Getting the most out of my battalion box

First time post here, been lurking for a while once I decided to collect Lizardmen as my first serious army, (had a few high elves and the old skull pass set before that)

Finally built up the courage (and the $$$) to order a battalion box for myself the other day, and it arrives in a week or so.
I am about to start my tertiary education so I'm looking to be as frugal as possible when it comes to my Warhammer hobby.

So on to the discussion, in this box are the components to make up 12 Skinks, 20 Saurus Warriors, 8 Cold One Cavalry, and 10 Temple Guard. I know from previous experience, with buying Warhammer models that while you can only make the number of models as presented, you get a large number of extra pieces. How can I make use of these extra's to get some more Dino for my Dollar?

I have also purchased a large pack of rare earth magnets (2mm diameter, 1mm deep), and after a test run on an old high elf model I am confident that I can make all my units modular, and interchange arms/heads.

How would you guys approach this? I was thinking of keeping my actual core units as bare as is appropriate, to free up as much fluff as possible for conversions/unit fillers.

Conversions I think would be possible:

Skink model + Templeguard fluff and elevated base = skink priest?
COR + fluff and strategic pose change (could do an interesting leaping pose as I can magnetise it in place) = Scar Vet cowboy?
Saurus beefed up with extra shoulder pad type stuff = Templeguard?

Would also like to try my hand at unit fillers, might need to get some green stuff, and spare bases. Currently stuck for good ideas however.

Any discussion is welcomed, just throw ideas around and I'll post about how it's going once the box arrives

 

Thanks for the welcome!

The test run i did for magnetising the arms of other models was actually very simple, hand drilling with a 2mm drill bit and a bit of glue, took a few minutes but was no hassle, so I will likely do all the saurus for Spears/HW's and the skinks for javs/pipes. Is there ever a situation where the COC wouldn't take spears? i can magnetise them if need be. 2ss per spear is not cheap for a weapon option.

How simple is it to make chamo skinks from regs? And are chamo skinks really worth the extra points cost anyway? ( over skirmishers)

 

Cold one riders come with hw most of the cases, the spear is overpriced. If you want to build something from the leftovers, you can build a carnosaur and a troglodon from the same box. You can find a sample in the forums

 

OK good to know, I can save some magnets then.
Doubt ill get myself a carno box any time soon, first monster i get will definitely be a Steg, and then i'll probably need to properly fill out my core before buying something that extravagant.

Also, how plausible is it to custom build a slann? I was thinking the palanquin could be made by using two 50mm bases stuck together on top of a flying stand, then building the back out of some polystyrene? Has anyone done anything like this before? Slann cost $100 here in NZ (GW has awful pricing for NZ)

 

I like your thinking sir. I did this same thing to about 20 Saurus and I must say, it was a huge mistake. I took the time as I'm sure you did to get the magnets laid in there just right so that there is no gap between arm and shoulder. The hang up I had is 2 fold.
1) The bloody arms fall off or get twisted in weird directions when you rank the Saurus, since they already don't rank all that well.
2) Nobody seemed to appreciate the extra work, and are fine with just remembering what I am using. Right now I have half HW, half spears and if I want 2 units of spears I just make the front rank of both units spears and fill in the back ranks.

As far as making your money go further, I commonly go to places like Horde-O-Bits or ebay and buy bodies and bases. These are the two components you will never get extra of. You can then slap together more Saurus, TG for about half to 60% of the price of new Saurus. I think TG are the easiest to do this way, I turned the battalion box, and about $23 of horde o bits into 20 TG. I was also able to turn 1 box of terradons into 3 rippers for about $35 (but that was risky because they were all ebay auctions).

Probably the best way to stay under budget is to buy people's completed units on ebay. Most auctions are bad, some are really good. A few months of checking it once a day and you will probably have everything you need. I would advise against getting painted models, they always look better on ebay then they actually are. Also, be prepared to get some poorly built models with a plethora of mold lines and sprue hangnails. For the bigger stuff, like dinosaurs, I would suggest only buying boxes (which you can still get cheaper than retail). My rule of thumb is to take the retail price on GW, and bid 66% of that cost (shipping included).

In retrospect of all of this, I was more interested in "if" I could save money rather than needing to save money (taking the GF out for dinner can cost more than a box of TG), so it is all relative.

The COC spears is a hard question, I thought they were 4/spear. To me, COC either win on the charge, or they are in trouble. I forgo the standard and go with spears assuming the extra strength will award me at least 1 extra kill (to make up for no standard) if not more kills. No parry saves on cav so HWs don't do you anything special.

 

Magnets are great for monsters and vehicles (in other games) and possibly even hero models if you really want to be modular, but as far as standard infantry goes it's a waste of time IMO.

If you want to call spear/shield as blowdart skinks for a game I'm sure no opponent objects. Same as calling Spear Saurus handweapons instead.