JamieM - Dark Elves and More Proof of BBC Inadequacy (140 points)

My plan to finish figures every week and not take part in the bonus rounds lasted exactly one week as I had nothing finished last week!  Still, I'm back on course this week with some more nasty Dark Elves for AoS/Warhammer/insert other fantasy ruleset.

First up are 10 Cold One Knights.  They're a great way to not paint horses, as a few bloggers in the challenge have bemoaned the experience of having to do so.  I'm sure if you look hard enough you could find some Napoleonic cavalry who rode giant lizards into battle.... right?  No?  How about Romans?  You could always just claim that all records had been destroyed....

Anyway, instead of having to do loads of research into what these should look like, I found there was almost no reference works at all on giant riding lizards.  Imagine my surprise and chagrin as I discovered that not even Sir David Attenborough has done a programme on them.... I obviously penned a letter outlining my disappointment in this fact to the BBC.

I decided that I quite liked a blue colour that I had from the GW range with a suitably theatrical name - Incubi Darkness - and research on blue lizards showed that the underbellies were often a lighter shade of the same colour, so that's what I went for.  I went for bone coloured horns for contrast.

The Knights who ride these are the nobles of Dark Elf society, so nice shiny armour for them, with red trim and shiny red shield designs.

I'm rather pleased with the colours and the lizard skin.  I kept the clashing red and blue as the rest of my Dark Elf army wears blue and there's no way the nobles would change their clothes to better match riding beasts!

In a stroke of luck genius strategic planning, the shield design on the leader as the same as one of the decals that I had, so the standard bearer gets designs for both the unit itself and the Lord in the bottom corner.

Next up, another lizard..... a ruddy big one. 

Imagine my surprise when I found out that Sir David Attenborough also hasn't done even one episode on many headed hydras in their natural habitat!  Fear not, another missive to the BBC has been sent to admonish them for this clear oversight.

I stuck to the same colour scheme as the Cold Ones as I figured perhaps they were related.  A nice bright crest was added as the natural world seems full of poisonous animals with bright colours to demonstrate how dangerous they are to scare predators away.  Perhaps some of the Australians in the blog could confirm or deny as Australia seems to have more than it's fair share of poisonous creatures!

I wouldn't fancy being one of the two handlers of this beastie....  They're some old metal Dark Elf animal handlers instead of the one that come with the kit as I wanted to be different.

I also discovered that its very hard to take a picture of a many headed large beastie whilst capturing all of it.  I went for some muted blood effects too.  I'm not normally a huge fan of these, but I got to wondering when painting it how many heads it would use to attack things, so I added some effects to one claw and two of the heads as a result of my idle musings.

This completes most of what I want to get done for the Dark Elves and so my attention should now probably turn to 30k...... and it might do if I hadn't got into conversation with a couple of Canadians who shall remain nameless (let's call them Ireg and Gannick to protect their anonymity) who heartily recommended Epic to me.  One failure of willpower on my part later and I had procured this on eBay.

Sadly not 30k at all but very, very tempting to get started on as discussions with gaming friends showed that a couple of them were keen.  The Challenge really can be dangerous for anyone with little ability to resist shiny new things!

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Great submission Jamie! I am amazed the BBC had so little information on the relevant lizards here, but then history has generally ignored the vital contribution of the 45th Cold Blood Lizard Lancers during WW2...a tragic oversight...

These look marvellous. Excellent lizard shading, and they look the business for the Dark Elves - ready to ride over and consume some hapless victims, then trot off for a glass of cabernet at the Dark Elf equivalent of Davos.  And that Hydra! Wow! Who is "lucky" enough to be the handler?

So I make that out to be 10 cavalry, one big monster hydra and a pair of handlers/immediate victims - let's call that a large "vehicle", so we'll score the whole thing at 140 points...

It is unfortunate your planning has been re-routed by Ireg and Gannick, as those two are a pair well-known hucksters. But remember that in this hobby, it is only the weak who refuse to dive into new eras, scales or settings, while the strong ones are the ones who immediately head over to Ebay and make a purchase because they saw something they liked...I'm looking forward to seeing some Epic stuff from you! 

Greg