Test Mini: Harlequin Skyweaver

My first Skyweaver has come along enough to be photographed... Technically this is a WIP because I still need to do some work on it but it was worthy of being snapped for a blog post. I am not that happy with the two riders which could have ended up looking a bit nicer, but overall I am happy with this as a test piece. I have three more to do it this batch, and the next one will be reversed so that the main chassis is red and the detailing is green.

Harlequin Troupe: Complete

After the two test minis which I've done over the last couple of weeks, I've completed my first Harlequin Troupe... Actually this will probably end up being half a troupe, because I will most likely run them in 12s. There was more that I could have done on these, but overall I was happy with the look of the unit as a whole and it was time to move on.

I am now working on another test mini, this time a Skyweaver from what will eventually be a unit of four. After that it will be time to tackle some of the single minis from this release... I am particularly looking forward to doing the Shadowseer.

Harlequin Test Mini No.2

Just a quick post this week. I've completed my second Harlequin test mini so I thought I'd post a few pictures. I am not entirely pleased with this mini, but I am still road-testing the paint scheme so that's to be expected. I really enjoyed doing the checks and this is definitely my favourite thing about doing Harlequins.

My first troupe is well on its way to being finished, and the whole squad will be my next blog post. I'll also post a final picture of the Troupe Leader who is having a bit more work before going into a painting competition in our local GW. I prefer to blog on a variety of models, but I am afraid that for a while its going to be Harlequins, Harlequins and more Harlequins while I work on what will be my third gaming army. (To my shame my Tau army remains less than half finished, but that will have to be tackled another time.)

Test Mini: Harlequin Troupe Master

The new Harlequin releases have caught me off guard somewhat. I am a big fan of Rogue Trader style minis, and I am a big fan of GW's current range of plastics. The current range of new stuff is the best of both worlds and I am so impressed that I am thinking of painting and collecting a full army. I've painted up a troupe master as a test mini.

Originally I said that I wasn't brave enough to attempt diamond checks, but I have been practising my freehand for the last year and in the end I got the nerve together to give it a go. In the end I didn't find it anywhere near as difficult as I was expecting, although it is rather time consuming.

This mini isn't entirely finished. Our local GW is running a Harlequin painting competition at the end of the month, so I am going to add some more freehand to him before he goes in, but this is about the standard I am aiming for with the bulk of the stuff that I am planning to paint.

The purple  and white texture based was an experiment, and although it is growing on me I will trying something a lot more tradition out next before I make a decision about how the whole army will look.

I will probably add some free hand to the back of the cloak and do some highlighting work on the ribbons before he goes off to be judged. I will also be trying to improve the gems and metallics a lot which are rather basic at the moment.

Update:

Here's a quick snap showing the grid for the checks on another mini from this squad. It looks pretty awful at this stage, but that's fine because there's plenty of opportunity to tidy them up as you fill the checks in. I start the red checks off using GW Khorne Red which has a nice strong coverage and is great for smoothing out a shaky diamond or two!