I've been wanting to do a lizardmen army for years now and earlier in the year won 2 lizardmen boxes at tourneys (the batallion and a saurus lord on carnosaur) which triggered me to start the army.
One of the main reasons to do lizardmen is that they are in all phases of the game, have psychology but don't get hammered by it (the last 2 WHFB armies I've done have been immune to psychology), so it won't be too much of a jump, and most importantly.... can be tailored to be a small force that can be built on quickly, with the new units changing the way the army plays massively.
In the past I've done my blogs over 10 days to 2 weeks but now I'm no longer a university student I don't have the blocks of time off to do it (I do get 5 weeks off but 'the minister of finance' insists I go on holiday with her).
For this year I've been heading down to my local GW once a week, with my own paints, pulling up a chair at painting table and painting odd models and assembling models (lizzies the last couple of months).
So this will be a work in progress for as long as it takes, with the proviso that I have a workable 2250 army by the end of January so that if I can get to DOGCON in Sydney I'll have the army ready... so 2nd gen slaan get ready.
Let me start by letting you know that GWs blue lizardmen scheme is awful.
Whilst not eye bleedingly bad a blue lizardman looks dumb.
However I've seen many players use other schemes and wanted to go with a brown/tan look.
But need to be able to pump out models toot sweet as my painting has headed more towards slow highly detailed painting rather than mass production.
The scales are:
Graveyard earth
Kommando khaki
Bleached bone
Skull white
The blue was added to break up the model and add a something to catch the eye of an otherwise pretty plain model.
This scheme will be used across the army, although I will be removing the flesh wash and the second highlight of terracotta as after review it doesn't really add much as the tanned flesh is such a large highlight and add more dwarf flesh as it blends to much in the test model.
The bases are from an Australian company (back2base-ix), do a google search for them, they sell via ebay.
The paved range was selected as it carries accross the entire range of WHFB bases (the only range of bases they make to do so), and it will help tie the army together even more, with the theme that they are in a temple city.
The bases require minimal clean up, and although they don'tt always match up exactly on the bottom of the bases (not quite square) they are close enough.
All the models I do will be pinned in place to ensure nothing snaps.
Also will be working on a couple of skink characters.
The usual skink priest.
I'm also using one of the skink chieftans as a mage (the one with the ripped out heart) as a more savage look.
Aim is to get a good chunk, if not all of the above models done by this time next week. I have 3 days of work, 1 day away at a conference, and 2 evenings lost to parties so will have to work hard in the limited time available.
Hopefully an update will come thursday as the wife wants me at the movies tomorrow night (I'll be painting all day tomorrow)
Good so far. I also have a paintig day tomorrow! I'm betting I won't be as productive as you, but we'll have to see (check my thread to find out). Are you going at a similar speed to your Slayers a while back?
With regards to the wash, is that what's visible around his ankles / eye sockets etc? I think that missing this out would be a bad idea, as it is clearly adding something to the paint work (if that's what I see there, though maybe it's a base colour). How do you do your washes? Is it an all-over wash or confined to the cracks and crevices? Using a selective wash will save you loads of time, the wash is quicker, and the re-hilighting is also far, far quicker, so that might be something to consider if you want to save time, that's what I do.
A new Gonads Blog? Fantastic! Fan of your previous logs, some of my favorite Dakka content through the ages.
With regards to lizards, nice choice of army, I can frankly think of no better one in fantasy (that doesn't rely on being brutally unbalanced). Astounding leadership, fast, killy, tough (on what matters), solid magic (or insane with the 2nd gen), and busted-to-hell salamanders
I like your scheme quite a lot, and would do red lizards if I buckled and redid my 4th ed undefeated army (sooo long ago ). The terracota/white scales and shields add a lot, I dig 'em.
The painting got off to a bad start- it took almost 3 hours to do the 2 layers of terracotta and chestnut ink wash on all 12 models to get them ready just to start painting details.
As I was at a GW store however I tried out the foundation paints on the paved base and was very impressed, so impressed that I bought 3 pots to do up thye bases for the army.
To the pics:
5 skinks that have the terracotta and chestnut ink wash, and are ready to to start having layers added:
5 skinks I jumped ahead on. Not quite to full production line technique yet, but that will start soon once I'm sure I've got the techniques down pat.
A great pic to show how it isn't until the last layer for the flesh that it all ties together.
The skink on the far left has all flesh highlights and had had the scales done graveyard earth.
The second from left has flesh done.
The middle skink is completed, I raced ahed and finished him off to have a go at the base. I used the same technique as in the eavy metal article from this month's WD on how to paint the HE prince. Mine turned out very differently, but it works well with the mini)
The 2 skinks on the right are at the tanned flesh stage (and the far right one needs his head finished)
The above pics are medium sized on pbase, close enough to real size to accurately get a feel for how the painting looks but large enough to see the detail without being overpowered by the highlighting.
I went with a darker scheme on the scales:
Graveyard earth
Kommando Khaki
Bleached bone
Very light highlights of white.
The scales on the test model were too light in my view so I went for the darker look and am happy with it.
the blue on the crest turned out well and draws the eye to the model. Hopefully it will work accross the army.
Gotta say they're a might pinker than I first thought they'd be, but I still like what I'm seeing. Very unique scheme and nice highlighting on scales, weapon, etc.
I want to have very little steel/iron on my lizardmen, limiting it to some of their weapons. And for this one as a character model I wanted to avoid it all together. So I went with a stone effect of the sickle.
I wanted it to look like he had just ripped the heart out... just realised that the tip of his sickle should be covered in blood for this But hey there is a head on his thigh, fresh thanks to the blood, so I'll just say he cut off the head with the sickle and ripped out the heart with his hand.
