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I just purchased a box of harlequins, a shadowseer, and was blessed enough to have a good friend give me an old-school harlequin to round out the squad at an even 8 miniatures.

I'm looking at these miniatures...and honestly I cannot fathom how I'm going to paint them. I am intimidated at the prospect of painting them, and I am by no means a poor painter. Not golden demon quality either, but my stuff is above average tabletop quality.

So I come here, fellow dakkaites, with a simple plea. What tips or tricks can I glean from the masters here? Please share your wisdom!

Thanks in advance everyone, and wish me luck, I'll try and post pictures as I can, if I can.

Take it easy.

-Red__Thirst-

Any pics of your current stuff? I don't have any sense of what you are going for or your style.

Honestly it depends on what you want to do with them. I play with a guy who took all his hallequins and painted them every loud color that he could, and made sure they didnt match. Neon greens, bright pinks, yellows, whites, electical blues. He tried his best to make them a visual assault.

Ive also seen patterns done on them that were pretty cool. Checker patterns, zigzags, pinstripes, even small details like smilie faces placed randomly.

One thing I would suggest is to make the masks white and paint emotions on them, you know, the happy, sad, crying, all of those. If you have ever seen the kids show, reeboot, think hexadecimal.

Just have fun with it, read up on their fluff, there are some suggestions as to how to paint them

Here are a couple pics of some Harlies that we did recently. I hope you get some inspiration from them!
(edit: Sorry about the wonky formatting, I'm still getting used to the new Dakka interface...)
Jim

Sorry about the confusion Jim, I promise in a few months we'll have the gallery fully up and running and then this will all be much easier.

But look on the bright side, by attaching the pictures to your post they automatically upload to the front page of Dakka. And on that front page if people click on of your pictures it takes them straight to this thread.

How cool is that!

I am more of a fan of the black and white mime/french clown looks for harlequins rather than the "4 year old allowed to dress themselves" look. The latter is just too much, particularly for the supposedly more elegant eldar. Orks, maybe, but they just look too silly other wise. Harlequin is French for "hell rider" after all.

I agree with Wehr. The mime look is more intimidating.

That is pretty cool, Yak. I was just worried I'd get yelled at for breaking the thread!

Jim

I'm playing Ulthwe' themed eldar, and my color pallet is fairly simple and traditional for Ulthwe'

Black, greys (for highlights) reds, bone white, and a splash of yellow with minimal metallics.

I'm looking at the miniatures, and I'm thinking of trying to do a red-bone white-black scheme with some yellows mixed in sparingly. Sort of the mime effect that was suggested earlier

I'm working through the assembly now, which is rather tedious to be blunt, but is going well overall. Once I get them put together, I'll base-coat them and try to get a couple of pictures up for all to see.

Sufficient to say, Wish me luck

Take it easy guys, and thanks for the suggestions and pictures! I really appreciate it.

-RT-

I'd avoid check patterns and the like, that type of scheme has a very high difficulty rating. Go for block colours, and maybe stripes if you're feeling confident.

I'd recommend the opposite.

Diamonds are much easier to do than most people think.

First, paint the whole model, however you want.

Then, paint all the surfaces that you want to be covered in diamonds white. This gives you a flat surface to work on, which other colours will look bright over.

Next, draw the grid. This, too, is easier than most people think. I learned how while doing all the checker-board patterns on my orks. Go to an art store, like Michaels, or Hobby Lobby, and look for a Micron Ink Pen. A Black .005 pen is the best size for this.

Use the ink pen to draw the lines, rather than trying to paint them, it's much easier.

You're doing this over contoured surfaces though, so it's a little harder than just doing a straight line. Draw one diamond, of the size that you're aiming for. Then, simply extend the lines outward, adding additional diamonds as you go.

If they're not all exactly the same size, it doesn't matter, because once you paint them, people's eyes will be fooled into thinking they are. It's a sort of optical illusion that works to your benefit.

Once you have the diamonds done, it's a simple matter to fill them in And, if you want to go the extra step, you can then add the tiny highlights on each diamond.

Use the ink pen to draw the lines, rather than trying to paint them, it's much easier

You gave almost the EXACT advice I'd give... except that I'd suggest a mechanical pencil.
If you mess up a line with one of these, it's FAR easier to fix than with a micron pen.

Eric

I paint an X first to establish the first diamonds, then go from there. I used a brush thinned quite a bit. If doing black and white, always lay down white and do black diamonds or checks over it, just works out better.

Here is my work in progress pics. They aren't near as hard as you would think.

Quick update:

I've finished assembly, and have basecoated the miniatures in a nice bleached bone color spraypaint. I bought it for a totally non-40k related use, but had it stuck in with my basing paints and decided to give it a try.

It worked beautifully, if not a touch on the glossy side. However, after a quick application of a thinned coat of bleached bone to the miniatures, they are in a great state to facilitate further painting.

No pictures as yet, but I'll try and get some before I go any farther on them beyond slapping basing on them and getting the bases painted black.

I appreciate the thoughts and examples given thus far. And those harlies look pretty spiffy there Toreador, nice work I'd love to see them finished once you get them there.

Till then, take 'er easy everyone.

-RT-

Hokay...so.

I've tried my hand at checkers...and am starting to see that I'm going to really need to develop a technique for doing this. I tried to take a mechanical pencil to the mini and put a pattern down, but am having a hard time keeping things uniform.

Of course I'm a perfectionist...so this is kind of irking me. However, that said, on a flat surface, I'm pretty satisfied with what I've got. Needs to be cleaned up a little, but shouldn't be an issue. My biggest problem is painting the checker over a curved or rounded surface like a bent leg.

So could anyone out there offer specific advice on how to get past this conundrum?

Thanks for any advice in advance, appreciate it.

Take 'er easy.

-RT-

I think the diamond pattern police coming around with measuring devices is amusing.

'HEY YOU! THIS DIAMOND IS A SQUARE!'

Ok so you want to 'draw' on your model more effectively.

There are 3 ways to improve, besides just practicing on sprue.

1) Get a vice clamp and lock the model down.
2) Get a vice clamp that you can spin in place, thus moving the model--and hold your hand very steady.
3) Get a vice set that allows you to spin one set while rotating the other.

Believe me when I say, practicing on spare sprues is much better.

Doing this when you've been painting for a long time (and your hands are tired) is 'bad'. Do it when you're fresh, and you'll get the hang of it.

Holding the fig in one hand, and drawing with the other...also 'bad'. Get yourself a way to lock the model in place and rotate it. Me, I put it on a piece of cork, stick a dowel in said cork, and lock it into a rotating vice and spin as I draw.

It's a bit excessive but it does make things neat.