Blog Itz-Itza Tribe island lizardmen

Teach me your ways!
I have blob of 30 warriors that I am successfuly avoiding so far

 

Seconded! I haven't even started painting mine yet!

 

Haha! I think it comes down to a combination of the following...

Bright colour scheme. Pink and purple are, for me, fun colours to paint with. I chose Lizardmen, having failed to get a dwarf army painted. The dwarf concept was all muted, earthy colours, etc. and I just found it difficult to get enthusiastic about painting something which looked dull (even if I could see the end result working in my head). I agonised about it, and then a friend with more painting experience suggested I try an army with more obvious visual impact. It worked.

Quick painting. I decided from the beginning to make this a quick to paint army, with strong tabletop visual appeal, and that I wouldn’t worry about close inspection. Even for characters/centrepiece models, I’ve made liberal use of contrast paints, dry brushing etc. The only conventional paints I’ve used have been for the eyes, for the claws, or where I’ve picked out details in gold for unit champions. This means I know I can knock out most models quickly and see instant results.

Formulaic approach and limited palette. Before I pick up the model, I know pretty much exactly what colour each bit of it will be. As I said previously, my Eldar 40k army looks better up close, but each infantry model takes time to paint, with individually painted highlights, each detail (belts, gems, jewellery etc) picked out. All details which don’t have a specifically allocated colour in my lizards' scheme are automatically painted bone (Skeleton Horde contrast).

Ranked units. Square based, ranked (KoW/WHFB) units work well with this style of painting, as the quality of each individual model/saurus/skink is less important than the visual effect of the whole unit. With round based/skirmish systems (40k/AoS), each model stands alone and can’t hide as easily. It also encourages me to complete whole units. 20 saurus ranked up just looks more impressive than 10, for example. 40 looks better than 20.

Having a palette cleanser. I also chose Lizardmen because, among the armies I like, they were about as different in style of painting to Eldar - being much more organic with very few smooth, clean surfaces. This means when I am mentally tired of painting space elves, I can switch to lizards, and vice-versa (although that hasn't happened yet!)

Not caring too much. This is a weird one. If I'm honest, in terms of aesthetic, Lizardmen aren't my favourite (I'm an elf player at heart) but that has sort of helped. I am doing this for the fun of painting and because brightly painted, completed armies look cool, not because I have a deep-rooted and grand vision with hopes and dreams for 'my' faction. Being schooled in The Old World, I'm not keen on a lot of the high-fantasy look of AoS (elves or otherwise), and couldn't find any non-GW elf miniatures easily available that I liked. I had an idea for a more tribal look which hasn't totally worked, but I can always come back to my army to improve it later.

Here endeth the lesson

 

These are all valid points! Basically all of those summarised my attitude to hobby after all those years. You've just managed to put it into single post understandable to everyone.

So... will you remove mold lines on my remaining 24 warriors?

 

You’re supposed to remove mould lines?!

Srsly, I do a fairly basic go at getting rid of the worst, but don’t stress too much. Mould lines are pretty tricky to get rid of on scaly skin

 

I wouldn't worry too much about getting it all, but some 200+ grit sandpaper on a foamboard (like for nails, army painter has a decent sanding foam block set too) will take the worst of it off in about a second or two.

 

It is optional step, but I am known masochist.
And I bought 40 assembled warriors from someone not burdened by same opinion

 

The struggle is real.

 

Thanks for all the interest and encouraging words - definitely makes it easier to get motivated. Pretty sure I’m done with saurus warriors now!

On to skinks - 8 javelins to round out my initial 12, then a unit of 20 with blowpipes. Still want to add a few running around the bases of my big dinos for a bit of fun too.

 

Literally made my account just to comment on this.

I am looking to start my first army (have the start collecting seraphon box for aos, assembling atm), and I really liked the color scheme I saw on the itz itza units in a Total Warhammer 2 video I saw. Found this post while looking for in-game screenshots to base my army off of.

This was such great inspiration! The colors look really nice together, and the overall approach you're taking seems like exactly what a beginner like me should do.

 

That’s great to hear. Happy to help if you’ve got any questions. I need to get back on to “finish” the army - I’ve got 15 temple guard and 28 skinks that need painting!

The approach is definitely beginner friendly and gets pretty quick and striking results.

 

I'll be sure to check back here for more pics! Gonna start painting my first sauruses soon and I'm happy to take you up on your offer and ask any questions that may arise in the process : )

 

I remembered that I took photos for a step-by-step of my contrast method saurus warriors. Not competition level painting, but hope it helps a bit. Definitely made it fairly easy to do them en masse! Most of the principles apply to how I did my skinks and monsters too.

1. Start with a white/off-white undercoat and paint the base skin colour in the contrast colour of your choice. No need to be too neat at this stage, it’s more important to make sure you get a good consistent wash over all the areas you do want covered.


