Old Schooler New to Lizzies

[Lord Tsunami]

looks great as usual

i would have gone with a more white tone on the spikes and teeth though, to contrast better with the orange/yellow.

the custom made base turned out really well. adds a bit more character to the model. very well done

 

[FavoredoftheOldOnes]

Looking good as usual. The paint scheme really matches the monitor picture you were after. THe base is really nice too.

 

[Ihx-Karaq]

Amazing sallies! Simply amazing! Cool with some bright color to contrast the army, thinking about doing something like this to my otherwise tan/brown/yellow lizards.

 

[T`hinker`er]

Thanks guys! I'm really happy with the results and not that this one is painted hopefully it will do as well in the game as the other one. For some reason the painted minis always seem to perform better

So the next project is to convert up a big unit of Saurus with spears, again using my vast collection of 5th edition plastic saurus. Before I had my kid and took a break from playing (11 years ago!) I purchased one blister pack of 2 metal saurus with spear, intending to have one unit with hand weapons and shield and the other be a spear unit. Admittedly, in 8th edition the spears aren't really worth the extra point, but I want the variety visually, and in larger games I think the few extra points won't make or break my army. Who knows, maybe some day those extra attacks will actually make the difference in winning?

So here are the two metal figures that I have, and that I am basically using as front rank figures in the unit:



The older edition spears are more primitive looking than the ones used by the new plastic saurus, but I like them a lot frankly - they go well with the image of Saurus as brutes who care nothing for fancy ornamentation (leave that to the Skink artisans).

So here is how I am going about making Saurus spear arms, step by step:



(1) cut length of brass rod to the length of a spear and shape spearhead out of putty that is 1/2 greenstuff (for durability) and 1/2 milliput or something similar that can be filed without shredding; (2) file spearhead to a nice sharp point, clip off plastic hand weapon, drill hole with pin vise and glue the spear into the hand; (3) cover spear shaft with putty evenly; (4) sculpt wood grain, knots and other texture; (5) finish off by wrapping very thin wire around the base of the spearhead...and voilà!

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me:



The next step after this will be to sculpt/convert a command group for this second unit of Saurus ...stay tuned for that!

 

[Lord Tsunami]

sweet! i agree that the older spears are way cooler than the modern ones. i upgraded an old saurus unit to having spears by stealing the spears from a friends skeletons. they are decent too. (no, they are very old and ugly and i wont show pics! ) but your GS work is top notch as usual, and you will be better off this way

 

[strewart]

They are cool looking spears, nice work! It will look good in a unit of them.

 

[nuklearangel]

A lot of work, but you've already shown your dedication to the old ones with your massive sculpt work modding the old lizzies. The updated/antiquated spears look fantastic! Also, I just found you on Troll Forged forums, and it made me wonder if you ever totally finished the Crocksigors up. Adding some scales etc, I for one would love to see Trygon cast em up!

 

[T`hinker`er]

Hey 'Nuke, that is indeed the plan as I would like to make my Krox available to everyone and I really don't have the time these days to take on another giant casting project (saving my remaining silicone and resin for my Temple Guard unit...which is at least a few months off!). Apologies to all for not keeping up with the Krox sculpts - I have been working on them a little, but the need for more Chameleons, a painted unit of CoC, spear saurus and terradons has pushed the Krox to the back burner for a while. Also, that business of chopping the end of my finger off didn't help - but thankfully it has healed up really nicely, and I was even able to play guitar again over the weekend for the first time in 4 weeks

I do intend to finish the Krox soon, as there really isn't that much more left to do. Here are some photos of the Krox, which I took with my camera phone (still don't have my regular camera back!0, so the images are not the greatest:



And the other one:



One difficultly I am having with these is trying to figure out how pronounced I want the scales to be. I was thinking of actually doing something similar to an actual alligator's tail, but I am concerned that it will be a major pain to cast it. I'll see what Trygon has to say over at Troll Forged.

Stay tuned for some photos of my new Saurus command group conversions - I like them even more than the last batch!

 

[Lord Tsunami]

gotta love the axe on that krox. i wish i had the skills with GS to do arms as you did on those guys. very impressive. i am sure they will be really epic when they are all done

 

[FavoredoftheOldOnes]

You certainly have your work cut out for you. Gonna take some extreme willpower and desire to get those things done, but who better than yourself who has already done such an excenllent job! Ugh, I really do miss those Kroxigors of yours. Looking forward to the next updae.

