Making Cold Ones look less dumb.

[Didymus]

Long story short, after a few years of inactivity I bought the Lizardmen Start Collecting kit and ended up with some Cold One Riders. Now I've never been a fan of these. The riders hold their spears really weird but that can be fixed no problem. The big problem for me was how dumb the Cold Ones look. Now that I had some "for free" anyway I thought I'd attempt to fix their stupid faces.

After looking at the heads for a while and doodling a bit in photoshop I came to a conclusion about why they look so dumb and what I can do to remedy that. The two major problems for me are:

- The lower jaw. It is just way too thin. It looks like it would break if this predator bit something tougher than a carrot. Also in cartoons etc you can often recognize dumb characters by the size of their lower jaw. Looking up some historical dinosaurs quickly showed me they pretty much all had thicker lower jaws.



- The eyes. Their expressions are just painful. They look either drugged, sleepy or just plain uninterested.

That drooling tongue doesn't help things either.


So this is how I attempted to fix them.

Using green stuff I made the jaw considerably thicker and added some curvature to it, as can be seen in the t-rex reference pic. Some small scales were added to merge old and new together.
Because the head is now bigger I also made the end of the neck a bit bigger so things don't get weird.

(I greyscaled the photos to make the putty look more like plastic)

Next, using green stuff again, I added some scales above the eyes which should help to give the impression of a more angry/ferocious look. You can see what I mean in the reference pics, the dinos seem to have this evil frown on their face. Here's the result:

That's what I have so far.But I have to say it is quite challenging to do this on all the heads, some of them also have this stupid grin or really droopy eyes. Not sure yet how I'll tackle them, it may even involve drilling .

Anyway, I hope this was interesting to some of you who might have the same opinion of the models. I'll keep you guys updated on further progress with the other heads.

 

[Bowser]

These look awesome so far. Looking forward to more updates.

 

[Ritual]

Can we get a non greyscale version so we can see exactly what you have added?

 

[Aginor]

Ah I think I see it! Not bad at all. The lower jaw is much thicker.
Now if you find a solution for the claws that would be even better. I actually dislike them more than the jaws.

 

[Didymus]

Can we get a non greyscale version so we can see exactly what you have added?

Sure thing

 

[Ritual]

Much more useful, thanks

Looks good, I have already primed and base coated all mine or I would be definitely making use of this idea...

 

[Didymus]

Now if you find a solution for the claws that would be even better. I actually dislike them more than the jaws.

Yeah that also needs some work..

 

[n810]

As the others have said, while and improved jawline does help,
the worst offender for me is the nonsensical claws. ` ` ` `

 

[Ritual]

Their arms are slightly too stubby as well, it's like someone shrunk a t-rex...

 

[deer riffs]

Nice, nice, nice! I've seen comments around here and there that the dark elf cold one models are much better than the seraphon ones. And after seeing your work, I did a little comparison using my amazing microsoft paint skills:


You're spot on improving the weak bottom jaw of the seraphon cold one, I also note that the dark elf steed is also packing a serious mandible jaw as well.

There's a huge difference in the fore-limbs. The seraphon model looks like it has zero joints to it, whereas the dark elf model has an elbow and a wrist joint to it which also creates a cool circle with the back legs which we see all the time in fast animals in nature documentaries. The dark elf one looks like it's built for speed, which is also backed up by the length of the tail; long to counterbalance it as it makes a sprint for it's kill.

 

[n810]

They even made a plain version at one point... for the Storm Magic campaign,
sadly it only came in Finecast* and was GW direct orders only.

One would think this would be followed by an Improved Lizardmen cold one unit,
but alas no.

 

[Ritual]

I'd like to think we'll see a full re-do of them at some point, the current ones are so old now...

 

[Lawot]

This is why I'm using Dark Elf Cold Ones for all my Saurus cav. I've acquired nine of them!

 

[Ribbit]

The saurus cold ones look like scaly tauntauns from Star Wars or something David Bowie might ride in Labyrinth. I'm new to the game and just to look at they strike me as more mild mannered creatures than the Dark Elf Cold Ones . Maybe it's just my weird head-canon but I can't shake the thought of them being like big dogs, loyal to their masters and willing to defend them to the death. Slightly grumpy like a belligerent goat but not vicious creatures.

It makes more sense in Age of Sigmar because the Dark Elf Cold Ones became Drakespawn in their warscrolls, which suggests that they are a whole different species and not just a much better sculpt. It's like someone made the saurus cold ones and then someone else made the drakespawn and the first guy was like " Ah! That's what I meant to do!"

Ribbit.

 

[n810]

With the first three versions of cold ones we shared the identical model with dark elves.
that was until we got our current model... the dark elves never got that one, but instead
got a better one much later... and then we where behind the update curve instead.

 

[Didymus]

You guys are right, the arms are atrocious as well. Converting them too does make this a more time consuming conversion, but perhaps that's what these models need. Thinking about perhaps adjusting the side claws to point forward, reposition the hands so they point downward and bending the arm when possible.

This was supposed to be a quick fix, damnit xD

 

[Jorgik]

You can always use molds to cast your fixed heads and limbs, so you don't have to green stuff all of your cold ones

 

[deer riffs]

The saurus cold ones look like scaly tauntauns from Star Wars or something David Bowie might ride in Labyrinth. I'm new to the game and just to look at they strike me as more mild mannered creatures than the Dark Elf Cold Ones . Maybe it's just my weird head-canon but I can't shake the thought of them being like big dogs, loyal to their masters and willing to defend them to the death. Slightly grumpy like a belligerent goat but not vicious creatures.

It makes more sense in Age of Sigmar because the Dark Elf Cold Ones became Drakespawn in their warscrolls, which suggests that they are a whole different species and not just a much better sculpt. It's like someone made the saurus cold ones and then someone else made the drakespawn and the first guy was like " Ah! That's what I meant to do!"
View attachment 30267
Ribbit.

@Ribbit. Love the head-cannon. Now I know exactly how to pain my cold ones:

 

[Didymus]

Ok so I've been tackling the claws. Not there yet, they are still rather bulky, though I can shave some of the putty off no problem.

 

[Beastie]

As far as I'm not a fan of Lustrian Cold Ones, and find DE Ones far more superior, there is one thing that should also be noted: they are more slender (to better fit the elves) , and the saddle of a Saurus Knight does not fit so greatly. I'm currently using one spare DE Cold One for my Scar-Vet conversion, as you can see above. Anyway, a little of GS goes along the way.

Ok so I've been tackling the claws. Not there yet, they are still rather bulky, though I can shave some of the putty off no problem.

This looks absolutely amazing, I must consider doing the same thing with my Cold Ones. Their claws always looked rather dumb. Keep up the good work