I'm prettyhappy with the entire model, except the eyes which have been sculpted to be tiny and are very difficult to get the same effect as I did with the first skink I did, I think I'll go back and fix that.
Anyway to the pics:
I'll use the original larger pic sizes for better detail
You are always such a machine when you get started on one of these projects.
I'm not 100% sold on the blue fin, but it's growing on my little by little as I look at them more. And on that note the sorcerers fin doesn't seem as sharply highlighted as the first models.
Looking forward to seeing the first group all painted up and together for a photo.
Yaeh the blue is a bit washed out, the vagrancies of flash, its either uber overexposed or completely washed out.
I think I'll go back and add another layer of blue to the sorcerer to make it stand out a bit more.
I've got to stay up tonight to get set for night duty tomorrow so I'll be doing a few hours of painting. If I get a bunch done tonight I'll post them up.
Been working night duty the last week so only about an hour a day painting time.
I finished these 5 skinks a couple of days ago, but have only just gotten time to take pics now.
I'm really likeing the flesh scheme I'm using, it is 7 layers all up from start to finish not including black undercoat but its worth it. Miles better than the ridiculous blue GW uses.
At first I was not so sure about the colour scheme (I have always liked the brighter schemes and the older style lizardmen too), but now your scheme is really growing on me and I am looking forward to seeing more You finally made the most recent skink models actually look good to me
Nice clean technique, but wouldn't mind some better pictures. Not that they're bad, but if they were better I could get a better look at just how things are done.
I don't know why I even say that, really. I ALWAYS want clearer closer pictures of every mini I see.
Smaller then the plastic skinks, less detailed than the plastic skinks (which will be good from the point of view that I will be able to paint them quicker) and best of all.... for the 9 models I got in 3 blisters a total of 2 sculpts!
Of course GW did only 2 sculpts for the handlers, which looks really, really pants when they are displayed as per the usual 9 handler horde.
The handlers:
The salamanders.
IMHO the salamander model is right up there with the kroxigor for the worst model in the range. And as I'd be using them in almost all games I thought I should throw in some conversions to get those extra few painting points at the tourneys and to be able to not use the current models.
I still needed handlers and the salamander heads so just bought the salamander blister anyway, then put the bodies into my bitz box.
I scored some DE style cold ones for free from a guy who was at my local store and had bought a few DE chariots for a daemon army so wouldn't need the cold ones.
The great thing is that the resultant model is acctually bigger than the current salamander so lack of size isn't an issue and because the lizzies don't use the older cold one models anymore it doesn't correspond to any of the lizardmen coldones.
Cold one body + salamander head =
The above are older pics taken when I'd done most of the assembly, all I've done is add some greenstuff to joins.
Painted skink unit -- Looking good all together, nice work.
Salli handlers -- Yep, 2 sculpts ftw!
WIP Sallies -- Ahhh cool, way to be on making your own, I've not seen anybody do that with sallies. I actually liked the old salamanders that looked like a jowly dimetrodon, but again 1 pose made multiples look not so great. I look forward to seeing these cats with your paint scheme, I can already see it working out.
Started with some skink handlers (all the same to increase speed of painting), obviously they will be mixed up with the other handler sculpt as I do more.
The salamander:
An absolute bugger to paint if you are silly enough to do highlights on the whole model.
A great shot showing the different textures of the bases. I've decided not to put any flock/static grass on them. ATM I just think it would unnecissarily clutter them up.
Painting day today as the wife has to go to a Baby Shower at the Palazzo Versache on the Gold Coast (and I get to sit in a GW store with a horde of 10 years olds carrying on like pork chops). But at least some painting will be done.
Finished the last of the salamanders off last night.
I'm glad I'm finished them because they took a whole pile longer to do than I expected, but the results were wdefinitely worth it.
I decided to change the spear points from metal to a stone effect. Not the best stone effect I've seen but good enough.
I also went back and 'stonified' all the metal weapons I had done so far and changed the shafts of the skinkweapons from black to the same grey stone effect.
I just wanted a much more primitive look to the army.
The finished unit on my comuter desk (love Picasa2 to allow me to crop to panorama style).
I think I made the right decision going with the same scheme on different units (unlike GW who went with a different colour on every animal), it ties the army together nicely.
Today I'll be assembling more models on my day off from work as there is a tourney in mid Feb that I want to go to (no hope of having the army painted fully, but a good chunk of it should be done).
Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I think I made the right decision going with the same scheme on different units (unlike GW who went with a different colour on every animal), it ties the army together nicely.
Agreed, happy you made that choice too
The unit looks very solid, and I do like the stone weapons you've switched to.
Sticking 2 bases together.
Done to make play easier.
I simply drilled holes with my pin vice in approximately lined up spots, stuck some cut up paperclip to pin the join and when dried filled the hole with greenstuff and put sand over the top.
The reason I didn't just turn a cav base sideways is that all the models are based with the cobblestones thinnest front to back on the base. The cav bases sideways wouldn't fit in.
im a huge lizardmen fan, they were my first army, and they are the army i play the most. im anxious, will a fat frog be making an appearance in your force?
I pity da fool who decided to sculpt all those scales on the back of the saurus models. And I pity me for painting each one individaually, with 4 layers.
But the effect is definitely worth it.
Anyway to the models.
I jumped ahead and pinted these 3 models (champ and 2 R&F)and got all 10 shields done whilst away for Christmas.
From the front:
From the front but higher angle.
Same shot but at close to real life size which is why I'm not concerned about the highlighting on the head bone.
From above and all the scales:
From behind:
Different views:
More saurus to come in a few days (have to go back to work today :( )
These models are an absolute nightmare to paint time wise if you are using multi-stage highlighting.
Its taking forever (about 3 hours per model total) but they are really coming together.
I think when I do saurus in the future I'l limit it to 5 model batches to keep the speed and motivation up.
Anyway to the models.
