Color Schemes for Seraphon

[All.Ideas]

I'm thinking of starting seraphon but am having an unexpected challenge: Deciding on a color scheme.
While many armies have 1-3 core colors, and a few often tied to realism (metal colored weapons, wood color etc.) seraphon are giving me trouble in starting out since there are so few constraints and so many different types of creatures. So picking a color scheme seems more difficult than usual. Combined with the fact that they look lovely in many and bright colors I'm not even sure where to start, let alone how to start painting test minis. I tend to want to make my own scheme rather than use one of the stock ones. Teaches me something about color theory every time, but seraphon are out of my modest skill.

1) How do people pick a coherent scheme? The way I see it there are ~8 different colors needed.
a Saurus
b Skinks
c Big Dinos (Do you group them? Do carnos get a different color from stegaons
d Rippers/Terradons
e Ruins (like on all the stagdons)
f Base
g shields
h highlights (often gold)

2) Of the above how do people group them?
3) Do people generally do all the big dinos with the same colors?
4) are skinks usually the same color as saurus?
5) Has anybody tried non-jungle bases? I was thinking maybe snow or beach or sand dunes or something. Not all seraphon can be jungle...
6) Has anybody tried more shades of a single color. For example, all different colors of blue with a few highlight colors?

Googling has been no help since they all mostly look quite good. I guess thats maybe reassuring that I can't go wrong but doesn't make it easier either.

 

[LizardWizard]

I'm thinking of starting seraphon but am having an unexpected challenge: Deciding on a color scheme.
While many armies have 1-3 core colors, and a few often tied to realism (metal colored weapons, wood color etc.) seraphon are giving me trouble in starting out since there are so few constraints and so many different types of creatures. So picking a color scheme seems more difficult than usual. Combined with the fact that they look lovely in many and bright colors I'm not even sure where to start, let alone how to start painting test minis. I tend to want to make my own scheme rather than use one of the stock ones. Teaches me something about color theory every time, but seraphon are out of my modest skill.

1) How do people pick a coherent scheme? The way I see it there are ~8 different colors needed.
a Saurus
b Skinks
c Big Dinos (Do you group them? Do carnos get a different color from stegaons
d Rippers/Terradons
e Ruins (like on all the stagdons)
f Base
g shields
h highlights (often gold)

2) Of the above how do people group them?
3) Do people generally do all the big dinos with the same colors?
4) are skinks usually the same color as saurus?
5) Has anybody tried non-jungle bases? I was thinking maybe snow or beach or sand dunes or something. Not all seraphon can be jungle...
6) Has anybody tried more shades of a single color. For example, all different colors of blue with a few highlight colors?

Googling has been no help since they all mostly look quite good. I guess thats maybe reassuring that I can't go wrong but doesn't make it easier either.

I just look at various birds of paradise and take inspiration from their colors.

 

[Aginor]

I use basically the same color for Skinks, Saurus and Kroxigors (blue).

My big dinosaurs have all colors I like, except blue (so they have a color contrast against their crews and the infantry).

I painted my two Bastis the same color (similar to the box art) but my second one is more ornate.
I did the same with my Carnosaurs. Both are red with a brighter belly, but one has higher contrast and black tiger stripes while the other doesn't.

I used earth/grass bases as they were simple to do.

One of the great things about Seraphon is that they can be everywhere, and can look however their Slann wants them to look.
So go crazy and do what you want.

Edit: And Welcome to the forums!

 

[ChapterAquila92]

It's best to think of what kind of biome you want them to inhabit and, if you may so choose, from which realm they hail from. I went with a savannah theme for my Seraphon when I started collecting, so earthy colours of khakis, greens and browns have been my default for a long while. After some deliberation, I may choose to emphasize them coming from either Ghyran or Aqshy with more greens or orange-reds respectively.

 

[ravagekitteh]

Colour wise I just went with the already provided Fangs of Sotek colour scheme from the Battletome (if you haven’t looked already there are dozens in there), but in terms of bases I went for a ‘half on sand half on water’ style of basing, as if they are coming out of the sea. Sand bases in particular are really easy to do - just PVA glue and sand (if the option is available to you I would recommend going to a beach and getting sand from there; the more shingle and variation in it the less bland it will look). Water bases were just painted blue, varnished within an inch of their life and had modelling paste shaped on for waves - you can also buy special water effects paint.

But to be completely honest, the fluff of the Seraphon and of the Mortal Realms themselves means you can paint and base them with literally anything and it will still completely fit the backstory. Probably the best advice is just to find an idea or example you like and just run with it!

 

[bOdziO Wolf]

For all the lizardmen and Seraphon colors you can imagine I can say one thing: the faction will definitely teach you to paint gold

There is one thing I can recommend is to use existing photos only as an entry point to the color scheme you are going to use. Cameras love to oversaturate and skew colors. As the result the miniature will look slightly different when seen in person. To give an example I had to paint like 5 models to get the colors I liked and went with 2 distinct color schemes for Skinks (depending on their weapons of choice). Got my inspiration from Total War and had a lot of fun with mixing various paints to get the effects I liked, so (with Steve Ballmer's voice) experiment, experiment, experiment, experiment!

In addition to that you can start with this:

 

[WildColonial Boy]

As everyone has said it depends what you are comfortable with. You can either copy box and or book art or design your own. With lizards you can be as colourful as you like.
I have collected them since they came as one of the armies in the Warhammer box set with Bretonnians. My initial skinks were green or blue with yellow crests. Saurus green with brown scales or blue with black scales. The original book described the spawning pools and how some were marked for greatness depending on their colour. My temple guard were brown, bone coloured scales and leopard skin covered spears, with an albino champion and a black champion. Any skinks that are part of crews or herd big creatures I did differently, Lime green with terracotta crests. All my big monsters are subdued colours like browns and greens as I thought they would utilise camouflage in the jungle. Except Salamanders which are black and bright yellow/orange scales. Natures way of saying DANGER.
The good thing is you can really brighten stuff up with all the ornamentation they have, so lurid coloured feathers, bright gold, etc.

 

[Croco Guard]

I think reptilian creatures from other games are also good inspiration for color schemes. Soul Calibur lizardmen feature several different color schemes through the years. Argonians from Elder Scrolls come in a varieties of color. Personal favorite of mine are monsters from Monster Hunter. Lizalfos from various Zelda games.

Most armies I see keep skinks and saurus the same scheme, but have monsters and cavalry creatures with different colors. No reason why that has to be the case. My large creatures are different colors from each other but I keep cold ones, terradons, salamanders, and the other smaller monsters the same color between species to look cohesive as a unit. Larger ones like two carnosaurs can be different colors just for the spectacle and to stand out in my opinion.