Hey everyone, I am new to warhammer (like I decided to start collecting less than two weeks ago). I looked at the armies and read some of their back stories and something about Lizardmen just pulled me in. I've looked at heaps of these forums and they have already been a huge help. I have the codex and a box of Saurus. I will get the Battalion box soon and start my army from there. My brother collects VC so I'm really looking forward to get started and get some wins! I'm thinking about painting my army a dark grey as the main colour and then just changing the scales per unit or something. I love the idea of the older the character the paler it becomes. I'm thinking about a small unit of near-Albino Cold One Riders led by an Albino Oldblood. Looking forward to building and painting my army and thanks to everyone that has already helped me get started!
Welcome to the forum, it sounds like you found a lot of our resources already. Let us know if you need to find anything specific. Painting your older units paler is a good idea that should act character to your army. Official fluff is that some Lizardmen are born albino, but most of us ignore official fluff when it comes to aesthetics (or else every Lizardman would be blue). I like to override GW fluff fairly often. Fluffwise, Saurus do not age and can only die if killed in combat. Skinks are not ageless, but GW is silent on how long they live. In my own writings, I have established that regular Skinks have lifespan comparable to healthy humans. Skink Chiefs and most Skink Priests tend to live about twice that long. A few Skink Priests live much longer. Skink longevity is something you want to think about. The paler as they get older thing is a clear fit with Sauri, to keep things consistent, you probably want to have your Skinks be brighter than your Sauri. Unless Skinks pale faster than Sauri as they age in which case you probably want to make sure your Skinks vary a fair a bit amongst themselves to represent multiple generations of spawnings.
Welcome to the forum! It sounds like you have some great ideas for the look of your army already. And a built in opponent with your brother!