Harlequin Conversions w/ Display Board multirama! (updated: 3/28/07) (WARNING: Pic Heavy!)

[Forgottenhero]

Harlequin Conversions w/ Display Board multirama! (updated: 3/28/07) (WARNING: Pic Heavy!)

Hey there! This is my first WIP ive posted on the internet so please bear w/ me... First of all i want to say that i absolutely love the new harlequin models, but im too impatient to wait for them so ive decided to convert a whole squad of 10. I\'ve only done about 3 rough conversions so far and am about to start a 4th. Im going to fill in the gaps of the knees and such w/ Green stuff as soon as i finish the last rough conversion. (pics of the harlies coming in next post). Well here is the board so far...

Not too bad right now considering its only taken me about an hour to cut out the foam and the foamcore for the frame. This is a pic of the entire board layer by layer.

For the rough edges and surfaces on the foam, i just scraped a simple hobby knife across the surfaces until it fractured and cracked. Im trying to get as much texture in there as i can. This next picture is a closeup of the hill and its \"river\" (which will be put in later).

Those little metal washers embedded into the hillside are actually set in with wood glue so that i can put models with magnetized bases in them (i still wanna use my harlies in battle you know! ).

This picture shows my outline of what i roughly want the final product to look like. Sorry about the horrible photoshop skills but oh well! I will be filling in the crack in the hill with GW water effects or some other water simulation product (any suggestions?). Also, i want to have a fence or something of the sort seperating the hill from the \"Ruins\", as well as a small road near the IG outpost/sandbags with lampposts along it. Ive still got a long way to go with this one but i think it will turn out magnificently!

P.S. I was trying to make the one harlequin near the ruins to look like she was pushing off of the wall and about to kick a guardsman in the face... Oh and only 3 of those models on there are the actual conversions, the Guardians are standing in right now just as replacements. How loyal they are! :innocent:

 

[Aidan K]

Looking forward to following this!! Cool idea!

In my experience, Woodland Scenics water effects is far superior to GW water stuff, so you may want to look into this.

 

[Forgottenhero]

pic update!

Hey again! ive got some (fairly horrible) pictures of my harlequin conversions so far. I hope you enjoy!
These first 3 are from the Harlequin who will be vaulting off of the side of the ruin...

This one is the same model, but on its base. This is how it will look on the tabletop when in play. I wanted to make this conversion versatile in the fact that i could make it look like its doing 2 different things.

The next couple will be of the \"running pose\" harlequin and the Harlequin w/ a kiss. Please enjoy! (and dont be afraid to comment and/or use constructive criticism! :beer

I hope you are satisfied with today\'s update! Please stay tuned for more Eldar greatness!

P.S. Thanks a bunch for the suggestion about the Woodland Scenics Water Effect. I will look more into that product!:yes:

 

[DaN]

ALL water effects products = Horribly expensive!

Can get brilliant effects (If you\'re painting is good enough) from plaster, and if you just want a flat river with no ripples, PVA will go over a decently gradiated river bed.

 

[Forgottenhero]

New Update!

Hey everyone! It\'s time for another update! I know you\'re excited to find out whats goin\' on with the project so far so here ya go!

Since my last update, I\'ve been quite busy...
I decided to abandon the whole \"road and lamppost\" idea for something a little more solid. Instead of having the road, ive added an extra hill to the left side and drew out quick plans for an Imperial Entrenchment. Simple sandbags won\'t suffice in the 41st millenium now will they!?
To build the emplacement, i\'ve cut 2 pieces of polysterene. One is curved and the other straight. This should give the basic shape of the wall. Ive made the curved part a little lower so that the sentry gun could \"pivot\" more easily over it.

I then cut out 1\" X 2\" plates of plasticard to simulate plasteel armor for the trench. Then i cut 2mm X 2mm squares of plasticard to glue on as rivets so that the plates look a little more real.

So then I glued each of the plates onto the walls so they layed diagonally flat along the surface.

Also, I began cutting out the larger rocks for the terrain on the other end of the board. I used the same polysterene foam and cut it into rough 1\" by 1/2\" rectangles. Then i used my hobby knife to whittle the pieces down into more natural looking shapes.

After all this, I glued on all of the rivets using super glue and traced out all of the infantry positions on the board so I could cut them out later.

