Hey Everyone. I have decided to create my own painting log here to get some motivation to paint more. I have read that sharing projects with others is the greatest way to do this as enthusiasm builds with the ideas others create. A little history - I have been collecting Lizardmen for roughly 10 years and most of my force has been the standard dull grey of the unpainted for pretty much all of that time. After joining a London based Warhammer club in april I have grown more anxious to get my army painted up to look good along with my new friends minis and the fantastic scenery we have there. I painted a unit of 10 Temple Guard, about 6 years ago, using the fluff and a similar scheme to the one I describe below. But decided to modify the colours slightly at the beginning of this year. Of the pics below only one is a completely painted mini the other two are WIPs. The Fluff - As the title of this post suggests my Lizardmen inhabit the area close to the Huahuan desert. The temple city of Huahuan itself resides in an Enormous valley called 'The Valley of the Blind Serpent'. The valley is located in the mountains to the east of the boarder between the Huahuan Desert and The Reeking Mire. Running throught the temple city is a wide river at the bottom of which, legend tells, sleeps the favourite of Sotek's beasts 'The Blind Serpent'. The river runs between the desert and the mire creating a natural boundary. The Colours - The usual blue colours of the lizards have always looked good to me however our hobby is one of creativity and from the first look at the models I decided to paint them yellow. The narrative has been built around the colour scheme. Yellow and brown: The Yellow bodies and brown scales are a natural camouflage of the arid climate. So those lizardmen that spawn there are these colours. Blue: Shields - The shields come from animals that are farmed or found by the skinks in caves. The deep blue colouring keeps them hidden in the dark. They are used for food & armour and range in size. Details - Things like the bracelets and spear tips are also blue. Some are stone painted blue by using ground up scales of the creatures afore mentioned. These are mainly the jewellery, stuff that doesn't need to stand the test of battle. The other parts are made from huge boulders of blue stone that are found around the mountains. Found in huge craters these massive rocks are meteors that fell during the time before even the Old Ones came. The material is a hard stone that can be manipulated by the Skink Priest-Smiths of the region who use Celestial magic to make much needed weapon fixings. (Note that these are not magical weapons as the spells are used to shape the stone, not to bind a spell to the weapons.) White: White marble that is hard and can be chipped into spear tips and other weapons using a refined method of flint knapping. Cream stone: Similar to the white marble only softer, lighter and more common. This makes it better for use in buildings, howdahs and large banners. Bases: Dessert/rocky/marshy. The last will most likely be used more for Chameleon Skinks, Salamanders & Razordons and a Troglodon if I get one. So without further ado here is what I have painted in the above scheme so far: Skink Priest Huitti'Xtap I painted this guy in March and was the first model I had painted since the previous march. He was the first using the updated scheme. 5 x Saurus Warriors I started painting these guys last week. The Spawn Leaders weapon along with the banner and all bases are not finished. I also need to rectify a couple of mistakes i.e. the accidental wash splash on the Standard bearers face. Stegadon For the war beasts in this army I have decided to go with random colours This is as they don't live in the caves mentioned above. It will be cool to see how the different colours contrast or compliment my army. The first picture is with an undercoat of Black spray, Caliban Green base and a Biel-Tan Green wash (undiluted). This pictures shows the front section of the model with Watered down Knarloc Green as the next layer and as a test I have higlited some of it with a 1:1 mix of Knarloc Green & Ushabti Bone (watered down 1:1). And that is it for now. More to follow later on in the week hopefully. Let me know what you think. Thanks SoN
pretty good so far, Although I think the white and cream could use some edge highlights, as they look a bit too much like white primer... I rather like your take on th priest an dthe green steg is coming along nicely. Ps. is that Norfolk UK or US ? (I live somewhat near the US one)
Thanks for the feedback. The priest was probably the most fun I've had painting in a number of years and the steg is proving good to paint as I have never painted anything as big before. (I know. I'm behind the times, especially with kits like Nagash coming out) I'm going to knock the pure white down a notch and darken it with a bit of grey so I can then highlight properly. I am from the Norfolk in the UK. Nice to hear from someone in the Norfolk across the pond.
Holy crap...for not having done much painting for the better part of a decade, you've done a fantastic job! I can't wait to see bases and more models
Nice scheme, very well executed! Love that skink priest, and I was actually thinking of heading towards a dull yellow to offset my ice-blue equipment/weapons! Thanks for showing me how it would look!
I wouldn't go for a pure grey, it allways looks a bit flat, instead add a tiny bit of color to the grey, (blue or yellow is usualy good) Since pure grey is a prety rare shade of stone in realy life.
Thanks. No worries. It's good to hear of more yellow lizards, it would be good to see pics. Do you have a blog or something? I think a tint of blue is in order then. Thanks! I'll have a few more pics of the Steg tomorrow so watch this space!
Here is an update on my Stegadon! I haven't had a lot of time to paint since my last post so progress is slow. Has anyone got any ideas on what colour the underbelly should be? I was thinking a fleshy colour but can;t decided if it would look good or not.
I really like your yellows. I'm having a lot of trouble getting my yellow to look crisp and bright while still being shaded (it looks kind of dirty and gross - like it's been buried in a sewer, rinsed off, then left out in the sun too long). What colours are you using to get that nice yellowy goodness?
You could do something like I did my cold ones... (green and Orange) but you could do a yellow highlight. http://www.lustria-online.com/threads/heres-my-lizardmen-army-so-far-spaming-the-gallery.3032/ (scroll down a bit for the tutorial)
I think i'm going to try a mixture of the two. It sounds weird to mix green and orange however with a little flesh tone mixed in too with a highlight of bone I think it may come out great. I hope. I'll do a test this weekend and upload pictures so you guys can see.
Thanks Fhanados! These are the colours I use. Base: Averland Sunset Wash: seraphim sepia Overbrush: Averland Sunset Overbrush: Yriel Yellow Highlight: Flash Gitz Yellow When overbrushing I always kept the brush at a 45 degrees, or lower, from the part of the model I was painting. I'll try and do a step by step in the future. Also I think I got all the names correct.
So, I have been a bit distracted in the last couple of weeks. Some skinks demanded my attention so I decided to paint them to give me a slight break from the Steg, and then I made a skirmish tray for them. I also managed to base the 5 Saurus too. I have a little bit more to do on them. The colour of the white details needs to be changed. I've decided to go with an ice blue crystal colour showing how the sharp spear points and other weapons/armour is made from crystals found in the cave systems. The banner needs finishing too. Just a chalky sandstone colour highlighted with white. I'll make the ice blue whiter. I still managed to get a bit done to the Stegadon. Just the scales really. I like the idea of the orange being on the model somewhere. n810 mentioned making the underside orange however for this particular mini i'm going to flip it up and stick some orange on top and paint his belly a creamy green colour. I mocked up how the orange might look. Thats all for this time. Hopefully I can finish what I shown so far and then start on the next piece of cold blooded goodness!