The unit as it stands now- starting to come together nicely.
Wow, 7 hours a pop man? Jeebus... I will grant that you and Dave are much better painters than I am, but I generally don't put more than an hour or 3 into a Sister, maybe 6 on an IC.
Of course, these little lizards are a good bit prettier than any of my work... Very well done! 4 layers per scale though... man, don't you blend?
I used the blue on the drum to further tie the army together.
I initially wanted to paint the feathers red gore and then highlight blood red but I could only find my vallejo bloody red and its a poor substitute so ended up doing red gore, drybrush blazing orange and then using a very thin was of black ink. Worked a treat.
Those feathers are really nice looking. I have only painted a few models with feathers, and never really was 100% on how they came out. I would be happy with those though.
Wehrkind wrote:Wow, 7 hours a pop man? Jeebus... I will grant that you and Dave are much better painters than I am, but I generally don't put more than an hour or 3 into a Sister, maybe 6 on an IC.
Ha! 7 hours of Studder's painting would equal either several special characters or about 1000 points of non-characters! The only way I can deal with the ogres taking so long (3 hours for 1 CSM is more what I like to do) is because an army of them only has so many of the fatties
Back on topic, nice command, the blue on the drum was a good call. I'll have to see the unit ranked up, but not so sure on the red feathers. Perhaps there are plans to incorporate more red throughout the army? I can't remember seeing it much before this, is all.
I've had feedback on another forum RE: the red feathers.
Every model that has feathers, has different coloured feathers.
I have blue feathers and green feathers and red feathers on 3 skinks.
to be honest I went with all 4 feathers here the same colour because I was too pressed for time/lazy to do each one a different colour.
These guys are all looking great, and I really like your scheme better than the blue-ish skin that GW's models have. Your perseverance to get every scale done to such a standard is really paying off.
My only critique, though, is that the models almost feel a bit too monochromatic. I don't know how you could fix it quickly as you've already spent a good deal of time on them as is, but I wonder if there might be a way to add a wash or something to the shields to make them pull away from the main mass of the models a bit.
As they currently are the shields blend in with the mass of the bodies, and I think that it would be a nice way to get more of a tri-color look to the unit if the shields had a bit more of a blue tone to them.
I'm going to try and photoshop up a couple of your models to show you what I mean
...
Damn. I thought I could attach pictures that I didn't have to upload to a server somewhere, but I guess I was wrong. I thought I used to be able to do that here... Well, if you want to see what I mean, drop me a note and I'll email you the couple of variations I did on the shields to give an example - if you care that is!
Finished the last of the saurus this morning.
Really happy with how the unit came together. Will have to make up a movement tray to make it easier to move them around. ATM planning a plain black one. May even get some pre-made ones from warpuppy.
All right stop collaborate and listen
Gonads is back with my brand new invention...
Kroxigor
I loathe the current kroxigor with a passion. Along with the salamanders my least favorite models in the range. unfortunately they will make an appearance in every lizzie list I run as thay are point for point close to the best unit in list. Also they allow the me to get the extra few points for conversions in the painting scores at tourneys in Oz.
So I needed new models.
On the intraweb a couple of years ago someone used the dragon ogre lower bodies, troll upper bodies and old skool kroxigor heads. I wasn't a super fan of centaur kroxigors but the troll bodies looked good.
So a big bitz order to the UK mailorder (For a 20% saving over GW Australia retail even after postage the US and UK websites are the place to go).
And I ened up with troll bodies, old skool kroxigor heads and tails.
Some pinning, greenstuff and about 20 minutes work total on each (The bits fit almost perfectly) and I came up with the following.
The greenstuff under the feet is to join the feet to the ground (they wouldn't line up well enough without it).
Got some free time coming up so should fly through the kroxigor after the marathon that was the saurus.
Finished the last of the kroxigor yesterday but thanks to work couldn't post an update.
This is my favorite one so far from a painting perspective. I'm really happy with the wood and with the tongue sticking out the blue tie in to the army is there.
2 at close to real size
Original sized (cropped) photo.
It is going to be several days until I do more painting thanks to really odd hours at work (basically sleeping, working and studying ATM) but will do a post in a couple of days of the unit as a whole to keep the updates regular.
Still lovin' these Kroxitrolls, cool idea and great execution. The smashy rock guy is a lot of fun, but I think Krox #2 is my fav - everything really came together on that guy for me.
One thing, the brass axe head on Krox #3 looks like it could have been attached at a better angle, maybe more out to the side of the model. This could be from the lack of a front-on pic, but looks a bit less than lethal at the current angle. Though frankly Kroxitrolls probably aren't the swiftest wickets, so not a real issue if he's holding his whacking stick weird
This model towers above the others in the army, the palaquin base is clear of the heads of the saurus but as an army centrepiecee its hard to miss... exactlly the right way to be.
In order to make it easier to paint I've split it into 3 parts:
Check back soon for updates as I have time to paint...
A piece of brass tubing was inserted into a hole drilled in the base. The metal rod on the palaquin inserts into this to keep the model floating.
There is no way in the world GW's flimsy plastic sticks would hold this model for any length of time...
Finished the palaquin (I may go bck, make that a WILL go back and do a couple of touch ups on the horns but for all intents and purposes it is done)
The stone is:
Undercoat black
All codex grey
Thin black ink wash for grooves
Codex grey
Fortress Grey
Wood is:
Scorched brown
Bestial brown
Snakebite leather
Gold is my usual recipie found way back at the start of the blog.
Tried out orkhide shade for the base of the leaves and it worked a treat. I'm liking the foundation paints more and more.
Damn, just realised I didn't photograph the underside of the palaquin (which noone will ever see anyway... will do pics when finish the model.
CLose up of the skink attendant.
Background to this pic.
