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Hi everyone
because my friend are evil, he tricked me with his evilry and subtle manipulation(1) and now i falled for Force of Nature minis. So, long story short, yesterday came to my house Kings of War Force of Nature army box with 30 naiads and 20 salamanders (and more metallic ones) (2)
I also will probably use a lot of contrast colour because a) i love the results i get with just a couple contrast color as a base before applying highlitghts and most important b) those are a lot of minis so i could really appreciate whatever i could to speed up the process (and be able to play the game whenever the virus quarantine end and we can gather around a table)

after several years paiting Blood Angels, whenever i could i try to avoid painting red themed armor. I like the red colour and i really love both Blood Angels Red and Flesh Tearer Red contrast paint but honestly if i could, i like to bring a different colour scheme.

for naiads i thought about Grey Seer base + Apothecary White for skin (i already tested on a blood rage elf and it looks really good) and probably Skeleton Horde or Iyanden Yellow for main armor.
but as for salamanders i have mixed feeling and i'm searching for something different. I think the skin tone has to be brighter while the scale/armor has to be very dark (i like the idea they could be part of an armor made by dragonscale in lieu of natural armor, so i guess can be very different coulor)

i'm looking on internet but i see mostly people use standard colour scheme (grey for skin, dark red for armor, black or red for shield).
do you have some good album or picture to share to let me found some inspiration?
or in your opinion did you found some colour scheme awfully and you advice not use?

so far some ideas i got are
a) Guilliman Flesh (or Skeleton Horde) for skin, and use Snakebite Leather here and there for some darker-tone scales. Armor would be Shyish Purple (maybe with Warp Lightning green shield)
b) Iyanden Yellow skin (brown or red for darker scales and maculas). Armor Black Templar, maybe with black, red or purple shield
c) Guilliman Flesh (and red darker scales) for skin and Warp Lightning armor, maybe with black shield
d) Basilicanum Grey skin and Black Templar armor for a pure black/white theme

what do you think?
i also would like to paint weapon like made by bone or jade or obsidian (but probably i will stick to metal ones for simplicity sake and for speedyer paint)

as for bases, these would be mainly dark brown base with very bright coloured leaves.(3)

Thank you for your advices!!


(1) it was a veeeery long and subtle manipulation, something like "we like to play KoW. do you whanna join?" and i resisted very hard for several long minutes. Even more than 10!
(2) first batch for it... i added also some centaurs, more forest shambler and some sylvaneth i will proxy as hunters of the wyld and beast of nature
(3) i already experimented a way to create fast but really nice bases i could use for an army with Astrogranite painted with Cygor Brown + several birght highlight (like Rakhart Flesh or vallejo's Parasite Brown) + Agrax Earthshade to soften down tones. On top of that, i glued Autumn Leaves from Green Stuff World. I could make some variation using a (very very very cheap) green tea as "dark yellow and green leaves" and/or with several yellow or brown bushes. I have some pictures from Blood Rage minis but i failed to upload it... i will update as soon as i manage to upload decent pictures :-D

Try searches for lizards, reptiles, or snakes for inspiration.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=lizard&FORM=HDRSC2 The red and blue lizard is a Red-headed agama lizard. The turquoise of the tail could work with a bone-colored armor. Opposite of what you posted, but it could work. Alternately, a bright green skin with black armor to represent obsidian (highlight with gray).

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gila%20monster&qs=HS&form=QBIR&sp=1&pq=gila&sc=8-4&cvid=08C0FDDB8CC7431CA5391F9742E02E60 Gila monsters are orange and black.

My lizards are 5th ed GW Sauruses, and are unarmored, but I used emerald green for skin, dark forest green for their crests & dermal plates, and gold/bronze for weapons.

Thanks for your help
the gila monster pattern is cool but probably way more time-consuming than speed painting i have in mind. I could use it for a champion, however... or look at the color as a skin/armor pattern
nice the idea of black armor with very bright highlight (grey and white highlights, with black templar contrast paint, could be good)

but i fear green contrast (warp lightning) is way too "intense" for it :-|
i could try using death guard green for some highlight

or i could try using Skeleton Horde, Basilicanum Grey and Snakebite Leather for some individua variation...

each-uisge wrote:
Thanks for your help
the gila monster pattern is cool but probably way more time-consuming than speed painting i have in mind. I could use it for a champion, however... or look at the color as a skin/armor pattern

You're welcome. Using the gila monster pattern as a skin/armor pattern was what I had in mind, so orange with black armor. Still, using the actual skin pattern for a champion or other character is a good idea. There are also coral snakes, who are red, black, and yellow (or red, black, and white, depending on species). Those would make for a very colorful hero!

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:

each-uisge wrote:
Thanks for your help
the gila monster pattern is cool but probably way more time-consuming than speed painting i have in mind. I could use it for a champion, however... or look at the color as a skin/armor pattern

You're welcome. Using the gila monster pattern as a skin/armor pattern was what I had in mind, so orange with black armor. Still, using the actual skin pattern for a champion or other character is a good idea. There are also coral snakes, who are red, black, and yellow (or red, black, and white, depending on species). Those would make for a very colorful hero!

I like your idea of coral snake or gila monster pattern for an Hero!

i guess i will build next batch of salamanders with 2h weapons for wider array of troops. So long, probably i will not use a standard bearer but a "different coloured and armed" salamander as a "center of the line marker". This one i could also use standlone as a proxy for an hero if i need it and painting with a gila monster or coral or whatever could be very coloured is a good idea

besides, i tried painting a couple of salamander yesterday with slightly different colour pattern:
https://i.imgur.com/hFQG7dx.png
the left one use a snakebite leather colour while the right one use skeleton horde. I guess i will paint all my salamander with skeleton horde colour save for a couple of them that will be snakebite leather just to add a little bit of diversity on the regiment...
i did those one in litterally 1 day, plus half/on day for basing (astrogranite need several hours to fully dry...)

The test sally with the skeleton horde looks great!

Thank You!
i updated my imgur page with the complete first troop of salamanders

https://imgur.com/a/x56ods7

soon i'll update with more and more and more and more pictures so stay tuned :-D