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Been playing around with the idea of a Harlequin army for some time now, and I've always wanted to play with a couple wraith lord kits (modeling/painting, as well as in-game).

I found that awesome fan-made Harlequin dex, which I may use for more casual games and general funtiems. I saw the Marionette, and since I'd like to have all my models at least be reasonable counts-as, I figured I'd model some awesome Wraithlords.

The basic idea is this (forgive my awesome MS Paint skills):


I'd likely simplify the strings a LOT.

I figure I could make the strings out of rigid wire, and paint it all ghostly, then mount a crossbar of balsa wood or plasticard modeled like wood, which would get painted wraithbone-y.

Then, I'd have a shadowseer holding a tiny marionette puppet the same color scheme as the Wraithlord(s), possibly in the same pose.


Thoughts?

I think having the shadowseer holding a puppet of it would be cool, but the whole puppet rig mounted on the Wraithlord itself...likely to end up looking really stupid. Give it a try, but I would hold little hope for it looking decent at all.

The other option would be to make the puppet strings/crossbar entirely out of some kind of clear acrylic with painted swirly bits, so it looks ghostly.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
After thinking about it, it would be a lot simpler to do the strings more along these lines:



With clear acrylic for the strings/crossbar, and have the strings sort of fade as they go farther down (shattering + thin wire is my friend). I'd have to figure out how to support it without it looking like a slowed halo though. Done correctly, I think this could look fantastico.

I think it could look really awesome. Instantly I think of psycho From MSG4. I agree the minature puppet idea is really cool, but it might be hard to pull off the wraithlord with the strings and framework.

There isn't any other options in practice other than to have the classical looking crossbar at top with strings. I think anything else will make it hard to instantly recognise as what it is. As for materials for the frame. Id go with something looking like wraithbone for the cross. Have you thought about having the wraithlord slightly hovering off the floor? like a true puppeteer stylie.

What if you attached the shadowseer behind the wraithlord, with wires running from the joints/head of the wraithlord to the hands/head/corresponding joints of the shadowseer? It would look like the wraithlord was mirroring the shadowseers movements, and the connecting wires between the two would give enough stability that it would look like the shadowseer was floating. Holy crap thats an amazing idea: I might just have to do it myself!

Solar Shock wrote:I think it could look really awesome. Instantly I think of psycho From MSG4. I agree the minature puppet idea is really cool, but it might be hard to pull off the wraithlord with the strings and framework.

There isn't any other options in practice other than to have the classical looking crossbar at top with strings. I think anything else will make it hard to instantly recognise as what it is. As for materials for the frame. Id go with something looking like wraithbone for the cross. Have you thought about having the wraithlord slightly hovering off the floor? like a true puppeteer stylie.

I had thought of something like that. The other thing I might do is give the Wraithlord a less decisive posture, with some weakness of pose in the knees, elbows, and wrists. Combined with a bit of floating (I'll have to get a resin base to have something sturdier to mount him into), I think I could make it quite obviously a puppet. I'm back and forth about the material for the crossbar, as I think want the whole construction to look ethereal and ghostly.

Aeroroot wrote:What if you attached the shadowseer behind the wraithlord, with wires running from the joints/head of the wraithlord to the hands/head/corresponding joints of the shadowseer? It would look like the wraithlord was mirroring the shadowseers movements, and the connecting wires between the two would give enough stability that it would look like the shadowseer was floating. Holy crap thats an amazing idea: I might just have to do it myself!

I like the idea in concept, but I think it would get complicated too quickly, primarily because of the wires I'll be using for keeping stuff afloat might get confused for additional puppet strings.

Instead of having the crossbar up top, you could have strings attached to the arms/legs/etc. that taper off to nowhere heading up, giving the illusion that there is an invisible puppeteer up in the sky. Paining the strings with a fade, plus a loose-jointed stance on the WL will give the illusion of a puppet, without spelling it out. While it might be interesting to have the actual crossbar suspended above the mini, I think in the end it would looking goofy and detract from the model overall.

