"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Tickclockman

Those opposed to SciFi or The Beast (GW) should turn away now.  The recent games of Necromunda with The Boy, have me waxing Nostalgic about my old 40k collection.  I dug around to see what remained in the bits box, and came up with a few unfinished Eldar Harlequins from back in the late 80's/Early 90's.  In one of those strange moments of synchronicity, the Realm of the 80's Oldhammer blog recently published an interview with Darren Matthews the GW "golden age" studio painter responsible for painting the original boxed set models.

The original models always struck me as walking right off the stage from any given Glam-rock band of the late 80's:  Big hair, flamboyant (and androgynous) clothes, garish colors. and lots of make-up.  They also made a great counter-point to the Gothic "grim-dark" setting full of dark and angry warriors.  These guys actual worship "The Laughing God" so you know they up to a good time.

I also enjoyed painted these guys for the same reason I paint Battletech figs from time to time.  Color schemes I can otherwise never use especially when painting historical figs.  I chose to go with the traditional mix of bright colors and patterns as a quick scan of the newest GW models show a group reverting to a uniform  palette of two limbs with 3 color checker pattern and the rest in black.