Blog Aginor's Painting Blog

Ok, as promised I am going to put pictures of my models here, including some information about them as far as I am still able to remember it.

I'll start with the very first model I ever painted. I made it in October or November 2016, and it is a Skink Starpriest.
EDIT: I was curious, most people probably don't know the exact date when they started the hobby, building their first model. I do! It was October 14th, 2016.




Notes:
- I didn't know about bases so I chose the one that looked cooler. One day I will probably re-base him on a round base because all my other models have round bases. For now he stays on that one though.
- Originally I wanted to paint those feathers yellow and give them red tips. But I had him primed black and the yellow on top of black created that weird green effect. I liked it so he stayed that way. I even did the same effect on others of my models.
- I knew next to nothing about drybrushing back then but tried on the scales anyway. It kind of succeeded.
- The glowing eyes weren't made on purpose, but I like how they look.
- I am a bit proud of that dagger. It was painted silver and then shaded blue.
- Imo the silver finger nails make it look more magical.
- I was pretty happy with that weathered stone look of those stairs, so I did almost all of my stones with the same technique since then. This one just has more brown than most.

 

Oooops I created the thread in the wrong forums section. Can a moderator move it to the "Personal Paint Logs" section please?

 

After I got the Skink Starpriest I bought a Start Collecting Box and started painting Saurus.
Here's my first set of Saurus Warriors:




Notes:
- Those belong to the list of models I am not quite happy with now. I should have done something different with the scales. Perhaps drybrush or shade them differently.
- The eyes were bad on those. I didn't know the trick of painting them white first, and then yellow.
- I like the battle standard, I think I spent more time on it than on several of those Saurus models.
- These were the first bases I made with sand. Just regular sand and some wood glue, mixed with a bit of water and a drop of dishwashing liquid. Then painted light brown and shaded brown. Makes good earth IMO. I plan to put some grass onto all my bases in the future, but for now they'll stay just plain dirt.
- I made myself a movement tray for them. It is made of some hard foam plate and it has tiny neodynium magnets embedded between the sand. The models have 1 cent coins glued to their bases, that makes them heavier and it makes them stick to the movement tray
- I tried to make those weapons' blades look like Obsidian, I used black with a little silver mixed in, and then painted them a bit irregularly.
- All of them (except the drummer I think) have one should pad. the Alpha has two. It just looked cooler.
- The Alpha has some red on him, I do that with all of my models. If someone is a hero he has some red on him.
- I didn't know that it isn't allowed to mix weapons in a unit so I did it. When I play with them I normally act like they all had spears.

 

Thanks! It was a similar effect like with the feathers. I just painted yellow over blue, and so I got green. I painted the eyeballs three or four times and they got more yellow then, but I didn't fix the color that go onto the eyelids so it looks green glowing.

 

The next models I painted were my Saurus Knights from the starter box.
I used the exact same techniques as with the Warriors so they are about the same level of quality.

Notes:
- Like the Saurus Warriors they have mixed weapons. I play them as all Lances though.
- I like how the Cold Ones turned out. Not perfect in their details but I learned a lot about painting teeth, drybrushing , and shading.
- The Stardrake Icon is based on a Coral Snake, but since I didn't know how to properly paint yellow on black I used gold instead. I also drybrushed the black head and the red tongue with gold. For the feathers I used my accidentally discovered "yellow on black" technique.
- I was in constant fear that the riders with their weapons might not fit onto the Cold Ones so I tested it by sticking them to the Cold Ones using putty, and when I found matching pairs I marked them on some spot under the saddle.
- After they were painted I stuck them together using putty again (UHU Patafix), until I would have some time to use hot glue for that. The putty is still there.

 

Not long ago (At the beginning of February 2017) I converted that Saurus Knight Alpha.

I broke off his arms, bored 2mm diameter holes in the shoulders and arms, and placed neodymium magnets in there.
Using some spare parts from the sprues I created a nice shiny Celestite War Pick, and since I had gotten another starterbox in January I had a spare big shield from the Scar Vet on Carnosaur. So I gave him those, thus converting him into a Scar Veteran on Cold one, with the option to just swap out the weapon and shield and make him a Saurus Knight Alpha again.

The feathers on the customized War Pick were done using a technique I learned when painting my Skink Priest in January. I did not know it is actually pretty easy to do those color gradients using a brush. I always thought those were possible only with an airbrush.

