Showcase: Harlequin Player of The Masque of the Dance without End

At last, I completed reworking my Ultramarines, so it is about time for a new challenge. I’ve had a couple of plastic Harlequin models sitting around for quite some time now, but never got around to painting them. I’ve had several Masques in mind, including Soaring Spite, Silent Shroud and custom ones, but in the end I settled for The Dance without End. Their paint scheme allowed me to pick up several colours from both my Craftworld Iybraesil and Dark Eldar models, and I like their background. As Iybraesil is obsessed with exploring long lost maiden worlds, I imagine they must quite ofte encounter The Dance without End on their travels, as this Masque is familiar with the deepest and strangest reaches of the webway.

Painting-wise, I tweaked the scheme a little bit from what is seen in the codex. I used magenta instead of purple, as magenta is also a spot colour on my Iybraesil models. I went for a stripe pattern instead of diamonds, as it is a bit easier to paint, but I might mix several patterns for more variety. As you can see, the heart on the knee pad denotes the Troupe as a Troupe of Twilight, so I used a suitable enigmated mask with a split design. I imagine that the Troupes of Light tend to wear the laughing and comedic masks, the Troupes of Darkness the sad, angry and skull masks, and the Troupes of Twilight the split and enigmatic masks.

How do you like my test model? Leave your comments and suggestions before I start the mass production 😉