Shadespyre's March Post - Rank and File (III) - (Still still still unnamed) Dark Elves (1141 points)

OWAC VI - Rank and File (III) - Winter Is Coming... eventually

March

The grind really started to hurt this month, and then I realised that around 90% of the miniatures in this project are now painted or at least started, which is probably why I'm a little bit tired of painting...

So I'm way ahead of schedule on painting, and way behind on basing. So here, at last, is the first based figure (regular viewers will recognise her as my first original colour scheme test mini):

Some snow, some snowy weeds, and a scrap of snowy rock. Acheived in a messy and time consuming fashion, but acheived! Now to repeat that 200 times... hopefully, starting next month, everything new you see will be properly based. In the meantime, however, you'll have to put up with the grey paint.

Here's the new stuff - Cold One Riders, also known as Helldrakes.

One of the more colourful units so far, there's a big splash of green from the Cold Ones - not an original choice, I know - alongside the bright purples and gold. This is the elite unit of the army. so I'm glad it stands out. And it conceals a second New Thing - a shield design!

Ultimately, this got chosen because I could get off-the-shelf decals of the size and colour I needed. I looked into getting some custom made to my own design, but the company I used for my Space Marines no longer offers that service - and nor, as far as I can tell, does anyone else!

So, dragons it is. The design is slightly larger than is ideal, making affixing them to the curved shields problematic, but I'm growing to like how they look. Maybe this new "dragon" theme will carry through, and finally provide the missing theme (and name) for this army? We'll find that out together in the next three months...

Ten more Cold One riders, this time "Doomdrakes"

Cold Ones are notoriously Stupid, slow, and vicious in melee, so it makes little sense to put your mounted crossbowmen on them, but here we are, restricted by the ancient model range that I have tied myself to. And so we have a unit of Doomdrakes - melee troops with the incidental option of crossbows - rather than fleet-footed Dark Riders. At least we get to use that BS4 for once.

It would make more tactical sense to split these into two smaller units, but the army list allows for only one unit with crossbows. One of those things I will worry more about if I ever play games with the army.

I let slip at the start of this post that I've painted lots more that I'm not showing you yet, so it would be rude to not include a "bonus" unit for this month. So here we have a 15 strong unit of Guards, demosntrating that you can be a female Dark Elf warrior without losing either your marbles or control of your hair:

It may not be 100% clear here, but these ladies are all carrying bows. This is Not A Thing in Warhammer Armies - the first step towards repeating crossbows being the default for Dark Elves - but was perfectly acceptable in 2nd Ed. You can choose to look as these as upgraded Warriors or as downgraded Crossbowmen, as you wish. Same stat block and points either way.

Army List Additions:

Scores for March:          1141 points   35 models

10 x Helldrakes    (Lance, Standard Bearer, Musician)                         516 points

10 x Doomdrakes (Repeating Crossbow)                                                 430 points

15 x Guards (As Warrior, with added Bow*)                                           195 points

Running Total:              2185 points    115 models   

As ever, chances are I will add Champions to lead these units in the final army list breakdown.

I've done a head count, and the target army list currently seems to be exactly 200 models, so you've seen more than half now. There are a couple of possible Wild Card projects which might extend that, but I'm waiting for inspiration to turn vague ideas into actual miniatures.

Coming Next:

The emphasis for the next couple of weeks is going to be on shields and then bases. Shields first because decals and my basing materials don't mix - or rather, mix too readily. Everything you see from now on should have shields adorned and bases snowed upon, then in the wrap up I'll post every unit fully finished.

April will be my final Rank and File month. I'm excited to share them - there's new colours and more variety, there's my favourite project in the army. and there's also the unit which almost broke me - and still might!