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So I've taken a liking to the Dark Elves and specifically their monster list (you can check out my version of it here).

Mainly I wanted to do this list because I knew it would be fairly compact army wise and absolutely gorgeous on the table if done right. Now I have to see if I can paint this stuff well enough to make it as nice as I envisioned.

Due to the current Dark Elf line, my aversion to metal models, and my general cheap-ass attitude (I'm sorry but $135 for fifteen harpies is ridiculous) , I've gone through and made a number of conversions, both for aesthetics and for cost. The end result I think came out a lot nicer than the GW models:

First off are my Harpies. This is the conversion I'm most proud of because I think it genuinely looks a lot nicer than the GW sculpts and happened to cost ~$50USD to build 15 of them. The conversion is the new Plastic Daemonettes mixed with wings from the Hawkman Hero-Clix figure:





Granted the plastic from the Hawkman wings was so hard that using the testors glue to get them on the daemonettes made me question why I bother playing a game that requires this much effort, but eventually I got it all going well enough and above is the end result. I've since gone and ordered another 10 Hawkman Figures since Wizkids went under, I figure the price may jump up and honestly at .65 per set of wing, you can't go wrong with this conversion!

Next up are my two Cold One Chariots. You can't even buy the metal-plastic hybrid kit from GW anymore, and with the new Cold Ones being so pretty, I decided to mix things up with the new High Elf chariot with some DE bits thrown on. This isn't an original idea, but the results came out pretty well. I used a combination of the new Corsairs kit and the Warriors kit to make the riders.







Next are my Dark Riders. This is an age-old conversion apparantly, and it's so blatantly easy that once I got into the DE army I found out how many people have done this. It's a simple mix of a Warriors box and the Wood Elf Glade Riders kit:





The next set of pics aren't conversions, just my build on the extraordinarily nice new Cold One Knights kit and the new Hydra:





Next up is my Dragon Lord. This is based off the High Elf Dragon kit for the most part. The main difference is that the chair is left off and the body/shield of the Lord is from the Cold One Knights. For the legs I used the normal kit but cut off the long flowing part of the robes underneath, and I honestly liked the whole dragon helmet that I simply used it and with the shield and body I think it works pretty easily as a DE Lord rather than a High Elf.



Next is the Master on Manticore. This is pretty much a normal Manticore with a Cold One Knight up top standing in for the normal Beastmaster from the model. I really hated the rider that is normally on this guy and I love the new CoK kit so away we went. I got the model from a friend (for selling most of his DE stuff for him), but had no base so I ghetto-built a 50mm out of 4 25mm bases. The green stuff filling in the gaps being so messy doesn't matter much as it's all going to get based with rocks/sand anyway, I just wanted the gaps mostly filled in. Also I've since used one of the modular movement trays to cut out a 50mm thing for the ghetto-base to be glued to, so it's got more support now.





Finally are the only two DE on foot: both characters dismounted versions. I actually am going to re-do the arm on the Master as I didn't like how the "sword" came out. It's not a lot of work but it needs a fix.



So that's the army. I'll probably add a few more things to it over time, like a Sorceress on Peg, maybe another unit of Cold One Knights to swap out for the chariot and some more harpies, but that's more or less how this is going to roll.

Sweet conversions. Normallly Dark Elves wouldn't be my cup of tea but these pictures made me think they were cool.
Not a fan of the hydra model though, I'd have to go with the reaper hydra.

Da Boss wrote:Sweet conversions. Normallly Dark Elves wouldn't be my cup of tea but these pictures made me think they were cool.
Not a fan of the hydra model though, I'd have to go with the reaper hydra.

Thanks for the compliments!

You don't like the new Hydra though? Man when I saw that thing it's what pretty much put me over the top to do this list, same with the wife. This army is actually sort of both of ours - she's a very big fan of Dragons and other fantasy creatures, so a lot of the modeling was done based on stuff she liked too and she was as taken by the new Hyrda as I was.

Still your comment intrigues me, now I have to track down some pics of the Reaper hydra.

http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/14445

There ya go.
I think it looks really cool.

Da Boss wrote:http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/14445

There ya go.
I think it looks really cool.

Holy crap.
I may have found my Christmas present to myself....

WOW!

Now you've done it!

You've convinced me to start a Dark Elf army...

...and I'll be appropriating a lot of your ideas/conversions as well.

VERY nicely done!

(How does it perform on the Battlefield?)

I'll agree with Da Boss, the army is nice, but the new Hydra is so...bleh!

I really wish i hadn't sold my old hydras now, may be tempted to do a monster list, but definately not with GW current hydra.

That reaper hydra looks amazing!

Excellent army, and I am looking foreward to seeing it painted.

The chariot in particular looks great.

