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I'm hoping to break away from the common blue lizardmen, and found a good mix I intend to use for skin. My problem is the intended color for the scales (Hawk Turquoise) is a complete flop as it blends almost completely with the scaly green/chainmail basecoat. I really like to see scales that clearly stand out from the skin tone, but again would like to avoid blue. Somewhat concerned about purple as well for fear of Barney references haunting my every battle. In any case, without further rambling, here is the test model.



Black? Terracotta? Red? Brown? Dark Angels Green? Or something else entirely. Thanks in advance for you input.

I think a dark wash will look really good, and then paint up his scales to be similar to a crocodile, if that makes any sense.

Use yellow to make the scales pop out on these guys. Also purple would look cool but I can understand the fear.

Another way would be to highlight the edges of the scales. It would be very time consuming but would look great.

Or just drybrush a ligther tone on...

Grey would look pretty solid. Then hit them with just about any was for flavor.

I say this because my Lizardmen are a similar color.

Ok, on second thought, maybe don't do the scab red with the blood red highlights, because it will look like a poisonous frog that way. You could go with brown-ish scales and then for the spines do Graveyard Earth with Bleached bone to make them look like boney spines. It'll look pretty hardcore.

Seriuosly Dakka Dakka? "Elusive Dryad"? WTF mate, WTF...

Alright guys, thank you very much for your input, here's what my test piece looks like now! Further input greatly appreciated! These are obviously not meant to be finished models so sloppiness is moot, I'm simply looking for color compatibility.

The upper back on this guy was painted terracotta with a brown ink wash
The leg was done in red gore with a chestnut ink wash. So far I think this is my favorite.
The tail was done in red gore with a purple ink wash. It is somewhat hard to distinguish in the picture, but in person his tail screams Barney.

Also, as you noticed I'm certain, I painted the two caps on the back-spines in silver and gold. Opinions one way or the other here as well are appreciated. I was leaning towards gold, probably with a chestnut ink wash as well?


And in the vein of yellow scales... I have misplaced my Iyaden darksun, and with just sunburst yellow the scales came out looking so bad I am not even taking pictures of them. However, yellow has still inspired me! Here's where I went with it. Now this model was not based at all and took a couple coats of sunburst to get really yellow, so it doesn't look high quality. Anyway, the scales were painted Blazing Orange, and I went with a Purple ink wash. I did not do a brown wash because I was kinda concerned about blending the colors too much... but it kinda looks cartoony? I'm not sure. In any case, here's the model, opinions here too please!


Once I find my ever-elusive Iyaden, I'll probably repaint some things and post more pictures. Thanks for all your input so far!

i would use adeptus battle grey and then do claws, spines and other such apendages sept orache.

I'm not entirely sure I understand what it is you are recommending? The base coat, or lack there-of, on the yellow model was out of laziness, not that I thought it would look better this way. As for using Tausept, instead of Iyaden (if I understand you correctly?) might work to base the yellow model in at a later point. Now time to see if I can find that paint pot too...

I like the yellow but also think if it was Iyaden it would look a bit better. also the orange scales look great.

Lengthy delay on the update, but I have progressed to a point I am pretty happy about! Here's what I've got so far.

I took another test model (from a unit of saurus who were killed in a move from one house to another) and based him in Iyaden, then dry brushed bleached bone. After some thought I decided to try a striped pattern of wash. The first one was kinda on the light side, so I went bold and broke out the brown inkwash. I'm very pleased with the results.

First (too light) wash


Second (dark Brown) wash


Picking out some details...


Thank you to everyone who helped with input so far, I sincerely appreciate it!

Now, my fellow Dakkites, here's my latest quandary. How shall I base them? What he's on now is simply what I had on hand to hold the model.

Personally I think you should put sand on the base. It would match the color of his scales nicely. You could make your army like a group of desert lizardmen. It doesn't really make sense fluff wise but who cares.

I like desert test model the best and agree with the post above that putting sand on the base would be awesome!

Nice. I would go with putting some greenstuff on the base and then use an xatco knife to make it look like a dry lake bed.

I really like the last one. That scheme would work well for different colours too.

I really like the cracked lake bed idea! Thank you! I've been brainstorming ways to do that, and since GS is kinda on the expensive side, I thought about maybe investing in cardstock (1/8" perhaps?) and jigsawing out some pieces and gluing them to the base, clean off the edges and then make some smaller slices after base coating it, and give it a wash to really bring out all the cracks, big and small. What do you think, workable? Here's the picture I'm using as reference for how cracking looks, but I'll probably be leaning more towards a red clay look, as I want the models to still stand out against the bases, not blend in too much.



Edit: Also, what do you recommend on how to actually go about painting a red clay base like that? Vermin brown with a red inkwash perhaps?

That is some solid painting. I rellay like how old/worn lookinghe is.

they make temple bases in resin which would easily look like dried lakebed.

Looked about for the resin bases you mentioned and came up dry (pun intended ) so if you know where to find them specifically, please point me in that direction.

Still looking for some ideas on how to paint red clay, if anyone has attempted this before and found a good way, or even tried it and found one or two ways that do NOT work, I appreciate the help.

Lol very nice but it is up to you.

Suitable square bases here

Your colour scheme looks good. Maybe paint some of the decorative bits as jade to throw some complimentary colours in there.

The striped desert scheme looks good. The yellow... not really working so well for the saurus, but keep it in mind if you ever add salamanders, I think it could work well there.

@Morgrim; yeah the yellow (and all early pictures) were simply WiP shots that resulted in the final scheme of desert-stripes. But taking a more vibrant route with the Sallies is a good idea...

@plastictrees; thank you for the link! And that jade idea is awesome! ... but I don't have the first clue as to how to paint jade

And now for updates! I went to our local Hobby Lobby and picked up some milliput to try my hand at making the bases myself... I am very happy with the results! Still, this is my first attempt with this kind of thing, so any constructive criticism is appreciated, since I will be basing my whole army this way, I'd rather improve on it now rather than half way through the army . Enough talking, here's the pics!

Initial sculpt...


based it white, then gave it a chestnut inkwash...


liberal drybrush of desert yellow...


highlight with bleached bone, add a little dead grass...



and mount the test model on it to get a big picture result!






So, opinions? I thought about stopping at the inkwash stage, or going with a terracotta drybrush instead of a desert yellow to go with the red clay idea, but was really digging the desert theme. I may sculpt up another base and do that anyway. Looking forward to hearing what you guys have for me.

May I recommend not using chestunut inkwash on a base? As it is OOP and very very handy I would conserve it, try devlan mud wash which is in production as that would fulfill the same function.

With reference to the bases,

http://www.shop.microartstudio.com/battle-bases-c-3.html

Alrighty, back again after a brief hiatus for summer travel. Tried out a more "red clay" look and would like to see what you guys think, and if there might be a way to make it look better. Here's how I painted it; a Calthan Brown Basecoat, with a Chestnut Inkwash (yes, I understand it's OOP, and have dug around and found a company who still sells it but under a different brand). I then drybrushed Red Gore and highlighted Vermin Brown. I'll be adding little bits of dead grass like my base in my last post, and prolly some skeleton bits too from the VC and TK range. Anyway, enough talking, here are the pictures.



And here's a shot with my ever-worse-for-wear test model, now missing both feet



Thanks for your advice and opinions in advance!

I'm digging the under-shading on the white scales.