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Welcome to my 5th dakka army blog.

Lizardmen

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.

Test Model.

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.

So I came up with the following:


Scheme:
Terracotta
Flesh wash
Terracotta highlights
Tanned flesh highlights
Tanned flesh/dwarf flesh highlights
Dwarf flesh highlights

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.

Week 1:

First unit:
10 Skinks with javelins and shields.



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.

- Salvage

I'd have gone with Sotek's Empire Strikes back for Episode 5, but that's just me....

Looking forward to the blog!

Subscribed!

woot! i'm a big fan of your blogs and am looking forward to this one.

Time for the half weekly update.

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 finished skink:




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.

The characters.

Just got the skink on the left ready to start highlights.
Skink on the right is at tanned flesh highlight stage.

I think I'll be using the one on the right as a mage heaps, its really a great model.

More to come in a few days.... if I've had the time to get further.

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.

Thumbs up

- Salvage

Finished the first shaman:

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

Should also be noted that none of the models are varnished yet.

I'll also go back and put some thinned PVA over the blood to gloss it up and there is a little wirk to be done to the base (some grass).

But all that will be done when units are complete.

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.

I had tried other colours on the fins of various test models, probably the best one was dwarf flesh and elf flesh highlights followed by the blue.

But as the models are so drenched in pastels and natural colours I wanted somthing to jump out, so went with the blue.

Finally an update.

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.

Have a few hours coming up to paint the next few days and will give updates as I finish models.

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

Blue fin is a winner, the scheme is nice.

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.

Finished the second batch of 5 skinks last night.

I had 5 hours free yesterday so am pretty much up to full painting speed with 1 infantry model per hour.

Squad as a whole:







These will be used primarily as an anti-shooting meat shield for kroxigor or as scouts to bother warmachines and flanks of armies.

I'm in a bit of a funk at the moment with the second skink shaman.

I'll keep plodding away on him here and there but it could be awhile before I finish it, so I'll progress on another unit.

I'll finish some converted salamanders today and post the results tomorrow.

Also went back and added a dark flesh wash to the 'dirt' between the stones as it was blending in too much to the stone slabs.

Looks sufficiently different now for me to be satisfied with it.

I cant believe you have enough hours in the day to do this!

They look fantastic.

Salamanders....

First off the crew/ handlers.

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.

- Salvage

Did some work on the Salamander squad.

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.


(will have to fix the eye on this side)