Blog Itz-Itza Tribe island lizardmen

My first small unit of skinks in what will hopefully be a loosely Polynesian/island themed army.

Individual square bases so I can play KoW and AoS. Apologies for the naff old GW movement tray - I found in my box of stuff from about 20 years ago - although it sort of works with the stone flooring!

Making extensive use of contrast to get an army painted pretty quickly. Lots more detail I hope to add in time - warpaint, designs on shields etc. Pleased with the simple conversion to create a standard bearer and musician using blowpipe and banner from the saurus knights.

Thanks for all the encouragement so far.

 

These are great! Great work on the highlighting.

 

Thanks. I can’t take much credit on the highlighting - mostly the magic of contrast paints!

 

You know, I wasn't quite sure that pink was going to feel intimidating on Skinks, but I really like how you balanced it with the darker colors. That Volupus Pink is a pretty deep color. Well done!

 

I like them! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the army as it continues to materialize!

 

Finally completed the Start Collecting! Skinks box. Pretty basic use of contrast paints, but I figure I can add details (warpaint etc) later if I want to.

I’m quite pleased with the scheme, the pink skinks contrast nicely with the dark dinosaurs and bases. Still trying to get a kind of night time scheme, it sort of works…

Now onto the SC! Seraphon box…

 

These are amazing.

 

Fantastic work, they look great as a group!

 

Those are so vibrant! Very tropical, what fantastic spread.

 

Lovely. Id be interested in seeing what you do with that new sigvald burgundy.

 

Nice! I've also been looking for ways to get decent detail out of speed-painting. I'll have to try the contrast paints!
Your work on the Skinks' eyes is excellent. Do I see some green in there, along with yellow and black?
On the Bastiladon, can I suggest flipping the highlighting scheme? This is something I've been learning about - things have bright edges when they're lit from the outside, but look like they're glowing when the brightest colors are the deepest in, working out towards dark colors. If the concave curves of the Bastiladon crystal were bright, and the edges dark, that might create more of a glow-effect.
The colors on the Bastiladon's scales nail the nighttime theme, and the shading is really nice.

 

I’ve finished both start collecting boxes as well as a bonus Stegadon (and a couple of extra saurus knights courtesy of a friend who had some lying around)! Most of it has been done for a while, but because the saurus bases weren’t done, I didn’t want to post.

Thanks for all the comments. I’m really pleased with what I’ve achieved, even if it’s turned out a little different to what was planned. This was never supposed to be a an award winning army, more of a project to put together a decent WHFB/KoW army with GW models which didn’t take a long time but had visual impact. I feel I’ve achieved that. Things I’ve learned so far…

1. Lizardmen are mostly really fun to paint. My other army is 40K Eldar and I love the models, but need to be super neat in order to look good. Lizardmen are a lot more forgiving, making painting them feel less like a slog and much easier to pick up and knock out.
2. Contrast paints are not totally easy to use (and rub off very easily) but they speed up the process a lot.
3. Trying to convey the ‘tiki/tropical island’ look I was going for initially is tricky without a lot of effort spent on conversion. I think the army hints at it, but isn’t what I envisioned at first.
4. …except that the colour scheme is pretty much exactly what I wanted. A sort of ‘night time’ look, where the pink skinks stand out against everything else which is much darker. It gives the army a distinct ‘look’ which I like.
5. Saurus knights are the single worst kit GW have ever made. None of it feels like it fits together, and even when they’re done, the cold ones look derpy. I never want to assemble or paint another one in my life. Ever.

I had initially planned to leave these guys there, but I’m enjoying the project. Next stage is to stick some snakes to bases to make three reptile swarms, get the Saurus and Skink units up to 40 models each, and I’m considering a unit of 20 Temple Guard. And I should probably get a Slann Mage Priest (even if my ‘fluff’ is about an island cut off from the Slann)…. Am tempted to get a Troglodon… I also want to add some skinks to the bases of the big guys so they look like they’re running around organising everything… Watch this space.

 

Really nice looking army you've got there.

 

Great looking army you have got there, Nice coherent paintscheme!

Grrr, !mrahil

 

What a well painted army!!! Really nice work.

 

Really nice color scheme, looking great and original ! Well done !

 

Fantastic army!

 

Thanks all, much appreciated.

I am currently in the middle of assembling/painting another 20 Saurus warriors, 5 Temple Guard (bought second hand to add to a future box of 15) and I have another 48 skinks boxed up and ready to get pink

Once these are done, I’m pretty much on to expanding the “fun” stuff.

The amazing thing with these though, is that I’m working through ranks and ranks of near identical infantry and still really enjoying painting each one. That’s not supposed to happen!

 

Great army! I especially like your colour choices and transitions on the bastiladon!