Well Im not very experienced on painting and I have only done some minor conversions. So the problem is this: I would want to make more unique looking lizardmen and thought I could try converting them. Any ideas/tips for this?
Don't have any pictures but what I did with my Saurus is take bits from the Standards - feathers, spikes, etc - as well as the shoulder pads. I made sure each one had a shoulder pad on their shield arm, and then everyone had either feathers or spikes - or some skulls which I had handy - on their heads as decoration.
I've been cutting crests off too, and I'm also thinking about taking some of the spikes off. Looking around at all of the different threads in this forum will give you a ton of examples and ideas. You could go for really unique basing and not have to worry about possibly messing up the actual model, or start with new a new pose by bending legs arms or tails, and making joins with green stuff. Or come up with some sort of armor clothing or accessories that would go along with a theme.
On my Saurus I'm doing some minor pose changes (move and arm here and a leg there), using basing to change the pose on some (putting rocks on some bases to make the model look like its taking cover), but mostly I'm adding necks. A tiny wad of green stuff, shape, and put some grooves in it to match the belly and that really changes the look of the Saurus in a subtle way. My whole theme is moving the army from a "dino" look to a more dragon-esque look. I've even added larger horns (from Beastman sprues I have) to the heroes to set them apart, and I'm experimenting with a kit bashed Slann. Pyre
It's nothing huge, but what I've done for my Saurus Warrior Champion, is use a Temple Gaurd head, for the skull helmet. It's a slight difference, but he looks pretty decent from the other rank and file.