Blog Aginor's Painting Blog

Yeah I have pupils on a few Skinks but most of my army lack them. That's because when I started I was utterly unable to paint them and now I am reluctant to paint them because of consistency reasons I would have to paint them on a hundred Skinks...

Here is another picture I took yesterday.
Those are the markers for the Gravesites of my Death army.
As you can see those are just a few tombstones. I bought them from Greenstuffworld for my Graveyard project and still have some left.
I converted them a bit since I am not a fan of too Christian looking things in fantasy games. Fortunately converting crosses to swords or hammers is relatively easy (#1 and #2) and the big cross on #4 was just filled with liquid green stuff and I put some spare swords over that. #3 looked sufficiently flower-like so I just kept it as it was.

After that all of them were covered in snow, to fit the winter theme of my Death army.

 

But wait, there's more!

Here is a WIP of my latest project, the formerly semi-secret cavalry (people reading this blog have known about it for a loooong time).

These are the riders. They are Skinks with Saurus shields (something I have done before for a special Skink as a unit leader) and a customized boltspitter for each one.
But the most obvious thing is that I sawed off the legs, and reattached them in a way so they resemble the pose of riders. A bit at least.
I filled the holes using liquid green stuff so it looks decent, then painted them like my other Skinks. Like all my Skinks riding on animals or handling them they have yellow color on their crests of course.

I made sure all three of them have different heads and different poses. That will be important because their mounts are unfortunately monopose.
Fun fact: auto-correct wants to change monopose to mongoose. They will not be riding on that.

 

Get yourself a pen and draw the line takes seconds https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Set-of-8...074947&hash=item4b46f3d413:g:EL8AAOSwejdbUqtB

 

I actually got a similar pen, and the few Skinks I used it on do look decent. I just... even with the pen I have to have a good day or I'll jitter all over the place. And I have 120 Skinks or more, and yeah... Even if it takes me 30 seconds a Skink that's an hour of painting pupils on Skinks.

 

And here are the mounts for the Skinks I posted earlier.
The mighty Capybaras!

Now, I am not an expert on painting real animals, and they have become a tad too dark, but they are fine. Way better than my first try which back then made me put the project on hiatus since I was very unhappy with it.

After painting them I noticed that they kinda lacked the Lizardmen vibe, so I rummaged through my bits and decided to give them those collars with Seraphon sigils that protect them.
Problem with that was that I wanted to attach them in a way that didn't ruin them. So I got some stretchable thread from my wife's sewing kit and glued it to the sigils. It worked, you can easily stretch that thread wide enough to carefully pull it over the Capybara's head.

To do on those: refine the claws and feet a bit.

 

And here are the Skink Capybara riders on their mounts!

Lacking some refinements and bases, but otherwise they are pretty much done now.

 

Yeah it is a fun project.
Ever since I saw the Capybara at Bad Squiddo Games I knew I had to try that, and ordered three of them.
https://badsquiddogames.com/shop#!/Charles-Giant-Capybara/p/76933359

 

Here is their warscroll:



As you probably noticed that is a copy of the Salamanders warscroll, just using different fluff. That's intentional, because that way I can use the unit as a Salamander proxy in matched play.

Warscroll was created with Runebrush's excellent tool, found here:
https://runebrush.pa-sy.com//warscroll/

 

It's a really good idea and hell what a proxy for our shitty Salamanders

 

Originally I wanted to play them with an SCE warscroll (Vanguard Palladors) since there is no other unit that we can play with and has three models. But the warscroll just didn't fit properly and the base size of Palladors would have looked weird as well. Then my wife and I discussed it and had the idea to just use them as Salamanders.
It was fun adjusting that warscroll to Skinks riding Capybaras instead of a big fire spitting lizard.
That's also why they have Saurus shields. It explains their better save.

EDIT: Also funny: Fluff-wise they could either be the result of a Slann not quiiiite properly remembering the past, or maybe he just found a way to make something up instead of remembering it. Or maybe the Skinks just met those Capybaras somewhere in the Mortal Realms and decided to ride them. Nobody knows.

 

Ok I thought about it and I just had to try the eyes because I have a good day today.
They do make the models better.

I will still keep the eyes without pupils on some miniatures (my Starpriest and Priest for example, because magic) but I have started to do the eyes on all my other Skinks.
Turns out it isn't that bad, I need approximately 30 seconds per Skink.
And yes, there are a few goofy looking ones but my Skinks aren't that high quality to begin with and they still look better with pupils than without.

I also was in the GW today and got some fitting bases. Probably going to do those tomorrow.

Here are some pics:

 

Thanks!

Meanwhile I did the eyes on all the Skinks.

Side note from today: People give you strange looks if you are a full-bearded man going to a store and asking for makeup brushes.
I saw that drybrushing tutorial on youtube and the guy who made it mentioned that those very soft cosmetic brushes are good for fine drybrushing so I got one.