Great big Elf Dragon!

One of the cool things about the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is that there are bonus rounds, which normally have a single word criteria, encouraging you to paint whatever you like that fits the theme.  I use it as a great way to get something I already own done as the deadline prompts me to get on with it!

When the "Flight" round was announced, my thoughts went immediately to the dragon I'd undercoated and done nothing with.  Once again the challenge worked it's magic in getting me to get something done!

Originally intended as a mount for a dark elf sorceress, I couldn't find all the bits I wanted to use for her so I went with an elven lord instead - I plan to use magnets and get the sorceress ready so I can use both with the same mount and get her done later.

Big old kit, nicely detailed and a nice use of a "tactical rock" to give the Dragon the illusion of flight.  I went for the cold blue colour as I do like the selection of paint colours from GW (The Incubi Darkness ones).

 

Really pleased with it and looking forward to getting it on the tabletop.

Dark Elves - I actually painted some miniatures!

Yep, as the title says, I actually painted some miniatures!  These are for my fledgling Dark Elf army for Age of Sigmar, which is actually more fun that I initially gave it credit for.  Having played a game or two, I promptly went out and bought a metric tonne of figures for it, showing my usual levels of restraint when a new game appears on the horizon.... First up is the bulking up of my Spearelf unit to the maximum 40 elves, because if you're going to go, then go big

Nice and simple red and silver colour scheme and quite an imposing sight for their enemies.... I've stuck to the square bases (don't judge me) as most of them were already on square bases and this means I can always use them for other mass battle games should I feel the need.  And GW are even faffing around with basing for 40k ("use whatever feels appropriate") so I'm fairly happy they won't ever become unusable.  And I get points for being old skool.

Alongside them go the first of my entirely new units.  This is a unit of 20 Xbow elves.  I picked the models up from ebay and some of the helmet crests have broken off..... but I actually think I prefer them like that so I may have to break the rest of them to match.

More red and silver to keep the theme going.  The eagle eyed amongst you will note only 18 in the photo.... the standard bearer still needs a decal or two and one of the Xbow elves needs a new magazine so they're still loitering on the painting table.

Next up is a couple of heroes to lead them into the fray.  These were a rather special and very unexpected gift from the BFG after I gave him the Stormcast Eternals that I'd got from the starter box and so I wanted to get them painted up quick sharp

In the new rules, the sorceresses are the main leaders of the troops ( a cynical gamer would suggest that this is due mostly to the fact that GW don't have a fighting leader not on a dragon in their current range.....) so she was painted red and silver to match the troops.  The assassin was really rather good fun to paint and I'm pleased with the muted red armour and highlighting on the black cape.  He may eventually end up on a larger base to stop him toppling over in a light breeze though!