First off its cropped from the 2nd pic above, thanks to PBases nifty 'small, medium, original' I went with the medium pic to remove alot of the pixelation.
I was painting it at my local GW and one of the staff was convinced that somewhere in the fluff it says the attendants are albino. We couldn't find it anywhere (although the eavy metal ones in the army book are pretty pale) but went with it anyway. First time I ever tries albino so here's what I did.
White undercoat (over the black model undercoat)
White with a tinge of red ink to get a very, very pale red mix. 10:1 ratio or higher.
Very thin wash of red ink with water. 20-30:1 I applied it, went and watched a game for a few minutes and came back and removeal ALL non dried ink with a fine detail brush absorbing it and cleaning said brush on a tissue.
When model completely dried highlighted with white.
Repeated but with blue ink for the crest (i know he should have a red crest but I wanted to tie him in with the rest of the army)
Worked a treat.
I'm going to try and finish the Slaan model today and stick it all together tonight. If successful will post results tomorrow night (damn having to go back to work).
As promised last post.... the underside of the base.
As expected I finished the Slaan Mage Priest yesterday. A great model to paint. Almost all drybrushed so real quick but plenty of detail.
I went up a couple more shades, dwarf flesh: elf flesh 1:1 and then elf flesh last highlight.
The blue turned out a treat and its just ultramarine blue undercoat and then enchanted blue then added white to the enchanted blue.
I think the albino skink works.
I'm leaving the eyes blank as I carry that accross my mages.
I've got 3 and a half weeks before the tourney with about 1/3 of my army still to be assembled. So that will be the next part of the diary with pics of assembled models and after the tourney back to painting.
Firstly thank you to all and sundry who saw the half finished army at Summer Legends here in Brisbane.
The words of support were much appreciated.
Secondly, whats been happening.
I was working in Department of Emergency and pulling a heap of extra shifts and had real life issues to get through in preparatipon for going away.
Which leads to thirdly.... I've been away in the North Burnett region of Queensland for the last 4 and a half weeks, with no internet access, so no updates.
I was on call for the hospitals in each of the towns I worked in 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and had to work for 10 hours a day in the general practice as well.
I would be the only doctor in town at each town I worked in.
The story will unfold below...
So off I flew to Bundaberg, got a hire car (money care of QLD health), bought some essentials (8 litres of cordial and 18 cans of coke zero) and off I went to Mundubbera, a town of 2,500 (swells to 5,500 in fruit picking season) about 250km west of Bundaberg.
And there was a white dwarf in the news agents! So I even managed to pick up the latest OZWD to read on the rest of my time away.
A shot from the verandah of the doctor's flat:
Arriving at about 2 pm I laid out what I had to paint:
4 movement trays.
3 Kroxigor
15 saurus including command (2 more if I wanted to, but didn't)
3 terradons (a 4th if I had the time, but I didn't)
Saurus her
20 skinks
Stegadon with full crew
I had undercoated all the models with 2 layers of terracotta and the chestnut ink before I left.
So first off I thought I'd knock off the movement trays.
I used the new GW customisable trays, good product overall but if I could go back I would have cut them a bit shorter so there is no 'overhang' i.e. so that the model bases sit flush against the edges instead of the 1 or 2 mmm there is around the inside of the support currently. Pedantic but I've seen a couple other guys do it and the effect is much better.
I cut grooves in the side pieces and filled them with sand.
Why go to all this trouble.
The tournament I'm palying at tomeorrow has painting points for movement trays.
No I'm not kidding.
Unfortunately because I'm not sad enough to do up fully converted and painted movement trays for my skirmishers I cannot get the last point, but the following trays will allow me to get 19/20 for painting.
I painted up the trays the same way I did the bases:
Black undercoat
Calthan brown
Black ink wash
Khemri brown drybrush
Dhneb stane drybrush
Darkflesh in the recesses/sand areas- drybrush bubonic brown and bleached bone then a wash of dark flesh.
(I had also done 5 shields that night)
Close ups (note all the photos of models from now on were done at home yesterday for better conditions and post varnish)
Came up an absolute tread and really tie in with the army bases, there will be a pick at the end of the saurus models later showing models on the mvt trays.
So we get to friday night, I had started on the 5 saurus for the week and then I'm told about what will be in town this weekend.....
MOTOCROSS!!!!
Mundubbera is on the state circuit for motocross championships and is apparently one of the best tracks in the country as its built through a creek with huge banks so allows riders to hurtle at great speed up and down huge jumps (as you will soon see)
450 riders, 2 days... one doctor.... Priceless.
7 fractured long bones.
2 shoulder dislocations
2 head injuries, one with loss of consciousness.
1 broken collar bone
One long bone fracture had to be immediately be helicoptered out as he lost blood suply to his foot, even after reduction.
One of the head injuried had to be flown out by fixed wing aircraft.
Plus I had the town people to look after too.
The first main jump, depending on size of bike and stupidity of rider they are going between 80 and 130km/hr at this point:
These are smaller bikes (125cc IIRC)
Note the post in the above shot, I walked up hill and took a pic downhill... and you can see why they love the tracks as it keeps winding up and down the creek.
Here is a 16 years old on a 125 clearing the whole jump, something the 250cc bikes were just doing...
A guy destined to be a patient...
So that stuffed my weekend of painting...
So I had to work into the next week to get the saurus done.
I managed to get the first 5 saurus done by tuesday.
Usual dramas with them, multiple layers on each part of the model and just about going blind trying to paint all the scales on the back.
I'm breaking up the painting of the saurus as they are really draining to paint and I'd go insane trying to paint 15 at once.
I did the command group to have it out of the way early.
Not very ammused at the join line I missed on the drum. :(
So then I'm off to the next town... Gayndah- Population 2,700 and commercial centre for the district.