2. A light drybrush of a pale later paint all to pick out the highlights. Even with their natural highlights and shading, contrast paints can tend to look a little flat and one dimensional on their own.


3. A second drybrush in a lighter shade in the key highlight areas around the back and on the face helps to add interest. I think using a different colour from the base layer works nicely here.


4. Contrast paint for the main areas on the weapon. I chose a dark brown for a natural wood look. Again, thin coverage rather than neatness is what you’re going for.


5. This is where you actually have to start painting with brush control. Touch up any areas where your skin or weapon colour spilled over in your undercoat colour. You may need a couple of thin coats but don’t worry if the unwanted colour hasn’t totally disappeared. For the eyes, put a tiny dot of white in the centre of the socket. Although in general you should thin your paints down, I would suggest going with it straight from the bottle here - it stops it bleeding out from where you want it. Take your time to get it right, blobby eyes can quickly ruin an otherwise good looking model, and you can always touch up carefully with your initial contrast paint colour.


6. Paint the claws and teeth. You need to be neat at this stage, but claws and teeth are relatively simple to do with a light dab of the desired colour. Again, I would suggest going with it straight from the bottle here - they are raised areas anyway and you can probably get away with a single coat of ‘thick’ paint.


7. If your guy has a tongue, paint it in a contrast or layer paint. Details on faces are quite important to give some attention to, even for rank and file models, as our eyes are naturally drawn to faces of models first.


8. Put a very slightly thinned down dot of your chosen colour on the white dot in the eye. If you get the consistency right here, it shouldn’t matter if it bleeds a tiny bit - while it should colour the white area, it shouldn’t cover the skin colour well, and can actually give the eye a nice glowing effect!

 

Oooh, thank you so much for taking the time to post this!

Great reference, I'll try and apply it to my army :>

 

9. If you’re feeling fancy, add a very tiny dot of a lighter colour into the centre of the eye. Not necessary, but like the second drybrush to add a different colour, it helps to add more easy detail which elevates your model above a basic paint job.

10. Add a very thin line of black onto the pupil, going from top to bottom for a reptilian look. Don’t worry about going over the skin above or below, as long as your base colour is dark enough you won’t notice it, but try to avoid it being too thick and covering your eye colour(s). If this step feels too tricky, don’t do it - I also like lizardmen without pupils for a more hypnotised/feral/spooky look.


11. Contrast paint all the white areas you’ve got left - armour, bracelets, weapon detail, tail spikes etc. If you use a suitably pale contrast paint like I did, it’s very forgiving and you really won’t notice any spill over onto the skin or base weapon colour.


12. Stick on the shield. I did the shield in exactly the same way as the warrior - main colour contrast, drybrush (I did just the top/rear edge for a bit of a fade effect) touch up white, add detail colour contrast. You can see I forgot to touch up the large spike on the back of the shield, so it’s still got some blue from the drybrush. Lizardmen are organic, so it’s not too much of a concern and it’s just an infantry warrior so it won’t be noticed much. If it was a character I would probably worry about it more.


13. At this point I snipped the model from the base and stuck it to a base I had batch finished previously (a layer of Milliput, textured roller, spray undercoated and contrast paint). Models need to be on a finished base to look finished. An unfinished base can ruin a well painted model, a good base can make a mediocre model look great. If you’re doing rank n file (WHFB, AoK etc) you will need to make sure they line up on their bases, if you’re doing round bases for AoS this is less important.


Repeat x 39 times for a huge horde of terrifying scaled muscle with sharp teeth and heavy clubs.

I suggest doing them in batches of 5-10 models (6 at a time if you’re doing the SC box). Doing each stage for each model in the batch before moving on. Depending on how quickly you work, your paint from the previous stage will be dry by the time you come on to the next job for each model.


As I say, this technique is pretty much what I’ve used for everything in the army so far.

 

I don’t claim to be hugely talented or knowledgeable and you will find a lot of different and more comprehensive guides out there, but this is, hopefully, a pretty realistic blueprint for effective results without too much skill/time/experience needed!

I got a lot of inspiration for my method from ‘That Gobbo’ on Goonhammer here: https://www.goonhammer.com/how-to-paint-everything-seraphon/

For really impressive painting that absolutely nails the ‘brightly coloured lizards on a dark night’ savage/tropical look that I wanted to approximate, check out u/Vyrullax on Reddit for inspiration. Just beautiful.

 

Oh damn! I think I saw his models when I was browsing reddit, just starting out with looking up the different formats and factions. Thats wild!

 

Glorious. Great looking painting method. And they are simply inspiring as a giant purple horde!

 

Thank you very much for the detailled guide, your models look really amazing !

 

Bonewhite and sun yellow are such versatile colors. I love Vallejo.