Blog Wannabe lizard wizard… Toltecatl's lil' lizzards and stuff!

Hey everyone!
So lately I've been very busy with work but I still started feeling like hobbying again a little, for some reason. As Lizardmen appealed to me I thought I'd experiment with them a bit, so I bought the starter box as it's the "cheapest" option in terms of number of models vs price ratio. Hopefully I'll be able to mess with painting and converting them for a while (all the more since I've been running through the various blogs on this forum and that's given me the itch to try for myself) and then, when I get the time, get more models and go playing!

So that's how the fun begins ^^ I hope I'll get the time to keep a good pace with this thread and most of all, I hope you guys will enjoy it and share some ancient wisdom to help me hone my skills

Sooo, for the last week I've been starting to play around with the lizardy lizards
In terms of general plan, I've been through the tactical part of the forum a little and came out with the conclusion that a knight army may be a little inconsiderate for me right now, so I've chosen to start with a Temple guard base.
I'm considering building the contents of the box as follows:
- oldblood on carnosaur obviously
- 8 knights with lances (maybe one of them will be converted to become a scar veteran on Cold one though, I need to check whether I've got all I need in the kit… BTW, which weapon would you guys endow a scar vet on C.O. with, in terms of gameplay?)
- 12 warriors: I'm hoping to start converting at that point by making them into a TG unit so lots of Green stuffing needed here…

I'll be starting with the Knights since I'm not planning on fielding them all that much for now… so I can experiment with colour schemes, green stuffing and mess around with the bases (which I love doing).

For starters, here are my first two cold ones (i'm assembling the riders separately). I've found the models not that easy to assemble as the cracks are everywhere… they really should find a way to cast the head in one piece So it took me quite a while. I also had to remove the little sculpted grass and ground from the second one's paws, as I decided to set it on the labyrinth base on the left. The green stuff thing is a little marble plate for the wall, I'll glue it on with a couple other greenstuff decorations this week hopefully
As for the other one, it's hardly seeable on the picture but I found some transparent cobblestone-pattern plastic film the other day and decided to try it, in between the pieces of cork. Also tried to go for a little comet and a couple stars on the round one, I hope it'll turn out fine. I'm wondering whether I should take off the sculpted grass and earth on that one's paws as well… What do you guys think?

And as an aside, here are two mureens I also got recently got them second hand unfortunately, and the guy obviously didnt have a clue how to use plastic glue properly so I'm gonna have to get some green stuff action going too I'm still going for weathered armours (love piercing holes in things ^^) and corky bases though, including this little chaotic 2-heads-on-a-pole thingy , which I'll attach at the back of the power-fist one (theres a small circle on which i'll paint a Chaos symbol, as a sort of sacrificial circle )

Let me know what you guys think! Advice is always welcome

I love the bases of your riders!! And yes, they are a pain to build. About the grass, I´d remove it and pin it instead, but if you are not going to in it then I would think it over as it is possible that if if falls to the floor or gets hit somehow it is more likely to snap.
The space marines also look really good, he did a good job except for the glue as you said . How are you going to fix if? are you going to scratch if off or something else? Maybe you could add a greenstuff tabard over the leg of the guy of the left, and on the flying backpack add some purity seals maybe. And also make sure you remove the mold lines

Looks really good!!

Jorgik said:

I love the bases of your riders!! And yes, they are a pain to build. About the grass, I´d remove it and pin it instead, but if you are not going to in it then I would think it over as it is possible that if if falls to the floor or gets hit somehow it is more likely to snap.
The space marines also look really good, he did a good job except for the glue as you said . How are you going to fix if? are you going to scratch if off or something else? Maybe you could add a greenstuff tabard over the leg of the guy of the left, and on the flying backpack add some purity seals maybe. And also make sure you remove the mold lines

Looks really good!!

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Well thanks I'm doing my best! I really love bases and the way they interact with the model's pose.

I may indeed pin it dow, all the likelier since I can be pretty clumsy and it's happened before... I agree with you: the grass would look weird since the base won't have a lot of it once painted.
So about the glue, the guy did an appropriate job indeed, yet the bits of earth under the marines' feet were half melted because of the quantity of glue he used… and the right hand side one has a weird position, he's kinda arching backwards (you can see the groin protection part is larger than usual, he almost left the round top of the leg part uncovered…). And since plastic glue is so efficient and theres so much of it I cant really remove anything without damaging some bits … Scratching it off wouldnt do either as plastic glues melts the plastic down, so as you can see on the left-hand side the part between groin and leg already has a little less volume than usual. I'm def not substracting more volume. So… greenstuff indeed! Exiciting. I'll post the updated pics when I'm done, and hopefully I get to post the entire squad pretty soon.