From the lookout on a nearby mountain looking down on the Burnett river and Gayndah and alot of fruit orchards...
So apart from painting what to do...
I had a couple of hyperkeratotic sun spots on my right army so on a 'sun spot day' at the general practice I decided to use the liquid nitrogen on myself to burn them...
24 hours I'm the proud owners of these...
And a close up of one of them with the aforementioned sun spot.
Eventually I popped the blisters leaving me with 2 lovely ulcers on my army which have scabbed over and left me looking like I've either been shot with a small calibre firearm or someone has put out cigarettes on me.
Other highlights of my time in Gayndah included successfull diagnosing and evacuating for treatment:
A sub dural haematoma.
A deep vein thrombosis
A ruptured appendix.
HUZZAH!
Also at the end of my time in Gayndah I had 2 days off (not even on call) as the regular doctor had returned so would get in some good quality painting time.
So start off wednesday of week 2 wanting to get done skinks and kroxigor.
I finished the skinks by weekend.
Without the shields, very easy models to paint.
And despite the bagging most lizzie player give them compared to javelin skinks they worked a treat at the tourney. With the highlight being taking a hippogriff down to 1 wound in a turn of shooting, allowing it to be killed in combat later by some saurus leaving a very sheepish looking bret general to be knocked on the head by rank and file saurus.
My first unit of kroxigor generated alot of praise at the tourney, them and the salamander conversions were far and away the favorites of the other players there.
I'm so glad I bitz ordered enough parts to do 16 of them before the bitz service ended.
Unfortunately being stuck with 3 troll models I have to mix and match heads and tails and convert weapons, leaving me with this unit:
When compared to the first unit I think its working ATM (considering the current GW kroxiors are 3 unchanging models)
The hard model to change was the one with the rock. So I just bent him as far forward as I could so it would look like the rock is coming down on the enemy's heads.
From the front with the kroxigor from the first unit to show the difference a bit of bending makes
So week 3 rolls around and its time for more saurus and the saurus hero.
I wanted to do the hero as an albino, like the slaan mage priest attendant as this guy would be the mark of the old ones saurus scar vet or old blood with the charm of the jaguar warrior.
I love the paint jobs you're doing on this, Gonads. The little touches of vibrant blue and yellow really add to the overall composition of the painted minis.
I'm a big fan of 'natural colours' and have used them in my last 4 armies. They just look right on the battlefield but you really do need the offset colour- in this case the blue to make the army stand out.
So for the rest of the week I plodded on getting the next 5 saurus done and by friday night had gotten them done by the friday night.
I had spent the friday on a day off in Maryborough, a town of about 30,000 140km away as I had rung the local independent retailer there to see if the had the new vampires book, which the did (the local retailer inBundaberg didn't)
So a 280km round trip, 1 vampire army book, 2 movies and a Mc Donald's meal later I finished the saurus off.
So 2 more days off in Gayndah and I get to make a start on....
STAMPY THE STEGADON
(cue elephant noises)
This model required a phenominal amount of greenstuff to fill the gaps.
And the shaft sticking up on its back is a paperclip which will be used to pin the howdah on.
I acctually finished the last of the model in the next town but more on that later:
So then I'm off to the thriving metropolis of Biggenden, population 1,500, 101km from Bundaberg (important as anyone who has to travel over 100km for imaging or treatment gets a travel subsidy).
So its a sleepy centre which has been inundated with derros (or the drug taking unemployed) who have had to move away from Brisbane and major regional centres due to rising rents and because there is no centrelink within 40km (44km to the nearest one) they don't have to look for work and so han happily sit around all day soaking in the serenity...
A view of the bush from my flat on the last morning...
A view from outside of the hospital.... I ran up and down this street every afternoon on my daily 10km run. Great views with the mountains in the background, and wish I could have gotten to climb them.
Medical wise the only real drama was multi trauma that occured.
A mitsubishi triton ute t-boned a sedan which did a u-turn on the highway without checking the rearview mirrors.
Here is a pic of one, then imagine it shortened at the front by about a metre and a half and it gives an idea of impact speed.
I was running at the time, got 1 minutes heads up, ran back to my flat and grabbed ID badge and stethascope and arrived at the hospital, sweating like a pig in my running clothes as the patient is wheeled in.
A fractured pelvis, fractured ribs, pneumothorax, and ruptured bladder later (with hard collar on for neck injuries) the emergency helicopter was on the way from the sunshine coast to transport the patient to my usual place of work, The Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital.
Pt intubated, cannulated, catherised and paperwork done, readied for transport.
Here is the less than a week old new helicopter which easily accomodates 2 pilots, crewman, nurse, doctor and patient on a stretcher...
$16 million of taxpayers funds to buy and convert and about $700 one way for fuel (400 kms)
And ready to take off...
Also had in my time there:
UTI causing delerium
2 pneumonias
2 deaths (both expected)
3 chest pains
2 thumb lacerations (different people)
3 fractures- 2 in kids
And an early labour (thank goodness I had done OBGYN last year and knew how to do the examination)
I finished the main stegadon model and worked on the howdah and crew.
The material on the side of the howdah is graveyard earth then bleach bone added in 2 highlights drybrushed lightly on.
The rope is bubonic brown, chestnut ink, bubonic brown drybrush, bubonic brown+bleached bone drybrush.
The wood is snakebite leather, chestnut ink, drybrush snakebite leather, drybrushe snakebite leather + bleached bone.
The cut ends of the wood are bleached bone, chestnut ink, bleached bone.
The above sceme was great as I did all the wood and rope at the same time, then the howdah sides, it took no time at all and ended up very consistent accross the model.
Now in the following pics the howdah is not glued down (will be doing that this afternoon). Which is why it looks like its about to fall off in some of the shots.
And a shot from the top showing model placement. I tried to jam them in like on the stegadon box and army book but I think the giant bow crew are too far back.
