Blog The Jade Host: Mayan Lizardmen

And some interior detail shots:

Entrance through the serpent mouth:



Next time I will make more clay snakes to litter around the base.

Interior:



Stone graves:



More evidence of the Ratmen in the corner room:



It was hard to get the picture at that angle. Its just a small room, and a low hole in the wall is boarded up, undoubtedly leading to a tunnel...

Room of Skulls:



Side Room:



Main Room:

 

Along with the terrain project I found time to finally base all my skink skirmishers:



Here are all four units, plus the fifth unit of chameleon skinks! All units are now up to twelve models apiece thanks to resin casting a few extra chameleons.




They were very simple to base of course, just some sand and the same shiny brown wash to make mud. I also tried adding a few water effects to make green water on some of the bases, you can kind of see it on the dramatically posing champion skink in this photo:

Spoiler: more skink skirmishers

 

My chameleon skinks have three newly painted members added to their ranks as well, all resin cast versions of the standard metal ones. Unfortunately the individual pictures didn't turn out (they were too camouflaged) but they look essentially identical to the rest of the unit now. Only difference is the blowpipes on the resin versions tend to be a bit more droopy.

 

On to the next of several projects, starting with my long neglected terradons. I started working on the bases a little while ago and they are finished:


They turned out pretty good. They bases are inspired by the designs of David over at KitaQ Gamers (link) and his exquisite lizardmen army.

Spoiler: WIP terradon bases

Here is what they looked like, assembled but not painted:


Leaf test with the tree parts I assembled, and with two of the terradons which have yet to be finished. The third one will go on top the tallest tree:



Completed bases from above (except for the tree leaves)

The biggest problem with the bases is the leaves I made for the trees are too big, they are overpowering the other two bases. I have made some extra trees for scenery using the same method to test out how I will make the trees for the terradon bases, I will post them when I take pictures!

 

First tree test using two different methods: first uses fern leaves to make a more palm-tree style, and the other just uses clumps of jungle moss glued together.



I like them both, so I will be making a mix of each to round out the jungle.

This is what they look like prior to the leaves being glued on:

 

After a solid day of making terrain and this jungle crop of trees is complete!

Jungle Trees:





The process was shockingly very simple:

1. Cut a square/circle of foam board for the base and glue on sand for texture.

2. Make a clay "root base" to plant and glue the tree trunk made of a wooden skewer into.

3. Paint it brown and add a second coat of the mud mixture (brown, black, and transparent burnt sienna) to make it look like mud.

4. Paint some green to add to the jungle color, then add jungle plants to the base

5. Add the leaves to the tree: either clumps of lichen/moss or groups of ferns. Also add some low-hanging vines.



They are nowhere near as detailed or complex as @Jorgik 's BEAUTIFUL jungle trees made out of a skeleton wire though. The trunks are definately a bit bland, but I think the extra plant details help cover it up a bit. Plus there are enough of them, I am hoping that on a tabletop you won't be able to see the individual trees because of the forest! I hope to make more later, but first I need to get back to some other projects, plus update my other jungle terrain to bring them into line with the newer generation of terrain pieces.

Right now I have a total of 14 trees on 10 small bases.

Spoiler: more jungle trees

Had some fun with water effects at the base of a few of the trees:

 

Very nice.

 

Had some fun playing Mordheim this weekend using some of my new Lustrian jungle terrain, and the playing board looked great!







My wife and I played two opposing Bretonnian warbands in a simple wyrdstone hunt scenario. Think capture the flag but with 7 flags hidden among the ruins.

The game was a lot of fun, though my wife wound up winning in the end

The match writeup and more pictures are in the battle report!

 

What a good wife playing warhammer with her husband! And also a nice gaming table! Playing under such conditions can only be fun! ...no matter if winning or losing...

 

Whoa that table looks great! and so do the trees! At one point I´ll have to make more trees and even start some palm ones. Awesome work!

 

Thanks! It was an enjoyable game, definitely way better because of the terrain.

Finished my terradons for now. I would like to go back and add some stripes to the wings but for now they are tabletop ready to go hunt some war machines.