Fun concept, but I think you need to be careful in the execution. Done right, you can make this awesome, but if you fall short, it's just going to be silly. Just my opinion, YMMV.

That's another good idea, and probably easier to pull off beautifully than trying to suspend the crossbar somehow without making it look super silly.

The spiritseer will likely always be nearby the Wraithlord anyhow, which will help give the impression of a puppet. The only thing I have to figure out is how many strings to attach, and how thick they should be.
In the case that they actually do attach, I think I'd need to simplify it and attach only to the elbows and knees, as more than four is going to look super crowded.

Here's a little mockup:

You could always have a GIANT plushy Cegorach hat that is holding some cross bar controls while you play

I think this last rendition is perfect.

I would love to have a giant Cegorach plushie D:<

I actually have some thin blue acrylic rods I could use for a test model. They're the same thickness as a necron warrior gun rod (indeed that's what they were originally for)

i really like the idea,go for it.

but leave the crossbar away and just use the strings in different lengths

Another option is to make it with thin brass rods, drilling them into the joints. that way they remain sturdier and are harder to break (just bend them back.)

paint them a very faint light ghostly color with some fun time OSL, then fade them out near the top or whatever.

It reminds me of a similar concept I saw years ago with a Golden Demon entry (it may even have won, I can't remember). It was a Harlequin wraithlord, I believe, sat on a rock of some sort playing with a small puppet on a string (which was an Epic scale Wraithlord). It looked very good but sadly, Google has failed me and I can't find the pictures.

Desubot wrote:Another option is to make it with thin brass rods, drilling them into the joints. that way they remain sturdier and are harder to break (just bend them back.)

paint them a very faint light ghostly color with some fun time OSL, then fade them out near the top or whatever.

I'd very much like to use acrylic rods, and I think with some heat magic, I can actually tie them around the joints, which could look pretty awesome.

filbert wrote:It reminds me of a similar concept I saw years ago with a Golden Demon entry (it may even have won, I can't remember). It was a Harlequin wraithlord, I believe, sat on a rock of some sort playing with a small puppet on a string (which was an Epic scale Wraithlord). It looked very good but sadly, Google has failed me and I can't find the pictures.

That is a very good idea! I'm gonna end up spending so much money on Ebay for epic minis, I have so many projects that I want tiny models for <.<

Is this the one you meant?

Does anyone here have any experience bending smaller acrylic rods?

I found this info (basically what I had imagined, just heat and bend), but does anyone know at what angle the bend will become unstable?
http://www.ehow.com/how_6352105_bend-acrylic-rod.html

I'm basically wondering if a small enough rod can be tied in a knot.

Another option would to use string, and then soak it in glue to get it to hold it's shape.

That is a very good point. I could do some fun things with string/chain/similar.

Chains of fate actually sound cool.

I bet you I could find some clear plastic acrylic chains, and glue them rigid. That could look pretty awesome.

With a bit of thread necromancy...


Painting competition at my FLGS got me inspired to actually follow through on this model. Started working on it, but got stuck trying to figure out how to pose it.

The basic idea around the army is that they are sentinels of the Black Library, explaining (sort of) why they have things like Marionettes (Wraithlords). I have a spare Necron Tomb Blade, and my initial instinct was to have my Marionette side-kicking the pilot out of the bike, but the more I sketched out the pose, the stupider it looked. Now I'm thinking one of the following:
a) Marionette stabbing through the Tomb Blade into the ground (using a heat knife to bore a blade-shaped hole through the bike/pilot, giving that melted metal look which I can paint accordingly)
b) Marionette jump-kicking the pilot out of the bike (issue here becomes how to pose him off the ground)
c) Marionette cutting the bike/pilot in half, or in process thereof (same heat knife process as before, also eliminates the need for flying stands as the bike can be mounted on the sword itself)
d) Or something... completely different.

I'll see about doing some mockups, though I'm not sure how helpful they'll be

As always, feedback, tips, advice, enthusiastic encouragement, and soul-crushing discouragement welcome.