Next it was onto the terradons (easter long weekend was great, very little work to do on Sunday and Monday and got a heap of painting done).
The 3 terradons came together a treat and were really easy to paint, they really are nice models, a 3rd would be great for variety, hopefully when lizzies get redone GW will do another variant.
From above the view most opponents see them in as they fly around his deployment zone attacking warmachines and march blocking...
So with 4 days to go I start on the last of the saurus- and finish them easily at 7pm on Moday giving me 1 and a half nights without painting (man was it boring having nothing to do).
As promised the unit of saurus on a movement tray to show off the effect.
The black bases are a bit of a downer compared to if I had done them in stone effect, but then the bases as a whole would look dumb.
If only I had cut the bases a little shorter (I'll be doing it in future bases).
So after doing all that I headed back to Bundaberg and having 4 hours to kill I headed off the the Bundaberg Rum distillery.
There I found out that:
96% is drunk in Australia
2% in New Zealand
1% at duty free shops around the world
1% in Alberta Canada... and no one is sure why.
Also Bundy Rum was set to break into the US market a couple of years ago, lifted production by 30% and we Australians lifted our consumption and drunk the lot.
GO TEAM OZ!
So within the year they are going to be producing another 60% on to of current production to sell to the USA, but if Australians want it, we get it first.
So after the Bundy Rum tour it was off to McDonalds for lunch, the airport and home....
I have a tournament this weekend and will get army photos, and if I have time and memory will do a battle report.
I also have a 3000 point tournament in May which I have off from work (night duty finishes 30 minues before play starts) so although I'll be tired I'm not going to miss it.
For that I have to do:
6 chameleon skinks (bought yesterday)
2 kroxigor for 8 total (assembled)
1 skink priest (the one I gave up on painting at the start of the blog)
1 terradon (base coated ready to paint)
x 2 saurus heroes (have both if I stick one on a cold one)
All in about 5 weeks of painting time. I have next week off so hope to get cracking on the kroxigor and chameleon skinks.
But we will see... we will see...
*Damned Dawn Of War Soul Storm and your nefarious addictive gaming which I'm off to play now...*
Great photos from your travels, and despite not knowing thing one about OZ geography I enjoyed it. That motocross track looked quite beautiful, all those hills and such, and so green. Actually that whole area was nice and green, I tend to think of desert and long stretches of endless post-apocalypse highway when I think of Australia :S
Also impressed at the huge range of ailments you took care of, though I suppose I tend to see so many doctors training to be specialists (where the BIG money is) these days and avoiding more general practise or emergency care. Actually, it's a big problem in the States, last I heard.
And finally, great looking models, continue to dig your scheme and bases. You're a real glutton for punishment with those scales, but they really turn out sweet. On the albino saurus, albinos have red eyes, yeah? Can just make out his little black peepers, though I agree that red eyes wouldn't show 100% great with all that pinkish skin.
Luck with that tourny, look forward to the report!
EMS in each place was:
Me the only doctor (general practice and running the hospital)
1 registered nurse and 1 enrolled nurse per shift at the hospital.
1-2 ambulance officers
Could do x-rays on long bones and chests.
Bloods results back by next day.
Trust in clinical judgement and send on anyone sick enough you can't deal with to the tertiary centre.
Placed 8th overall and considering 6 of Australia's best 10 players from last year were there I was very happy with gaming result.
Best of all I won player's choice for best appearance, apparantly by a landslide.
However I think the number of professionally painted armies there may have played a part. There were at least 5 out of 42 IIRC.
Again the Kroxigor were people's favorites conversion.
Feedback from my opponents was that there wasn't enough differentiation for the saurus scar vet compared to saurus- I thought initially this was pretty odd but then realised that they see a mass of scales on the back and alot of gold- pretty similar to the R&F saurus.
In the next couple of days I'll post up pics of the army as a whole and some of the other armies, and if I get time later in the week I'll be doing a battle report.
Play anyone who's been keeping tabs on the progress of the army? I always wanted to have that "OH! You're grey_death!" Moment when I pulled out an army ^_^;
Looking forward to seeing your bat rep when you get the chance. Not that I know what the hell is going on in Fantasy >.>..though I'm more and more drawn to it as the years go by...
I played 40k and fantasy both since 1990.
The first 5 years or so of 40k I played it almost exclusively but for the last 5 years or so its been almost exclusively WHFB.
The use of tactics within the game and the game not being won by who rolls first turn.
Also until the release of Vampire Counts they have had consistently well written rules needing very, very little clarifications and very well balanced units in that almost all are competative if used right, unlike alot of the 40k filler units.
Just tossing a comment onto a really well written blog. I like that you've shared some of the interesting bits of your life in there, too.
I mean, really, art is sort of a reflection of all that's going on around us, am I right? Helps to appreciate it more by knowing what's been going on besides just priming and basing.
I'm a new 40k player, so I like to check out blogs like this for inspiration. I'll be checking back on this, for sure.
BIG March is a Brisbane tournament that has grown over several years from 8 players to 42 this year including several players coming up from New South Wales and included 6 of the top 10 players from last year's Australasian tournament scene.
This is a record of My last game vs Alex Kin Wilde (Bobo Vampire Monkey)
Alex and I have played against each other in almost every tourney we have attended in the last 2 years and we both played VCs for much of that time. I have never beaten him and IIRC the best I have ever done ids to be on the losing side of a draw.
Coincidently we both switched to lizardmen for this year.
The tourney is closed list but (from memory) he had:
4th Gen SMP- BSB with x2 dispel scrolls, bane head
Skink priest with diadem- unsure if 2nd level mage.