The yellow ball is done using a GW glaze called Lamenters Yellow. Paint it white, add some of that glaze, nice effect.

 

Thanks! But I am not very confident concerning my painting, I have never been good at painting (or tried painting during the last 20 years for that matter) and I know it can be done much better because I see those great models on the Internet every day.
Now, a few months after making the above models I am fairly sure even I can do it better, and then I think "Why post something on the web I am not really convinced of myself? Better wait and see if I can do a really good one".
But y'all helped me so much already, I feel I owe you some pics even though those models aren't perfect.


Ok, back to November 2016. The Knights were done, so it was time to do the Behemoth from the starter box, my first big model.
I was pretty nervous since I really wanted to do it well and feared I might fail. The longer I painted the more confident I got, even though many many things did not go, or end up, as expected.

Here is my Troglodon:


Notes:
- The paint scheme is based on pictures of adult Green Iguanas. They often have orange feet and spikes, and a bright face. I didn't like the Troglodon paint scheme like GW did it on the shop's pics, so I thought REALLY long about this and tested paints on empty sprues.
- The whole beast was painted white (it was the first model I used a white spray primer on), and all the green parts are just shaded and drybrushed. No direct painting. Where the paint was a bit too strong I drybrushed with white.
- I discovered that shades on metal colors make metallic paint effects. You can see it on the reigns.
- The Oracle was done using the same techniques as for the Starpriest, since I wanted him to look similar
- Two of those rocks on the base are actual stones, the other two are cork bungs from wine bottles, I wanted to test whether it is possible to shape halfway believable rocks that way. It works.
- I already broke off the tip of the tongue twice. One I glued it on again, the other time I just covered it up with paint so it isn't that noticable anymore. Next time I break it off I will maybe replace the tongue with the spare one from my other kit. I also considered attaching it using a magnet, that will probably help.
- I broke off the flag thing on top, and since I knew I would hit it again I didn't glue it back on but used two of my tiny magnets. That way if I touch it it doesn't break but move out of the way. I love those neodymium magnets.
- Overall I like the Troglodon very much, but it is a really fragile model. I don't even know how I would transport it in one of those GW or Feldherr foam storage boxes. It has thin antennas and stuff sticking out in every direction! I transport it standing upright in a shoe box, filled with paper towels.
- I also made a mistake that cost me some time to correct. I glued the neck ring on before painting. Afterwards I spent an hour trying to paint the visible parts on the inside.

 

One reason to do the Troglodon instead of a Carnosaur was that I had seen I'd get a free model out of the kit if I do it!
So here's my Oldblood on foot:



Notes:
- He is a kiiinda nice looking model. What I don't like about him is some sloppy painting I did, his eyes, and the lack of drybrush on the scales.
- Otherwise I am pretty happy, he looks big and mean, and the war paint on his head marks him as someone special.
- The shoulder pad is from the Saurus Warriors. That shoulder looked so naked and it felt weird to me that he wouldn't have more armor.

 

About that time I talked to my wife about the hobby and she said she'd like to paint some models as well.
We looked up what armies were available and when she discovered the Sylvaneth she said "I want those tree people!" so I got her a Sylvaneth starter box. That was pretty good for me as well, because for the following projects I used some parts from her kits as well, and learned about a thing called "kitbashing". I searched through my starter box sprues to see if there was unused stuff that could be used to make something. There was!

I downloaded the Lizarmen pdf because I read somewhere that there were old, but legal units included. One of them was "Jungle Swarms". I looked up pictures and read the description, and then I remembered some snakes that were included in the Saurus Knights' sprues.
So i got some oval bases and built these guys:



Notes: Simple and fun. As soon as I start doing some grass they will get a nice meadow around them so they can hide.


And then I thought I'd go crazy and did one more. It looks like this:


So, what is that?
The Coral Snake is actually some sprue part that I just filed until it was round and painted it. That's it.
The little green snake is some part of a Dryad I think...
The thing in the middle consists of a part of aTreelord's shoulder and four spare arms from Dryads. The lore I came up with for it is this: The Twig Frog is a poisonous, frog-like, carnivorous creature that tries to look like some wood lying on the ground, and it attracts its prey with the thing on its head that looks like a plant to eat. When the prey is near the Twig Frog bites it with its venomous teeth and jumps away. It then follows its prey until it dies and eats it.

I have played the Jungle Swarms just once and they weren't very good, but they were fun.

