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Just curious if anyone has painted a unit of Cold Ones (the mounts specifically), non-uniform colors. For example: two cold ones red, two cold ones blue, last cold one green. All in the same unit.

I want to know if you were happy with such a scheme, or if you changed it immediately after painting it, or perhaps if there is no Dark Elf "documentation" (I guess that's the best way to put it) regarding Cold One coloring schemes and I could paint them barbie-pink if I was so inclined.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

I find that as long as you have something on the model that ties it into the larger colour scheme of the army, mounts do just fine with different colours.

You're right that there isn't any real info about the different colours that cold ones might come out. It could be like horses where they can be many different colours.

I'd first figure out a way to paint the riders so that they are definitely part of your overall army colour scheme. Then I'd pick colours for the mounts that don't modify/clash with that too much. Different shades of green and brown or tan might be the way to go. Maybe do a google image search of different reptiles to see possible variations.

I'm doing something similar with my Bretonnians. Even on the units where the horses are of similar color, they aren't all the same. For example, the Grail Knights have white, light gray, cremello, and perlino horses. It adds a bit of interest without being too dissimilar.

The Knights-Errant and Questing Knights have mismatched mounts, as would be expected from such ad-hoc units.

If you're worried about mounts looking too dissimilar, use variations on the same color rather than entirely different ones. Say, light- to medium-browns, with a dusty yellow for the champion. That sort of thing.

Excellent. The colors I have in mind won't be out of place in my armies over-all color scheme. With my riders colors, the whole unit should be firmly tied with my army.

Thank you very much for your attention in this matter.

A troubling fact has come to light. In the Dark Elf Army book, where the figures are pictured in color, this is written below the Cold One's example:

"Cold One's scaly hides exhibit differing shades of green and may bear distinctive markings"

Since I've already completed the coloring for my Cold One figures, I'll probably just play them as they are.
I haven't joined the riders to the mounts though, and I could place named heroes astride them to give them distinction above and beyond the standard Cold One rider. Which means I'll be purchasing a new unit of Cold Ones and using the riders in the starter battalion with them instead.

While it is true that the army book may say Cold Ones are green this time around, in the last one (6E) there was a whole page of different colored Cold Ones. And I'm planning on making at least one of mine black to be Malekith's personal steed (when he's not on the Dragon...). So, basically, paint them however you like. No one with any class is going to bust your chops over a color choice.

But your plan is a pretty good one. Making your normal cold ones one shade, and ones bearing characters another, would really make them stand out on the table.


Out of curiousity, what color did you use?

The exact colors I mentioned as examples, but if you're looking for the colors themselves...

The models were given a black undercoat.
I used Lipstick Red mixed with a small amount of Black.
Cobalt Blue straight.
Olive Green straight.

I'm not working with Citadel paints mainly because they cost.
So far, they look pretty good.

While we all understand using alternative companies for paint, generally people still(myself included) use the GW names for sake of translation, as most people are quite familiar with them.

Vallejo was nice enough to name their game color line very closely to GW's, and unless there is a specific color that GW simply doesn't offer( like Reaper Pro Series Dragon Gold) then it is easiest to just go by the GW names regardless of what you are actually using.

Think of the naming referring to the color itself, not so much the specific paint brand.


All that said, I agree that you would have to find some way to make the unit look cohesive if using several colors of cold ones. Brettonians only really get away with mass colors by the fact that NONE of the army often looks cohesive.

Yeah, medieval heraldry doesn't exactly lend itself to a unified army appearance, does it? The only thing that bring my Brets together is the basing is the same on all of them.

EDIT: I got which colors he used. Maybe not the exact shade of that red, but cobalt blue and olive green are pretty well standardized.

Translating my off-brands to GW colors sounds like more work than actually going out and getting GW paint. Once I can spend more time on this hobby, I'll probably turn to GW paints simply because everyone else references them in help guides and regular conversation.

Long ago I painted a squad of 4th ed ellyrian reavers with very different colours and patterns on their mounts. I even took the time to check some reference books on how horses are commonly coloured. It gave the unit a very nice "irregular" look that benefited their role as light cavalry and touched upon some of the earth tones that was represented on the great eagles. Their very identical armor and equipment was quite enough to keep them well in line with the strict looks of the rest of the army. As to this day, that is probably the paint job I'm most proud of ever as it represented a huge increase in effort and result over my earlier painting.

So, my point to the OP (after this nostalgia rant) is: Go ahead and be creative, but consider how your army in it's entirety will look when done.