Saurus hero with Mark of Old Ones, great weapon, lt armour and shield - joins the salamanders (or other units) so that they don't panic
Saurus hero on cold one, enchanted shield, mark itzl, mark quetzel, light armour, biting blade.... ouch! 14 inch charge, 4 attacks at st 5, -3 armour save to opponennts, 1 attack st 4, -1 armour save!!!!
2 units of 15 saurus with full command
3 units of 10 skinks with javs
2 units 3 terradons
3 Kroxigor
3 salamanders
Stegadon
I had:
4th Gen Slaan mage priest- BSB. Diadem, plaque tepok, plaque dominion.
Skink priest, lev 1, x2 dispel scrolls
Sauru hero- Charm jag warrior, great weapon, lt arm, shield, mark sotek, mark old ones, Aura Quetzl
15 saurus full command
10 saurus full command
2 units 10 skinks with javs- one scouted
10 skinks with blow pipes- scouted. I went with 2 scouting units to either slow enemy advance by hiding in terrain or to give me fewer deployments and therefore get a chance at +1 for roll off for first turn.
3 terradons
2x units 3 kroxigor
Stegadon
3 salamander packs.
So very, very similar armies.
For magic I rolled:
Skink Priest: Phar's Illumination.
SMP: Conflag of doom. Fire ball
Creeping Death
Crown Taidron
Steed of shadows
Alex: All I remember is that his SMP got Pit of shades. :(
I had selected sides so deployed first.
I decided I was going to have a strong left flank and a tarpit middle with nothing on the right.
My Skink priest hiding behind forest, SMP behind forest and saurus hero in the unit of 15 saurus.
Unit of skinks with javs hid behind the forest on his side of the board for the opportunity to slow that flank down.
Alex went with balance with flanking units far out on the edges and the rest in the middle.
SMP in middle of line.
Both saurus heroes in his right saurus unit and skink priest near or with the sallies.
Turn 1 I won roll off and decide to go on the offensive.
My stegadon and 2 kroxigor begin a hooking maneuver to close off Alex's flank and force some of his units to be threatened on the flank. The terradons cower behind the hill and the blowpipe skinks rush up behind the kroxies.
Skink priest valiantly leaps into the forest.
My sMP moves forward so he will be within 24 inches of the enemy.
The scouted jav skinks leap forward from the forest.
Magic: I got off creeping death and killed a couple of saurus
Shooting: The jav skinks killed another one.
Alex's turn 1:
He races forward with the stegadon, but would be out of charge range for either of us next turn.
The saurus on his left got bogged down by: forest restricting mvt, no march, need for sallies to see the skinks to shoot at them.
His left terradons moved forward aggressively.
His right terradons stayed put.
Magic: Pit of shades- dispel scroll. Shooting: The sallies and skinks in the forest blew away my scouted skinks.
My turn 2:
I swing the hooked left flak around fully and drop the terradons right in front of the stegadon, blocking its charge to my kroxies or stegadon.
My salamanders move out of the forest.
SMP moves back.
Saurus units slip back a fraction IIRC.
Magic:
Creeping death and a fireball kill some more saurus from the unit on Alex's right.
Shooting:
Salies kill another 2 or 2 saurus from same unit.
Alex launches his saurus scar vet at my sallies and I flee with them.
he backs his stegadon up.
Note how he has moved his saurus units forward of the SMP so that if a certain scar vet with Jag charm should charge it, he can't support the SMP.
Magic: Bane head + magic missile = 4 wounds on my SMP! OUCH.
Pit of shades- dispeled.
Shooting: Sallies and stegadon shoot at terradons, causing lots of wounds and the survivor flees.
My turn 3:
(Just remembered in my turn 2 I put a wound on the stegadon with my terradon's javs)
Saurus scar vet charges the SMP. The 2 saurus units move forward.
The kroxies and stegadon race forward.
Alex is boxed in nicely and I'm really trying to draw out a mistake.
My skinks (bottom of page) move to head off the terradons and my SMP is far enough away from terradons to not worry about a charge.
The sallies rally.
The terradon doesn't rally and is almost off board
Magic:
Creeping death kills another 3 saurus from Alex's right unit.
Shooting.
The skinks drop a wound on the terradons.
Combat:
The saurus scar vet pulls out his great weapon and manages 2 wounds on the SMP. 1 is done in return... oh dear. :(
Alex turn 3:
Alex's kroxigor charge my unit of 10 saurus and I flee off the table. :( But deny a standard and an overrun into my rear.
His uber saurus scar vet charges my kroxigor.
His stegadon charges my stegadon, I flee to set up a charge with my kroxies, I roll 5 (need 6 to get away) and he pursues straight past my kroxies.
He shuffles his saurus units to charge my saurus scar vet.
Then to add insult to injury he sets up some skinks to divert my kroxies. :(
His kroxies pull back to try and flank my saurus.
The saurus with the Mark of old ones is now with ssallies
Magic:
Pit of shades- dispel scroll.
Shooting:
The sallies and the skinks shoot at my kroxie standing out on the flank and fluff their shots. The sallies acctually eat 3 skink handlers and fail their panic test even with general nearby and reroll 1 dice with mark of old ones!!!
Combat:
Another wound to the SMP and I just make my armour save to save the wound he did to me. I just make ld test. His saurus scar vet fluffs his attacks, I do 3 st7 wounds, and he save all of them on 3+....
*At this point Alex is despondent as I have knocked his general below half wounds. "What are you talking about?" I ask. "They have 5 wounds" he replies. "No they don't" I counter.
Alex looks in rulebook and realises that he has been playing SMP with 5 wounds for 3 tourneys.
LOL*
My turn 4:
Kroxies charge skinks who flee but are caught.
I maneuver my saurus to prevent flank charges.
Skinks with blowpipes move towards stegadon.
Skinks with javs approach terradons.
Magic:
Creeping death into the reduced unit of saurus.