 

Thanks!
I think you will notice a nice contrast when I show my other Oldblood I did a bit more than two months later. But first there are a few other models to show.

December came and I was picking up speed with the hobby. My friend and I had played a few times and liked it, so we both started to get more models and paint them. (My wife says she'll remember that time as "the time when the arms race began"). That's when I first really thought about army building and decided I wanted to go Skink-heavy.
So I got me some Skinks:


This is their Alpha:


I don't know if it is noticable to you that much as it is for me, but the details on those models are more precisely painted than on the others, despite the fact that most are them are actually smaller. I am pretty happy with those Skinks, except their eyes. I tried, but I just wasn't good enough yet. Well, maybe I'll revisit them in a few weeks or so.

One thing really changed here:
I am mostly using Army Painter colors, when I started the hobby I got me a Mega-Set with all 42 colors Army Painter had back then. Meanwhile they have a lot more and I will try some more soon I think. I am happy with them, I just got me some Citadel colors for special purposes.
When I looked through the Army Painter shop I noticed they had spray can primers... in blue. The same "Crystal Blue" I used as a base coat for my models. So I thought: "Maybe I can prime and base coat in one step?" so I bought a blue can and.....yes! It worked! The brighter blue parts on the models above are only primed with the blue rattle can, and then shaded blue. That's it. Much faster.
The big scales on the back were then shaded black, drybrushed a bit with a bright blue, and then the details were added.

There were not enough blowpipes in the kit so I took some spears, cut the tip off, and painted them. If you don't look close you won't even notice. Problem solved.

When the Skinks were almost finished (I just hadn't glued the shields on) I wondered what I could do to make them playable as two groups instead of one, to be more flexible. I had to pick another Alpha.
So I made a convertible one. This was the first time I used the tiny magnets for such a thing (the models I posted above were magnetized later). I took this guy, added a magnet to him, and painted it. It looks like he has a watch now.




Then I put another magnet into his shield. Unfortunately I drilled too deep, and damaged the shield. That wasn't too severe though, I just glued on some decorative thingie. I wanted to mark him anyway.


So that's how he looks as a normal Skink.
I took a spare shield from a Saurus and retrofitted that one with a magnet as well. My story for him is: Once he saved a wounded Saurus Warrior by luring a wild Carnosaur away from him. The Saurus gave him his shield as a present. He wears it now on special occasions, such as him leading the unit as an Alpha.




On this picture you can see both shields, and the things next to them are my template magnets. Those are just sprue parts with a magnet in them. I use the blue one to put magnets on one part (into the shoulder of a model for example) and the red one is used to put magnets on weapons or shields.
That way I make sure I always have the polarity of the attached parts right.


EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot to mention:
The thing they are standing is a magnetic plastic-sheet thingie that I glued onto a hard foam plate. I haven't painted it yet but I think it will work. Every Skink has a small magnet in his base so I can use that as a magnetic movement tray.

 

Ok, last one for now.
I took all of the above pictures today, and I think I have now shown you all except one of my models that are "finished" at least to the point where they have the base at least covered with something. Next week I'll put sand on some... 50 bases or so, and then show you some more models.

This model was done some time later after I had gotten my second starter box (I wanted to build a Carnosaur and it makes sense to buy the starter box then).
I had read some more about army building and which units to play in a Skink Army so I wanted to have a Skink Chief. So I built one. Here it is:



Notes:
- Body is the Skink Oracle (the Troglodon's rider), I removed the split tail though.
- The blowpipe originally was a spear from the Skinks kit. I added the feather (I think from the Terradon kit) and the ammo belt (also from the Skink kit)
- I cut one part off from the Oracle's Divining Rod and painted it golden, it is a Golden Sickle now. I also added another feather.
- The shield is from a Saurus (either a Knight or a Warrior). I just painted it green to fit to my Skink army better.
- I cut off some parts of the helmet to make it round, and added the red horn to make him look more martial. I always use something red on my heroes, that's why it is red, even though it doesn't fit too well to the metallic green helmet. That one was painted silver and then glazed over with GW's Waywatcher Green.
- The base is from my wife's Spirit of Durthu. She built the Treelord from the kit so she didn't need that part. It fits nicely IMO, a scrap metal part, half buried under dirt. A special base for a special hero.

 

Awesome work! You should put your completed Chief in the Itza Gallery of Fine Arts.

 

Thanks a lot!