I then cut out those traces using a compass cutter (to achieve more perfect circles). I placed some other hardboard underneath the main foamcore where I had cut so that I could glue the metal washers into place. Being finished with most of the rough construction, I then glued on the ruins and each of the metal washers into their places.

This picture shows how far I had gotten (sorry that there is no closer picture... I\'ll have on in the next post).

I thank you all for your comments and views on my project. I will try to have more (and better) pictures in my next post, which should be tomorrow. Tonight I\'m going to glue on all of the rocks, work on more detail in the buildings and trench, as well as detail the hills and ground. I look forward to all of your comments (good and bad) and I cannot wait until my own next post! lol have a great night!

 

[ZapotekE]

Hi there! must comment on this one...

It\'s looking great so far, and looks like you\'ve done some dioramas and such before?! but (yea there\'s a but - sorry) I think you\'ve fallen into one of the golden rules about dios: it\'s too symetrical, everything is lined, parallell, with the edges of the board. This makes it kind of \"flat\", boring if you like.

you have it going with different leves - hills and ruins - but if you just would have tweaked them away from the straight lines then it will be more intresting.

Don\'t get me wrong here, I don\'t want you to feel bad or anything, I\'ve done that mistake my self and I think you can still \"save\" it... I mean you could loose the frame u have and get a more square one and put the base inside but not symetrical. Do you see what I mean? Not shure if I have made my self clear, hard to put in another language than your own...

Hope I have not ruined your day...

//ZapotekE

 

[Forgottenhero]

thanks!

Heavens no you havent ruined my day! Thats exactly the type of comment i was looking for... I see what you mean about the linear thing, and i think i can fix it if maybe i kinda slant the back hill diagonally so the \"stream\" isn\'t parallel with the trech lines. Ah but alas! In my haste to reply I had forgotten that i already moved onto detailing and sand placement... so i might have to rip it all apart. Im going to post another update tonight with more pics if you want to see what it looks like now. It doesnt look as \"linear\". I really appreciate the criticism too b/c i knew something looked out of place but i couldnt place my finger on it. Thanks!

P.S. I haven\'t done any sort of diorama before ^_^ i feel special!

 

[Forgottenhero]

yet ANOTHER update! can ya believe it?!

Hey there kids! Time for another fun-filled *cough* update! Things have gotten a bit busy so i haven\'t been able to do much, but its looking better regardless.

So \'ere we go!

Here we have one of the main things I\'ve done to the project, and that is that i\'ve ground up some old sprues from GW models and made \"bricks and rubble\" from them. Just glueing them in place with some wood glue does wonders i tell ya! I also added some small bits like a backpack, a canteen, and a knife lying on the ground/up against the rubble.

Another part of the rubble addition, its just some rocks and more rubble, with an Imperial Guardsman\'s helmet in the dirt.

This is a closer picture of the sand, gravel, and rock additions I\'ve made to the west end of the board. It gives the terrain a bit more of a natural feel to it.

And here we have some larger shots of the whole board so far. Its coming along quite nicely if i do say so my self... although I do wish i wouldve waited a bit more so that i could have re-done some of the positioning as one of my commentor\'s suggested. But what can ya do?
On a side note: im sorry about the lack of harlequin-ness on this WIP, and im going to try to convert more of them very very soon! don\'t worry! :-D

(Oh and by the way! I am still needing some INPUT as to where i can place the barbed wire!!! the wire in the pix is just placed there as of this moment until i find the perfect place for it! Thanks very much!)

Well that\'s all folks! I\'ll see ya next time!

 

[Manus]

Put the wire in front if the imp.stronghold but in two or three rows. You could also do a gateway/acces point with some other blockage in the middle of your razorwire. Looking forward to see the result

 

[Forgottenhero]

New Update!

Hello again kids! It\'s time for another fun filled (and quite short) update!

Nothing horribly exciting this time around, I\'ve just finished some small detailing and i do believe that i am finished with all of the pre-primer details! Do you know what that means? Yep! you guessed it! PAINT SOON! :-D Im so excited!

First of all I fixed the barbed wire into permanent position using super glue and old bits of sprue. All i did was stick the \"posts\" in the ground and wrap the wire around it in the appropriate place so it looks crude, yet battle-ready. I tried to make the wire as non-linear as possible just to try and correct the problem which was pointed out to me earlier. Here are some pix...

