Ages ago, you might recall that I painted a copper dragon for no real reason other than that I just kind of wanted to paint a copper dragon, and that it was kind of a fun D&D homage to one of my characters. Well, because everything in my Eldar army boils down to references and foolery, I got a little silly with a fresh Wave Serpent kit and the Bloodwrack Viper from my Daughters of Khaine spell set. The end result is a fun homage to Yzirrius and my copper dragon, and a hyper-literal Wave Serpent with emphasis on the “Serpent” part.

This was probably the most ambitious build I’ve tackled since getting back on the wagon, so to speak, and it was a very necessary one. I was never really satisfied with my earlier Wave Serpent attempt, and with the Rainbow-Cannon Falcon benched indefinitely because of Canada Post and my Summer misadventures, my Howling Banshees were in dire need of a new party bus. It’s just a rule: On the frozen throne, there must always be a Lich King. With hot dogs, there must always be ketchup. For my Howling Banshees, there must always be a party bus.

Building this was like building two completely different models and then sewing them together in the end, and the assembly, painting, and building was a really fun, wild ride. Through the magic of green stuff I managed to modify all of the snake pieces to fit after painting, and tackled the Bloodwrack Viper bits in more or less the same scheme I used for painting my copper dragon, used the same scheme as my Daughters of Khaine spells for painting the base, and then did my usual Ulthwe thing on the Wave Serpent itself.

I think this is a case where as vain as it is for me to say, I couldn’t be happier with how this turned out and I think in a way the figurehead and hybrid look of this is everything I wanted my first Wave Serpent attempt to be. And it’s not over yet! I have a lot of Howling Banshees after all, and I’ve added a bunch more Aspect Warriors to my army in the last year, so…I may have to invest in a second party bus like this just because the first one was so fun. If I do, it’s going to be a fun homage to another D&D character, but…first, I need to figure out how to integrate a Tiefling-like demon motif without making it look like outright Chaos God stuff. That’s gonna be a challenge.