 

[T`hinker`er]

Yeah, I miss working on the Krox too, but I am holding it out to myself as a reward so that I am motivated to work through the tedium of all those Saurus Spear and the Chameleons and Terradons and Steg that I need to make my army design a bit more flexible and unpredictable to my opponents. I'll get back to those Krox just as soon as I can! Thanks for pushing me too

 

[Sikeron]

I cant stop admiring your Kroxigor sculpts while struggling to get my own done... Very well done indeed.. If you want them cast by Troll Forge Miniatures kepp in mind that it might take a lot of time until Trygon gets them done.. I am following a particular thread over at CHAOSDWARF-ONLINE and I reckon that Trygon has had some master miniatures for months now and nothing seems to be happening.. Not a single miniature ready to be sold.. You might consider to cast them yourself... You have proven that you can handle casting yourself and we might get them faster this way

 

[T`hinker`er]

Hey Sikeron, thanks for the comment.

I have to admit that while I am somewhat competent at making molds and casting, I place that activity just ahead of going to the dentist on things I enjoy doing. I find it very time consuming, repetitive and messy. That's just my personal taste, but with career, family, ongoing warhammer campaign games, painting, converting and sculpting (not to mention avidly skiing in the winter and gardening and biking in the warmer weather), casting is just not something I prefer spending time on unless it is purely for my own needs (such as making a unit or two for my personal army). IMO, anything "commercial" should be left to the pros - people who have vacuum chambers and spin casters (I have neither) and can ensure quality control, etc. My castings often have excessive flash and air bubble holes - stuff I can easily deal with but which I would not feel good foisting on others, especially if they were paying me. That's why I was attracted to working with Troll Forged, because Ed (aka "Trygon") knows what he is doing and stands behind his work and can put out quantities that would seriously interfere with my "pursuit of happiness."

I asked him about the Chaos Dwarf issue that you raised, and he responded immediately and gave me permission to make his answer public. So in the interest of full disclosure and resolution of this issue, here's his response:

Yes things have been slow with the dwarf because he wants them in plastic sets and wants me to distribute through him 100ads at a time so I have to be very particular with the molds. Fitting enough parts into the frame sprue etc. These would be resin and are also less complicated as in much fewer parts. If you can cast and sell them yourself please feel free to I have no problem at all and only offer this service to help those who can not. I don't want to sound sarcastic about it and hope it's not sounding that way either I just want you to know I'm perfectly fine with it and happy if you can.

I am back logged with several projects because most my money comes from my own items or those I pay for people to make as no cut is taken from it, thus I do put those in priority more at times but I do my best to get items that are better or possible good sellers and good sculpts out fast as humanly possible for one man to mold, cast, and fill all orders etc. Anyway enough rambling. I can have the molds done very, very fast and the product is slightly slower but again these will be easier as they are in resin molds and not my plastic production spin cast molds.

Feel free to copy and paste this, and please do because it may help people understand the process and everything going on over here from my end of things. Good talking with you and glad you brought this up.
Ed


Read more: http://trollsforge.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=pmview&view=1&id=12985#ixzz1c03d8VtZ

I really do want to make the Krox sculpts available to everyone, and I think it would be nice to help out Ed and his small company, which is providing the miniatures gaming community with more toy buying options while giving amateur artists a means of gaining experience and reputation. Lastly, I've done freelance sculpting contracts before, and am careful to use a clause that reverts all rights (and any molds and my masters) back to me if the minis aren't produced in a reasonable time. I'm sure Trygon will have no problem with such a clause.

With all this in mind, I should be in a position to finish the Krox and mail them out for production within the next few weeks. I will keep you all posted!

 

[totzro]

I just want to say that I really like your lizzies, especially your salamanders. Such a lovely model!
I'm looking forward to see more of your models, how is the saurus spears coming along?

 

[T`hinker`er]

The spears are coming along great, thanks I'm close to having them all done.

Meanwhile, I've got some WIP photos showing my progress on a command group for this second unit of Saurus. My son has taken up the clarinet, so we decided that the musician for this new unit should be a "saurinette" player Luckily I was able to find a clarinet charm at a bead store, and cut it down by a few millimeters to get it to about the right size for a Saurus to play. Here are some views of the mini in very rough form. As you can see, I'm trying to make the fingers look like they are actually playing this thing, which is sorta tricky. I've decided to use braided wire, something I've never tried before.

In these photos, one hand is close to done, the other is just barely started. I though it would be interesting for people to see a mini like this, at the early stages:





I hope these photos aren't too big...

 

[Ihx-Karaq]

Oh man I love this! your son should be proud of hes daddy!

 

[Arli]

That's cool. Jazz Saurus! A saxaphone would be cool too.

 

[Lord Tsunami]

lol

 

[FavoredoftheOldOnes]

Haha nice. Be even better if he was grinding on an electric guitar!

 

[borkbork]

Excelletn blog!

haven't worked myself through all pages yet, but really good stuff.
Definately gonna have an other look at you sallies for inspiration before i start painting my own.