As for the saurus knights, I've got a couple ideas for the other bases, including sculptures on the ground (green stuff/cardboard), rocks and possibly one of them (if i do make a scar vet, i guess it'd be him) standing atop a little waterfall… this may be a little complicated though
Any other ideas? I'm all ears!!

Not any so far, keep pics coming!!

oh, that i shall ^^

Sooo we've got some green stuff on now… Trying to figure out the best way to integrate my green bits into the ruins' composition.




… And as you can see on the pics, I also did some work on the Marines in order to hide part of my seller's glue/mould line adventures.



Hopefully I'll be able to get those bases finished soon and go on to the rest of the Knights and Sternguard units!

After that we'll have some space marine scouts:
-1 sergeant which I've been meaning to paint for ages now but never had the time to,
- 5 snipers which I just bought second hand and need to rebase (the guy basically left their bases blank), basecoat and paint

And then, on with the lizards, a hundred per cent (unless I try and assemble a couple Tau at some point…) <3

I just realized there was nothing painted yet on this 'painting' blog. So I thought I'd picture some older models to apologize for the delay

Painted models are good.
And nicely panted models at that.

Can't wait to see your take on Lizardmen.

The totems look real cool and so do the marines.
You have a very clean painting style btw

Edit: What happened to the space marine´s base?!?!?

Thanks for the support guys I really hope the totems will blend in and not be some kind of weird addition to the ruins.

As far as painting is concerned I just really love it and I never had a problem playing with basecoated armies… so I always try hard on every model as I feel I need to get more experienced so that I do the sculpting justice
those are the best I've painted so far and theres still so much to improve! the flipside of this is that I need hours to complete a single model. So hopefully I'll be able to quicken the pace with the lizards and get a proper army together asap :/

so yeah, @n810 I can't wait either… I feel like the lizards will be a whole different challenge as they have little metal, little armour, little textile… it's all about smooth skin tones and nicely lit scales. Thats what I admire about painters such as our friend Crowsfoot on this forum, the ability to have a clear vision of where the light is going and how it will be rendered on the model. Looking forward to it… actually I might just finish the first Scout unit and then start the Knights at once, impatient as I am ^^

@Jorgik well that has to do with the gluing habits of the previous owner… He put so much glue under their feet that I wont force them off the bases for fear of breaking something, so I just decided to cut off the part of the base where the foot was glued… Lol. And I thought after all, why not just keep the same bases, as long as they are stable

Toltecatl said:

so I always try hard on every model as I feel I need to get more experienced so that I do the sculpting justice

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It´s exactly the same with me . Nice base story, by the way

lol thanks its cool to hear even an injured or maimed base can find love out here ^^

I'm a Marine player myself, DA, always good to see fellow Loyalists.
Your Greenstuff work is awesome, do you follow a pattern or are you just very creative.

Jamie Searle said:

I'm a Marine player myself

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We won't hold that against you.

Thanks @Jamie Searle ! What chapter? I was going with ultras but I think this assault squad and my upcoming sniper scouts may become salamanders after all, as i'm pretty curious to experiment with new colours… Anyway, the witch and the daemon shall perish, the heretic shall be brought down, and the mutant be burnt to ashes

Basically I try to come up with stuff that doesnt create too much disruption with the rest of the model, so it's clearly GW style… And it's also aimed at what I enjoy (or try to get better at) painting, so theres quite a lot of fluid textures, parchment… And then I get ideas as I go!! (like the chainmail on top of the robe, it helped me cover the part where it's inserted under the belt which didnt look very realistic and got me something funny to paint ^^)

Some additional work on bases I've been busy with yesterday it's not finished, i've got some details to add but I'm hoping it'll look fine once finished and painted! feel free to give me feedback. These have made some progress since then but i forgot to keep the pictures to date so what you can see here is the beginning of two of the four bases I did, plus another one I finished (the smaller one with the sewer.)

I've also been doing more greenstuff bits, I'll add pics as soon as it's done (there are lianes and plants for the seraphon bases etc)… stay tuned!

These look awesome so far!

thanks mate i hope i can paint them properly as well once i get the chance to go for it !! (that is very soon… right now i've got 2 marine bases to finish, then 4 saurus knights one, and then i'll be priming them all at last and painting them, before turning to my Scout snipers and engaging with the Warriors to TG conversion work )

Wow those look great. Have you ever thought about making some kind of small diorama?