Hi, This morning i went and splurged on a new Lizardmen army. And i literally cannot wait until i can get on with it. My problem is, i really REALLY like the Black and Orange paint scheme that is on the first couple of pages of the Codex, the Carnosaur i think it is. So i will be using that for all my beaties, whether they be Cold One or Bastilodon or whatever. My question to you experienced Slaans, is what colour should i do the actualy Saurus?Should i keep them the same Black and Orange, or an entirely different Spot colour. Or all Orange? Or all Black? Thanks for the help.
From personal experience I'd say that your regular saurus and your beasts needs something in common. They don't have to be the same colour though, just something to link them together. This makes the entire army more coherent to look at. Using my own minis as an example. I have yellow skinks in every unit since it's an all skink army. Therefore yellow becomes a universal colour throughout my army, making it look more coherent and tied together. Given that saurus isn't present in every unit then I'd say that you should consider painting orange and/or black somewhere on your saurus. This could be spots on the back or possibly painting their shield the same way as the beasts. The saurus themselves could be any colour though. Personally I think a good blue or lime green colour goes well with orange. But use any colour you'd like really! One of the best aspects of painting Lizardmen is the wide and vivid pallet that comes naturally with living creatures.
Oh, you migtht try adding a touch of blue to you black paint, this will give it a better contrast to the orange. Oh and with Lizardmen, it's perfectly ok to paint outside the lines. you might try some interesting orange and black patterns like this one.
I just painted my slann black and orange. But for my saurus i will go for brownish belly, black scales and a few orange accents on the face. For sallys i wiil go for orange bellys and black rest with a few orange accents
One thing that I considered is that although I wanted my beasts, saurus, and skinks to have the same colour scheme, I had to keep in mind that they are still different species, so there still probably will be some variation in colours. It would almost look better that way, providing a bit of contrast between models.
Well, I just love orange, so I'm probably not the most unbiased person to talk, but I would do the Saurus Warriors fully in orange. Lighter or brownier on the skin, darker and stronger on the scales. Then you could add some black stripes and/or dots here and there. That would tie nicely with the big beasties that have more black in them. You could also use black to signify strength of the model, so the more black it has, the stronger it is. This way, you could use more black with your characters, or even mix black/dark brown and orange for the scales. Ah, the possibilities... Well, these are just my suggestions. Hopefully you can find a solutions that pleases you. Good luck with your painting!
Long ago when Saurus were metal I had a unit painted in black and a red-orange similar to that frog. My recommendation -- don't do it. Use a color scheme that follows the natural contours and divisions of the model. Warhammer models are small, and a camouflage-like pattern that breaks up the shape of the model ends up looking really bad on a unit-wide basis. They actually looked kind of cool individually, but not so good as a unit. If you are going to use these colors, do it more along the lines that Caprasauridae suggests.
There was a time when I did a lot of painting, and then a time when I didn't...my paints dried up, and one day I got the bug to do some painting. What colors were left in working order for me? Black and orange. So how did I paint my new unit of spear Saurus? Like tigers. Orange all over the bodies, black stripes across them. I'd say I have mixed feelings about them. On one level, I feel a little stupid copying a mammal's fur pattern for a reptile's scales. On the other hand...that bright orange is pretty eye-grabbing on the table. And my friends all love them. Orange and Black is a pretty powerful contrast, so I think you could drop the tiger stripes (unless you like the idea) and, between the scales, underbellies, skin and equipment, take your pick of where to apply the orange and where to apply the black, and end up with something that looks pretty sweet...if, that is, your definition of "sweet" is stark contrasts and intense colors.