Fireball into the terradons
Shooting:
Sallies blow the rest of the saurus unit away.
Stegadon takes another 2 wounds from blowpipes.
Terradons hammered by javs- 1 wound left and don't panic.
Combat:
My saurus scar vet does 1 wound on the SMP (now on 2). His scar vet does wounds to my kroxies and I can't get back through his armour.
Alex turn 4:
His terradons at the top of the table (the empth 40mm bases) charge my blowpipe skinks who flee.
The large saurus unit finally swings around to hit my saurus scar vet.
The stegadon turns.
The sallies rally
Magic:
Pit of shades- irrisistable force on 5 dice on my SMP, I put out my hand to congratulate him on victory, Alex says to roll the dice for I test, and I roll 1. Much screaming and jumping ensues.
Shooting:
His skinks do a wound or 2 on my kroxies.
Combat:
He challenges with his SMP?!?, I accept, and he kills me with the SMP. :(
His saurus scar vet on cold one smashes my kroxies who hold.
My turn 5:
I charge the flank of his saurus with my saurus- he flees, I redirect into SMP, who also flees. I fail to catch either and so will not be charged by the kroxies in the flank next turn. My skinks with blowpipes didn't rally and flee towards Alex's table edge.
My kroxigor turn to face the stegadon charge...
Magic:
Conflag of doom on SMP: 6 hits, 3 wounds, 1 ward save, dead.
Creeping death and fireball on kroxigor- couple wounds
Shooting:
The skinks in bottom left corner kill the terradon.
The sallies knock another 3 wounds off kroxigor. Now down to 2 models (one with 1 wound)
Combat:
IIRC he manages to kill off my kroxigor here.
Charge with stegadon on my kroxigor
Charge with jav skinks on my blowpipe skinks (run down)
His kroxigor charge my saurus.
His saurus fail to rally.
Spins his saurus scar vet on spot.
Sallies move for more targets.
Magic:
None
Shooting:
Sallies kill off my sallies excepting a couple of handlers- who IIRC flee.
Combat:
His kroxigor bounce off my saurus- I pursue, catch them and end up right behind his fleeing saurus unit. Stegadon also bounces, doing 1 wound IIRC. I hit with 5 of 6 attacks on the stegadon... dead stegadon. The skink unit generated by the dead steggie (the crew) flee and I pursue, catching them.
My saurus charge Alex's saurus who auto flee off the table.
I maneuver units to capure table quadrants.
My skink pries leaps in front of the saurus scar vet to protect the SMP from a last turn charge.
So I finally get a win over Alex.
I finally get to play lizzies with lizzies.
Lessons learnt:
I'm getting better with bait and flee but my stegadon was too close to his stegadon.
If a SMP is running by himself always support him (alex's SMP was never going to die in 1 combat phase, but almost did in 4)
At the tourney ended up with 8th overall and player's choice for best army appearance. Yet another great BIG tourney and am really enjoying the lizardmen.
awesome bat rep gonads ^_^. I really enjoyed reading it all through as you posted.
Really gives me a sense of just how much more tactics are important in the game than 40k. You really can do a lot of cool things while playing. It's not all stand and shoot till things are dead like this other game I've been playing all this time....
someday in the future i'll have to dump some cold hard cash into this one.
Combat:
He challenges with his SMP?!?, I accept, and he kills me with the SMP. :(
One badass frog
Great batrep Gonads, love the pics. And actually, Bobo probably writes my favorite batreps over on TWF so great to see you both go up against each other. You may both be tied for my favorite lizard armies out there
In an earlier game my SMP beat a daemon prince over 4 round of combat, primarily because I got Dazzling brightness off on him twice (WS 1 for next combat round) and a pha's illumination in the last round doing 2 wounds. Then he auto popped on break test.
Scar Vet
Scaly skin (free)
Lt armour
Aura quetzl
Aura itzl
Cold one
Enchanted shield
Biting blade.
150 points.
4 attacks at st 5 and -3 armour save
1 attack at st 4
Most importantly and armour save of -1 base- so even hit by st 7 he gets a 3+ save.
To the pics:
The model is draped in heaps of rat skins- which will make trying to do several cold one riding heroes a challenge (I'm looking to do 4 for my next 2250 army variant)
Now for the giant pics to show off the brush strokes:
I like the way that you did the skinks, but if you are still not happy, you could make the individual skinks a different colour, but where they are touching the ground have them morph into the grey colour. I have seen this done on a Tyranid Lictor, and it looked great.
Otherwise, darkening the skins of the frogs could work in a simpler way.
I was originally going to have them painted up so any gold/ wood or animals they were touching they would be leeching a small amount of colour. Tried it on a test model and it took forever and the need to get them ready for a tourney took over.
Cold one vet is cool, though the fact that the rider and mount have the same skin (and then all those scales, particularly the model's left side) sort of blends the two of them together a bit much. Maybe that was the point?
The camo skinks are also nice, but I had never realized that those were frogs strapped to them. What an odd look, though I suppose appropriate.
Boss_Salvage wrote:Cold one vet is cool, though the fact that the rider and mount have the same skin (and then all those scales, particularly the model's left side) sort of blends the two of them together a bit much. Maybe that was the point?
I have to second this one. I really think they blend together far too much right now. Makes it hard follow the details. Individually they're great, but together it's hard to separate.
I think the skinks could use a wash of dark color to give them the feel of the base color, but still making them their own entity. But that comes down to artistic license really ^_-. All of those poisonous frogs are sort of an odd detail...I don't know much about lizardmen though...I take the skinks have a poisonous blowdart attack?
). The terracota/white scales and shields add a lot, I dig 'em.
But hey there is a head on his thigh, fresh thanks to the blood, so I'll just say he cut off the head with the sickle and ripped out the heart with his hand.