However I think you could do much better by building your hydra crews from plastic, rather than using the terrible new metal ones. Alternately, see if you can get a few of the old ones on ebay. Your other figures are so good that the army is seriously let down by them.

Hahah, I love how you GS'd four bases together for your Master on Manticore. Did it really save you anything?

Anyway, very top-notch conversion work that goes well with itself throughout. Nothing too over-the top, and it all looks like it should've come that way in the first place.

Very well done.

And no, you haven't converted me to the Dark Elves....Because I've been fascinated by them from the start.

Da Boss wrote:http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/14445

There ya go.
I think it looks really cool.

While I must admit that I don't mind the new GW Hydra, that Reaper one is dead sexy!

I really might have to go that route instead...

Love the conversions you've done.

What scheme will you be going for with painting?

Should be a quick to paint army considering how small it is...

The reaper one is nice, but I do like the GW one a lot. I want to use this in the local GW store and GW events so I don't regret my purchase (I should keep telling myself this every time I look at the Reaper one).

As far as how it performs - it's alright. It can't stand up to the top tier stuff, at least I don't think so. VC you have to play complete avoidance and hope your opponent is dumb enough to let you get sacrificial charges off on their characters (even if you bounce off and lose combat, it's worth killing the characters).

Vs. a hard ass deamon army, I haven't faced it, but it's not an easy match. You would have to keep a unit of harpies around your dragon/manticore to prevent Thirster/GD charges. Even then it's not an easy fight.

Vs. armies with shooting, you have to try and hide your stuff and use Terror to your best advantage. I've found that you can use your other units to hunt WM's and missile units if you play it right. 4 Large Targets with 3 of them being hard as hell to kill in a round or two, means you do have a good chance against a lot of "normal lists".

Still I have a lot to learn playing the army. I've been away from WHFB for months till I got this put together.

What a great-looking army. I think you may have just convinced me to go back to WHFB (post-nerf of skirmish troops, grumble grumble). The new Cold Ones are the lynchpin of what makes a beast DE army (a Karond Kar army under the old fluff) look so much better in this edition.

My one question is why you didn't repeat the dragon helm on the foot-mounted version of the lord (who looks great with the HE helm, by the way). I can see how it might be silly-out-of-proportion on an infantry model, but having a different helm is confusing. Matching the mounted model perfectly just gives big style points. Perhaps a bare-headed version with the helm discarded on the ground might work? I can see that your helms doesn't match exactly on the other guy too- that would be good to fix too. Small points in an otherwise visually perfect army, though.

I used to play an army like this a lot in last edition. VC were always a problem, even then. Shooting less so, as they've got all of one or two turns before you're stuck in. HE and DE bolt thrower-heavy shooters were always my biggest problem, actually. All the shooting plus the magic was damned frustrating.

Great work, and thanks for the inspiration!

The GW hydra has to be seen in the flesh.
It always looks dopey in pics but is fine on the table.

Harpies, Chariot and Dragon are my three favourite conversions, just for elegance and effectiveness.
Looking forward to seeing them painted.

Any updates?

Your awesome conversions are responsible for getting me to start a Dark Elf army, so you've got to keep me updated!

Updates? Updates? I'm supposed to do updates?

So I hadn't done any real work on GW stuff lately and I'm getting pulled back into the world of WHFB, so I have to have this all painted by the 28th. Go Me.

Here is the first chariot, though I have to say my painting isn't that great (as you can see):

That's good looking for table top, clean and crisp painting. The color scheme is bit challenging as the green and purple don't work for me, but that personal opinion.

Thanks for sharing and keep em coming!

Awesome! This is the type of army I'd make too, DE Beasts are just so much fun! Though I'd be tempted by the Sorceress on a Dark Pegasus, that's also just a really awesome model and fits the theme well. Also, how about a pic of the entire army together? I'd like to see kind of how it looks on the tabletop. Lastly, excellent use of the Daemonettes for Harpies. Leagues better than the current metal models anyway.

Updates will be forthcoming. I've got to get it all painted to get to a tournament this weekend. Right now the Dragon is almost done and so are the Cold Ones & Dark Riders.

Goal for this upcoming event is to get it all "painted" but I won't have the army "done" until the Colonial GT in April.

Nice models. Excellent painting and a nice job on the harpies and Dark Riders.

OMG an update!

The models aren't 100% done yet (still some scales to paint on the cold ones) and some touchups on the harpies, then it's time for a matte finish and the static grass to be applied.

Also, my Camera (and lighting in my basement) suck ass. So excuse the pretty bad pictures. I didn't get a good shot of the Hydra's that weren't blurry. :(

Wow. This has really moved along quickly. Good job.

and im starting fantasy now thanks alot...


very nice army man.

the harpies and dragon look pretty nice
im not too big on the purple//green mix, but everything else looks good too