Spoiler: terradons

Spoiler: WIP pictures

Originally I wanted to paint them in a multicolored pattern, something like this awesome picture I saved but can't find anymore.



My version was just a quick paint test, but aside from realizing that I didn't have a good idea how to blend the paints, I don't think I want to get more terradons anytime soon. They took me forever to assemble, much less paint. Flyers seem to be annoying, I haven't made much headway on my pegasus knights either.



First coat of green paint:


You can't really see in any of the pictures but the underbelly of the terradons are red, like quetzals.

 

Next Lizardmen project is my temple guard and slann. They need some paintwork, and the bases are nearly complete.

Spoiler: WIP

Also finished the base for my Slann finally:

Spoiler: Slann pics

WIP:


Completed:

 

I have several simultaneous projects going on at the moment:

- Men-at-Arms
- Bretonnian Trebuchet Crews (men-at-arms with hand weapons)
- Grail pilgrims (also men-at-arms with hand weapons) plus my grail reliaque (King on war-litter)
- Basing my Bretonnian Knights
- Basing my Temple Guard
- Council of Slann
- Saurus Hero Standard-Bearer
- Carnosaur

I will post most of my Bretonnian stuff when they are finished on my other paint blog, but for now I have some WIP shots of my carnosaur!



This is after his first new coat of test paint. I did a bit of conversion work on him, ripping on his head and neck and adding some extra clay, plus some stegadon bits to cover it up. His head is also looking more forward now instead of roaring towards the side.



Inspiration for this conversion comes directly from @Joseph T Chidzey's amazing carnosaur conversion (link), color schemes I am getting information from some pictures I recently posted over on the carnosaur thread, their paint schemes are amazing!!

As a recap, this is what he looked like before I ripped him apart. He is a lot bulkier now, though especially front-heavy so I will need to be careful when I finally base him. I wasn't able to get a second upper carnosaur jaw, so his underjaw is a little weak in my opinion. I don't want to wreck it though, so for now I am content with the "pugasaurus rex" look.

 

Very productive! Do you free paint the mayan style faces on your terrain? Or is a stencil sort of thing?

 

I'm continually impressed by your fresco/pastel style of painting, especially on this carnosaur. wonderful work

 

Thanks!

They are both just freehand paint. I am getting better as I attempt different mayan-style artworks. Its lots of fun to add to pieces of terrain, it brings a lot more character to the pieces!

 

Really great stuff Warden! I especially like your bases and terrain.
Don't feel too bad about not duplicating the effect on the terradons, It looks like it was done with an airbrush and it's quite difficult to do that sort of blending without one. You could try doing it with some drybrush techniques getting heavier to the tips but it might look a bit chalky. I really like them as they are.

Ribbit.

 

Yeah at some point I will invest in an airbrush, maybe if I ever get around to starting an Eldar army. Thanks for the tips!

 

Work has commenced on my next Lizardmen project(some of the others have taken a backseat once again ) though in all fairness I started this project a while ago and never completed it either.

Spoiler

Realistically speaking, there is probably zero chance that all six of these slann will ever fight in a warhammer battle together. But it is a fun concept, almost like a Lustrian version of Mutually Assured Destruction.

A view of the worktable and all the individual components to make six Slann and their palanquin thrones:

Spoiler: more pictures

Each throne is based off of the actual model (which I have on my worktable for inspiration), while the artwork is inspired by actual Mayan stela (i have added sketches to my art thread already). In addition to the stela-backboard will be the side pieces with horns made out of some nice cheap plastic forks. The rest of the pieces are mostly hard foam board cut up into the appropriate sizes.

Slann on a budget!

Spoiler: stela

They need a bit of work still, not happy with all the faces yet so i had to paint over some of the details.

And the slann council itself:



Not much to say about these guys other than the first coat went on really dirty. They are going to be painted in the color schemes of poinson dart frogs eventually. I have been collecting TONS of reference pictures for some of the best painted slann I have found following this theme, I hope to do them a fraction of justice

Spoiler: the Slann Plann

None of these are my work of course, just some of my favorites to be used in making a council of poison-dart slann!

Inspiration from @Itepixcauh , @kroxh , Presso, Kraken, Joe Painter, and a name I am missing because I copied the picture without a source a long time ago