Also, I added a little more detail in the imperial trench. I started off by making a little \"over the top\" ladder for infantry so that they can get in and out of the trench easily. Second, i added some foot grips along the top of the barricade in front of the ladder. You should be able to see that in the first picture (but if you can\'t, please forgive my bad picture skills.)

Now then, for when i add water effects i wanted to make sure that it didn\'t look like flat land under the water. To simulate mud and bumps, i spread wood glue along the river bed and the other open, flat areas.

You can pretty much fabricate any sort of texture using random household objects or pastes. For most of mine, I use wood glue or cut up pieces of sprues and even the shavings off of my foamcore and styrofoam when i make terrain. Oh, and before the glue dried i sprinkle a VERY thin layer of rocks on it so that it will add that little touch of texture.

And last but not least here is an overall picture of what it looks like now. It may look messy, but pictures never ever do anything justice.

I hope you\'ve enjoyed today\'s update on this project log... please tune in very soon for another!

(P.S. I\'m still working on concept for the future harlie conversions, but I ran into a block. But someone wise once told me that \"You can never truly create the perfect character without first knowing, understanding, and seeing the setting.\"
So after deliberating on that notion, ive decided to go ahead and finish the display board ASAP so that i can imagine what to do next.)

Bye for now!

 

[lono]

You really need to use some kind of filler to smooth out the transitions around the hills and banks of ground. At the moment the edges are too obvious. You should make sure the entire scene\'s ground area is a flowing, undulating plane instead of lumps of raised areas that you have stuck in place, otherwise it will look completely unnatural.

Also I take it that you are going to add sand to the entire base before you paint it, or do you intend to try something different?

Oh yeah, and the Harlequin bouncing off the wall is a cool idea.

 

[Forgottenhero]

Actually, i was planning on putting a very thin layer of water effects around the banks and building and trench... sort of in the \"no mans land\" in the middle. I will be trying to convey a picture of a marshland or wetland. Thus, i wont need a lot of gravel on the ground, just simply a lot of mud! :-D Good idea? Bad idea? reply soon! :-D

 

[Forgottenhero]

Please HELP!

Does anyone have any suggestions on paint layers for the hills and ground? Such as dark to light or any other excellent paint combo that would suggest a marsh-like color? I\'m close to beginning painting the entire piece and was just wondering what everyone thought.
Thanks!

 

[Forgottenhero]

New Update!

Hey there again! sorry about the late update but ive been VERY busy lately. Anyways... this one is a bit short and not very potent but it\'s still a good update nonetheless! Since my last post, i\'ve managed to convert another harlequin! /cheer for most people b/c i know you are itching to see some more rough conversions... Anyways Ive also painted up MOST of the display board, sorry for the bad pix.

Now i know that this new conversion doesn\'t look all that special but dont worry! ill be green stuffing a cape and such on him soon! (He is supposed to be a death jester btw)

This pic is showing off the hills and rock color choices i used. I also painted the riverbed and muckbed with some icky colors so that it will show through the water effects. (FYI i used a black undercoat w/ progressive highlights of codex grey and fortress gray one after the other...)

And this is showing my \"attempt\" at NMM on the barricade... It came out looking more like marble or stone in the long run but it still looks cool to me anyways. I also painted up the spikes and barbed wire. (the one spike in the middle has a bit of blood and theres a blood spatter on the wall, a poor guardsman will be impaled upon that spike ^_^ ) Oh and forgive the HORRIBLE picture, trust me the barbed wire looks much better in person! (i was going for a rusted look)
Well thats it for now! please tune in for the next update! bye!

 

[Talion]

Looking good the display bases it looking very good.

I\'ve noticed you\'re not using actual Harlequin mini\'s but Dire Avengers ones.

Also Harlequin\'s don\'t show their faces, so you may want to take that into account when making conversions.

 

[Forgottenhero]

I know \'bout their faces ^_^ but thanks a bunch for the help though! I was planning on putting some GS on the \"death jester\"s face so that it would look like a crazy skull mask (like in the codex). Also, that one dude with a mohawk and no helmet is going to get a big oval faceplate! :-D

(oh yea and part of my thinking into using some DA bits and Dark Eldar bits was that the Harlies normally get all of their new recruits from any of the Eldar race, which includes Dark Eldar. So I think that an eldar who was asked to become a harlequin of the black library wouldn\'t say no. Thus, these could just be newly inducted harlequins...)