Blog Horrifying Murder Lizards

I've never done a real hobby blog before so bear with me, I'm super excited about the army and have gotten a lot of inspiration from people's lizardmen over the past week so think it's only fair that I share pics of my progress (this army won't be the same style as my profile picture - they're my mordheim warband which I'm considering a separate project).

I wanted this army to have a strong core theme to it, and decided that I wanted to emphasise how utterly terrifying these dino's would be in real life. I've always had a soft spot for the bigger, stompier side of the lizardmen roster, so wanted each setpiece model to showcase what I thought would be horrifying about trying to fight it (I've got plenty of kitbashes and conversions planned).

Colour scheme wise I'm still not 100% sure but will figure it out as I play with a few test models. I think white warpaint (especially on the faces) would contrast excellently with the blood effects I'm almost certainly going to be slapping on. For the bodies I'm tempted to go for the more realistic, muted tones of crocodiles and the less feathery dinosaurs - things always seem scarier to me if they evoke reality (or maybe I just need to get out more). I want to stay away from anything too cartoony in either converting or painting - I think it will detract from the army's overall aesthetic and impact.

I wasn't able to find any lizardmen army pics with a 'horror' theme, so if you know of any I'd love a link to them.

Finally I appreciate any and all suggestions/criticism. I'm by no means a master but I hope that I'll learn a lot from this project so please don't hesitate to point something out if it feels 'off'.

Thanks! First Stegadon conversion pics incoming soon

 

Stegadon:

I struggled for a long time with inspiration for this model. I probably should have chosen something different to start off with, but I'm broke and it's a model I've had lying around since the plastic kit came out so sod it.

Like I said above I wanted to find the bit of this particular model that, to me, evoked fear/terror. Obvious starting point is the sheer unstoppable weight of the thing, a Stegadon would have a foot and a half on an irl triceratops in both length and height (not including them horns), and with the shorter tail and higher back it would be so much heavier. I'll be trying to reflect this further when I make a suitable base for it after painting.



Taking some inspiration from the Aztec pantheon (which is only appropriate), I decided this Stegadon should be draped in the flayed skins of the lizardmen's enemies. They would presumable be well versed in skinning scaly jungle creatures (those Saurus shields have to come from somewhere), and I figure they'd see it as a useful demoralisation/intimidation tool against the squeamish warm bloods.



With that in mind I used all my bits with a 'flayed skin' texture (mostly coming from a box of the unmade from warcry) to fill the gaps in the howdah to make it seem even more solid and imposing, and added some hanging skulls and bones wherever I thought they fit.



I also took the time to learn how to sculpt the 'stitched skin' look onto the banners (just following a youtube tutorial), It was the first time I'd ever tried something so detailed with greenstuff and I'm quite happy with how it turned out




Still needs a bit of greenstuff in some gaps and the odd chaos star trimmed off (and there's still a bad mould line across the bow I need to clean up, why do I always miss one -.- ), then I can start throwing paint on it!

(few more pics below)

 

Very cool! Can't wait to see more.
The stitched skin banners look ace

 

Great idea! Keep us briefed!

 

Wow, the stitching on the banner turned out really well! I like the idea of leaning in on the realistic brutality of 30000+ pounds of muscle, bone and ivory plowing through, well, anything.

I am really looking forward to seeing how far you take it!

P.S.: There is always, Always, ALWAYS just one mold line left...

 

What a great idea and a good start. That Stegadon looks awesome

I like to see how it looks painted

Grrr, Imrahil

 

Pics of how it’s looking post (re)priming, plus I got a few base colours laid down with the airbrush. Pretty happy with the colours I chose (for now) - they were inspired a lot by crocodiles.



Think I’ll darken the scales a bit - I love the colour but it’s way too vibrant to hit the realistic tone I’m going for - though some of that might be due to the overspray.

Next step, neatening up the tan colour to cover my bad airbrushing

 

Progress pics!

After blocking out the skin and horns with their base colours:



And this is where I'm at rn:





The horns/bones got a bit of skeleton horde to see how it would look, then the skin had a reikland fleshshade wash and then a drybrush with some yellowy tan colour i mixed up - thought it was going to look horrible when I started doing it and I got worried I'd have to start over, but I actually really like how it's turned out!

One slight worry I have is that the horn colour and skin colour might look too similar at the end and blend into each other. Anyone got any ideas? (I'm bad at horns xD) The wood on the howdah is going to be painted Wyldwood (deep brown contrast paint), so I cant use that on the horns. Maybe a mix of wyldwood and black templar washed over the horn tips?

EDIT: I instead decided to use a 2:1 mix of wyldwood and blood angels red for the wood, since the wyldwood alone seemed too plain - now it has quite a lovely reddish undertone to it. I'll try some pure wyldwood on the horns tomorrow and see how it looks - still would love suggestions from anyone.

 

Looking better and better everyday!

