Dragon it out

...aaaand that's a wrap.

Last of the High Elves painted, although I've still got the bases and movement trays to finalise before the job's a good 'un. Save the best until last, right?

Squaaaaaaaw. I assure you, chaps, that I'm sounding this horn and not drinking steadily from it. 

I really enjoyed this project. It surprised me, I'm usually a Forces of Destruction sort of chap. Painting a lot of shiny good guys was much more entertaining than I expected, especially as I've always felt rather sneery about sappy High Elves. But the models are a good lot, and it's been good to practice some new stuff. Gold and gems are the new skulls and spikes.

The cream of elven chivalry. Which is why their helmets double as kites.

All the shield options are dragon-based. Although mostly random bits of dragon, like they've just ridden into one at great speed and haven't stopped to clean it off yet. 

Good kit, this, although a devil to take off the sprue. Lots of thin spines and very thin, flexible pennants, and very easy to snap or cut through something that turns out to be fine detail. Each of those riders is fifteen or sixteen pieces, amazingly. with not a lot of spare bits out of the 97 in the box.

Champion. So a magic sword and extra gold trim on the shield, so that Chaos types know who to challenge.  

These Dragon Princes are (unsurprisingly) red, gold and yellow. With blue gems. Flat out shocker, I know. After doing the light cavalry in appropriately light tones, I thought these guys should look heavy and expensive. Dark brown horses and a ton of shimmery bronzer, then.

A big fireball emblem. If they were motorbikes, they'd have it on their fenders. 

Painting Guide:

• No surprises and a smaller number of retreats than average, thanks in part to their special psychology rules. Reds, Yellows, Silvers, Golds, Skin, Hair and Gems all holding to previously established norms for this army. 
• The nicest thing about them was that after doing all the fiddly spikes in painstaking red and gold, I slapped Agrax Earthshade over pretty much the entire model. Brown works as a shade for all the base colours I used, so I could be really really slapdash with the washes. I enjoy slapdashery.
• Horses - Rhinox Hide, Abaddon Black hair, Ushabti Bone hooves with a heavy Brown Ink wash.
• Lances - White Scar, Nuln Oil wash for recesses and then more White Scar layers until it stopped looking dirty.
• Banner - There's a bit of Slayer Orange and Bad Moons Yellow on the banner.
• Horns - Ushabti Bone with Agrax Earthshade and Brown Ink washes, drybrushed with Ushabti Bone and Tyrant Skull.
• Champion's Sword - has a bit of Green Ink around the runes.

 With the last unit finished, I had nothing but heroes left.

Man, I hate painting white things. This may be the last white horse I ever do. 

First is a conversion made from a Silver Helm horse, some spare Dragon Prince bits and pieces and a Battlemasters Empire Knight body. This last bit holds up surprisingly well, considering its age and provenance. GW hasn't really changed how they sculpt an armoured rider's feet and stirrups in a long time, it seems. Initially, his barding was all in faded gold, but it looked terribly drab. Forty-five minutes of fiddling and swearing later, it was all bling.

Next comes the first of the painted Reaper models!

I am a servant of the Really Quite Flagrant Fire, wielder of the Flame of yow ow Jesus my hands

 Always good to have a spare mage or two, I think. So here's one who can hide out in the infantry units, if hiding is something a human flamethrower does much of.

I swear, it's not in any way Tzeentchian.

Next is a BSB, a conversion of a Reaper paladin.

Proud and noble, apart from his Hello Kitty Manga Eyes. Gah. Eyes. What can you do? 

His original sword is snipped off and replaced with more Dragon Prince spares to make a big boss pole thing. He's more a signifer than a banner bearer, really. His spare spear is a head taken from the chariot sprue.

When he's not doing battle semaphore, he does an amazing acrobatics routine with all those ribbons and sticks. 

 Given that he may well do duty with the spearmen, he's got the same phoenix on his shield. And groin plate.

 Last up is the completed mascot/unit filler for the spears. It's a tiny gold dragon.

Raaaa. 

 I have enough free time tomorrow to sort the last bits and bobs of the army out (bases, trays, missing archer feathers and full army shot). Which means they should be completely ready for a first outing, possibly via skype, in the very near future!

To War! Via a cardboard packing crate.