shenanigans....

I still need to highlight the purple, and I'm tossing up whether to bring the yellow down - it almost feels like it's overshadowing the models, although that might just be because of the pattern. Maybe once the motley goes on that might change? I dunno. Only one way to find out.

[Papewaio]

Final update before I try motley. It's actually still really intimidating. Probably not helped by how much I keep saying that. Anyway. Half of the point of doing Harlequins was to help me get better at painting, and as Captain Semper noted, the Aeldari for ETL seem to be striving far more for artistic quality rather than any quantifiable metric. So, there's that, and I don't get to back down on it. Otherwise these guys would already be finished, because even this is beyond the standard I used to aim for.

I'm still not sold on the pale yellow over something a little deeper, but hey, it's growing on me.

[Bryan Blaire]

While it's great to push yourself, if you honestly feel they are done, they look great as is right now! Good show!

 

Can we get some close ups of a choice few?

[Pearson73]

Really liking the chequered bases.

[Papewaio]

Real life has been interfering rather rudely recently, so I haven't been getting as much done as I would have hoped (and it doesn't bode well for a tournament I have coming up in August, painting-wise). And, in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have tried to start learning to do the diamonds on the character models. But! I feel like this is achievable! Hooray!

Apologies for the crappy quality of the pic, my phone decided to make itself an offering to the Omnissiah and I'm stuck with a backup with a crappy camera.

i still need to tidy things up around the motley and other bits and pieces, and then highlight the motley, but then we're done with the first three models!

Also, any recommendations for a matte varnish? Some parts are starting to wear when I handle the models for painting, and these are ones I would really rather no be redoing.

Yay! Progress!

[Papewaio]

First vow is finished!

Some individual photos, starting with the seers. Man, these were actually pretty fun to paint.

Hidden Content

And the seer that usually masquerades as my warlord;

The Death Jester - the best thing I can say about this is that it was great fun to paint! Feels utterly useless on the tabletop though. There is bonus points for the licence to make bad puns during the game.

Hidden Content

Solitaire and Troupe Master - my thinking with the master was that the players change roles all the time, so it is really just the mask and a slightly fancier coat to make him distinct.

Hidden Content

And the rest of the troupe!

Hidden Content

And these two I've taken to calling the twins.

Onwards to vow 2!

[dex_911]

Well done mate. They look great. Keep it up and good luck with Vow 2

[Calyptra]

Also, any recommendations for a matte varnish? Some parts are starting to wear when I handle the models for painting, and these are ones I would really rather no be redoing.

 

If you can get it, the best varnish I've ever used is Mr. Super Clear, from Mr. Hobby. (Also, the name is pretty fantastic.) It's a Japanese product, and apparently there are some distribution issues with it, so I've found its availability to be really inconsistent.

 

I generally use Testors. I spray a coat of gloss varnish for durability and then two or three coats of Testors Dullcote to matte out the gloss, and that usually mostly works.

[Papewaio]

Trying something slightly different for the Troupe Master's cloak - based on a suggestion from Bryan Blaire, to use the pattern from the cards. I'm digging it, but not sure as to how well it will line up with the rest of the masque. I'm tempted to try it on the vehicles as well? Thoughts?

[Papewaio]

Still here! Still painting!

Life and other artistic pursuits have got in the way recently, and I haven't exactly been painting efficiently. More just whatever I feel like doing at the time, so not a lot of progress has been made. But there has been some!

The bikes are nearly done - I just need to finish the red and the white, and touch up the diamonds. I think I'm going to continue that pattern across to the Starweavers as well, just because its different to the same stencil + airbrush = awesome look that everyone else does. Not that it's a bad look, by any means, but I just want to push myself a little more.