Full honesty, it does look a bit similar (not bad similar, just similar). If you really want to make them stand out, you can introduce a hue shift to the skin at the joints and shaded regions. Or even easier would be to add detail work to the horns, darkening the base of the horns and I would actually lighten the tips of the horns to show how worn they are from use. If you added some darker lines up the horns after that, they would definitely stand out from the skin tone of the main body. But that's a heck of a lot of work that you can always do further down the line if you feel inclined

 

Awesome!

I think the forns would look amazing done with a bone color and then washed with agrax or similar. In my opinion, they would make the rest of the colors really pop.

(My opinion on painting is relatively worthless as I've just started painting again in the last 2 months after doing nothing for 25 years, so do with this what you will.)

 

MORE PROGRESS! unfortunately I had the vaccine today and got drowsy so I couldn't make as much progress as I'd have liked.

This was a great idea! much happier with how the horns are looking at the moment, I think I'll try to add the black lines tomorrow to tie it together (hope my hand's steady enough ) I do wish I had some paint retardant so i could have gotten some better blends+extra working time, but I guess that's just something to get for future projects.

Moving away from the actual dino for a second (heresy I know), here's how the howdah is looking atm:


Tried to paint every patch of flayed skin in a slightly different style, and just gave the whole thing a wash with Reikland flesh-shade to tie it together, trying to use a lot of purple as I imagine a lot of the skins are from dark elves. I dont think I'm 100% happy with it atm, I might repaint the patch of ork flesh on the banner to a more 'standard' flesh tone - I want it to look like a gruesome display of dominance rather than your grandma's patchwork quilt.

Then I need to repaint a lot of the gold areas to get the shine back after the wash (I wish i had a reikland fleshshade gloss but alas I don't), do a few final details and neaten everything up. Then I can start throwing blood and gore effects on it (which I'm def looking forward to).

One slight worry I have atm is that the howdah is very 'muted brown', but I'm hoping that some brighter gold, spot colour detailing, and bright red blood effects will make it stand out a bit more.

Any tips or ideas are appreciated as always! especially for the model's base actually - I haven't given it much thought besides 'Jungle' - I think that raised back left leg might be crushing a screaming enemy soldier though.

 

So i did some very messy dried blood effects over the flayed skins most of the skeletons - which was super fun to throw on. Then I decided the entire army would have white warpaint (imitating the albinism that denotes the favour of the old ones) over their faces and right arms - since the jaws and weapon arm are the murdery bits of a standard warrior. I used a really old pot of thick skull white with some added dried pigment (I just ground up the caked up bits you get in the cap and sides of the pot in my fingers) to make a really chunky paint and stuck it on his face. Then I had a thought.......



So I looked it up and yes! Stegadons are omnivores and will quite happily eat people! Hey guys isn’t that great!




Giant Murder Lizards

 

Looks great! I'm very happy to hear that the Stegs will eat people!

 

Well the Steg's pretty much done, just waiting for Varnish to dry and the base to be done before I stick it all together and post some pics.

In the meantime I finished off my Mordheim Warband! Yes I know they're on round bases, my gaming group plays on round bases since they're simpler (and we find it more fun), I know it's heresy, please dont burn me at the stake .

 

As a Knight of Eight, I denounce your bases as blasphemous.

(the painting is brilliant however and, as I said before, great color scheme)

 

That steg is looking...M.E.T.A.L. to quote Deathklok

 

And with that, the final layer of varnish and base PVA is dry and I'm calling the model done! It's not perfect and I'm sure I could have done things a little better - but not bad for a proof of army concept. Also I had a lot of fun and will no longer feel guilty about him lying, unloved and unpainted, in my abandoned projects box. So here he is in all his bloody, messy glory.









So grumpy



As you might have noticed he has no crew - I've nicked them all for my Mordheim warband (sorry steggy). But when I get some spare Lizardmen models I'll paint him up a few, maybe stick a bloody sacrificial altar + recently flayed body on the howdah as well (as right now there's a lot of blood drips coming from nowhere).

But yeh, was my first time at trying a scheme like this, I haven't really used tan colours before on models, I haven't used either dried or wet blood effects and I got to practice so so so many different skin tones for the flayed patches of skin across the model - which I think will really help me in future.

Anyway, next paycheck I'll be getting some start collecting boxes and maybe another steggy so he has a friend - I have plenty of Carnosaur/Troglodon conversion ideas whirling around in my head!



And remember, you might be having a bad day, but at least it's not as bad as Derrick's - Who's last thought was: "Hmmmmm, in retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have replaced BOTH arms"



Don't be like Derrick

(WIP shots for the base below as I forgot to post them)

 

Great work! He looks fearsome!

 

`
Great work, very grim dark

Grrr, Imrahil

 

This is all horribly lovely! My favorite part of the whole steggy is probably the base; you really nailed Derrick's narrative. It's subtle enough that you don't catch it right away, but once you do...oh s***!

Side note, I would like to steal your technique for warpaint! I have been hunting down a good paint to get that effect for a loooong long time.

Cheers Uber!