Send in the clowns

I finally borrowed Agnès's camera for a decent picture of the Masque of Joyful Lament, part 1. Yes, at the back is an avatar, painted by our own Manu about twenty years back if I remember correctly. One day, when the Masque is fully assembled and I can develop allied formations, I'll set up a barebones Craftworld CAD to use the Avatar (and have objective secured), and possibly a Dark Eldar CAD to have Raiders (because they're gorgeous and can carry ten harlies at a time). But for now, I'm waiting for my second set of murderclowns, somewhere in the mail...

Happy holidays!

Clown Cars

So, painting vehicles has always scared me. Back in old times, vehicles cost a LOT, and they were half-ton lumps of metal that could crush your other minis if they fell on them. As a result, I never really painted vehicles, except for a war walker that was basically a bigger infantry mini.

But then I checked out this video, and that's the one responsible for making me want to paint (and play) harlequins again. So I used its technique and went ahead. This was also the first time I ever used an airbrush and by God it is so much fun!

So onwards with pictures.

Step 1: cut out 1cm*1cm diamonds from a strip of masking tape.

Not shown: stick the little masking tape diamonds to your models, trying to make a symmletrical pattern.

Step 2: airbrush the un-diamoned parts of the models.

Step 3: airbrush a first layer over the diamonded parts

Step 4: start the blend with a second, darker, layer

Step 5: finish the blend with a third layer

Then comes the fun part: carefully peeling off the little diamonds of masking tape, to reveal the white undercoat. It is CRUCIAL you do this after a long while, to make sure the airbrush paint is absolutely dry and solid. Man, Harlequins teach you patience.

Then put on the bits you'd taken out and brush-painted beforehand (riders, jet engines, weapons etc.) It's still missing a couple of highlights and transfers, but this is what you get for a fairly easy day's work:

Colours: Tamiya White (spray), Prince August Air Electric Blue, Magic Blue, Imperial Blue (airbrush). Details: Citadel Genestealer Purple.

Starring roles

The Funeral Page, Death Jester

(a better picture than the previous version).

Exeunt Stage Right, Shadowseer

(I'm still not certain about the ribbons, as I played with paint consistencies to get weird patterns. I might just redo them entirely into a linear blend of purples).

The Lone Chorister, Twilight Troupe Master and Warlord of the Masque

(This one was taken from the Voidweaver's gunner, but I decided only Troupe Masters should have long coats and his was the longest, therefore the best)

Eldrad Ulthran, High Farseer of Ulthwe

(also a well-known dick).

No Solitaire yet, but it will come. Oh yes... it will come.

The Fab Four

Ca fait un bout de temps non?

Bonjour à tous.


J'ai des souci pour avancer sur mes fiers Death Guard, à mon avis une baisse de motivation passagère, nul doute que la flamme ( flemme ?) va revenir.

Pour garder le blog  sur la bonne voie ( merci Gaël),voici un petit point d'étape  qui illustre parfaitement  bien ma faiblesse sur- naturelle envers GW.....


J'ai craqué.....


Pour du Blooooooood Booooooooowl! (oui je suis faible).

La boite de Skaven ohhhh qu'elle est belle.


Et je vais avoir le plaisir de vous faire un pas a pas de Skaven.

D'abord voici le contenu de la grappe. Du très beau,  les figs sont très dynamiques. On regrettera éventuellement le fait qu'il n'y ait qu'une pose de coureur des égouts et une pose de vermine de choc.

En plus des figs de très très bonne qualité, il y a des token des ballons spécifiques pour chaque équipe! C'est épique non?



Ensuite, quand on monte des figs avec GW il y a besoin de  (tout) ça.

De bas en haut. Limes, une paire de pinces coupante, colle plastique, cutter, trucs pour ebarber.

Et bien.... les figs GW sur blood bowl sont TELLEMENT bien faites qu'on a besoin uniquement de la pince coupante et du cutter pour enlever les ptit bitognos.

Les pièce s'ajustent toute seule entre elles, pas besoin de colle ce qui est un vrai plus pour l'étape suivante.

Photo pourrie prise pour montrer l'équipe. Oui 4 coureur des égouts.

La peinture (enfin la sous couche déjà).

Mon équipe s'appellera la XIIIème ( et pas la croix trois batonsième).
Bientôt ,la peinture de la figurine test.

Drumroll, please

Ladies and Gentlemen, for one night only on your battlefield, coming from the faraway Black Library, the stupendous, the amazing, the world-famous Masque of Joyful Lament!

Day Troupe, led by the Beast of the Dust Palace

Night Troupe, led by the Silent Herald

The Funeral Page

Main colours: Tamiya White, Game Color (Vallejo) Electric Blue, Citadel Genestealer Purple, Citadel Waystone Green.

Main wash: diluted Prince August Transparent Blue. Main drybrush lighting: Game Color Pallid Blue.

Now on to vehicles...

Legging it

After some base-coating and painting, it was time for real-conditions test for the varnish stamp technique. Here are the early results. I had not assembled the minis themselves, as to apply the stamp, you really want to have as much room to maneuver around your piece as you can; even so, you can't always reach all of it. I have not yet decided what to do with the spaces the stamp won't reach. Freehand them? Leave them be? After all, the holo-field on a harlequin's suit doesn't have to cover every inch, does it?

So, when it works (like the thighs of the bottom-left and middle legs), it *really* works. In a couple of seconds you get a beautiful, neat, geometric pattern. When it doesn't (everywhere else), it looks miserable and you might as well repaint the whole area. 

In this first batch I had to repaint most of the lower legs and sometimes all of the legs. Overall, about 2 out of 6 legs were good on the first go, which is not bad for a first "real" attempt.

At this point, I'm thinking I just need to practice and try again until it looks good. Stamping is a particular knack. It has to be done quickly and smoothly, with no corrections mid-stroke (although you can correct a little afterwards with a thin brush and paint or varnish, depending on the area). I figure once I get it down, it will make things considerably easier, quicker and neater. At least that's the hope.

Choix des armes: harlequins

So, a little about me. When we were all young and stupid and playing 40k because miniatures were less complicated than girls, I was by far the worst painter of our little bunch. I mean, I was not a good player by any stretch either, but that was far outpaced by my atrocious painting. Manu was always good, and Dimitri progressed fast, but I was the one who basically slathered my minis in thick coats of shiny stuff and it had to do.

Now it's twenty years later. I haven't played 40k for decades. I haven't painted a mini since I did a small lizardman Blood Bowl team five years ago. And as I said, I was never that good to begin with.

So what do I go for? Of course when the bug bit me again I would go for THE hardest to paint army in the whole game: Eldar Harlequins.

This was basically suicide. But then my partner, Agnès, came up with an idea. Now Agnès can do anything. I mean, anything. She has mastered sewing, tatting, crochet, papier mâché, nail art, felt-making, and above all, polymer clay (check her out here  and here ). She excels at taking a technique developed for a medium and applying it to another.

So when I told her about the harlequins' notorious freehand patterning, after she took a pitying look at me, she said: "you know nail art people do this all the time, right?".

And indeed, there is a method called stamping which seems like it would work. Of course, it's designed for flatter surfaces than your basic harlequin, but it looks very promising. So you'll see me try to apply it on this blog.

To tide you over, here are a few (low-quality) pictures:

Some tests for the patterns. I ended up choosing the Briar Wood polish, from a-england, along with a triangular/square pattern.

Jim-Bob, my first test subject. An old pewter mini, stripped and repainted as a test before I move on to the plastic Death Masque set.

Jim-Bob's legs demonstrating early tests of stamp applications.

See you soon for the next step - I just bought my Tamiya base-coat spray.