Clockwork's Lizardmen, Or ...

... How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love to Speed Paint.

Well, I promised a battle report and that didn't happen. So instead I took some pics of my army!

I can only apologise for the terribly poor quality. I'm having to use my camera phone which loves to zoom in and out of focus when close up. In some cases I also had to use the flash, which doesn't show my models in the best of light. I also don't have anywhere in my house really well lit, either.

Also I'm not a great painter

Pics to follow in the next post as soon as imgur uploads them.

 

How big are these pics?? Still waiting!

 

Slaan - The One Who Contemplates the Doom of All Things & The Third Pillar of the Silent Vigil, aka Hypno-Toad



I decided to paint my Slann purple for a number of reasons. Firstly, I wanted him to stand out from my Saurus, who were going to be in much darker colours. Secondly, as we all know purple is the mark of Tepok. And finally, when I came to paint him I had a limited palette, and purple was the only colour I hadn't used yet!



A close up of the Slann's base, compliments of Base-X-of-War. I'll link them at the end.

My Slann is of the Mazdamuni school and likes to be proactive; taking the fight to Chaos and actively enforcing the Old Ones' plan (whatever that might be). No 1 best in game moment: almost every magic phase in every game.

The One Who Brings the Wrath of the Gods, Master of the Sacred Carnosaur, the Oldblood, aka King of the Dinosaurs.



I'm still not certain on the Carnosaur paint scheme and might re-do it one day. Irritatingly, I spent hours trying to get it to fit on the scenic base, only for GW to release a resin one a few weeks later that would have been much easier to model. Grr. I used the Kroq-Gar body with the weapon and shield of the Scar-Veteran on foot, giving hte impression that he is directing his mount at who to kill next.



I added ornamentation because I wanted to give the impression that the Carnosaur was a sacred beast to the Saurus, embodying a lot of aspects that they respect and aspire to (ferocity, strength, fearlessness), and that he and the King have more of a symbiotic relationship, rather than master/pet.



Victims: One Wood Elf Noble on a Forest Dragon, one High Elf noble on a Star Dragon, one Vampire Blood Dragon Lord (old rules), an entire unit of White Lions.

 

The One Who Fights for the Honour of the Gods, Champion of Glory, Scar-Veteran of a Thousand Battles, aka The Challenger.



A simple conversion using parts from the Stegadon kit for the helm, a Temple Guard body, head and left arm, and the right arm of Kroq-Gar. The pose is meant to imply that he is challenging an enemy to a duel, or otherwise saying: "You're next," (or "YOU'RE MINE" in Pudge's voice, if you have ever played DotA!) I'm thinking of adding a shield like nuklearangel's conversion (link http://www.lustria-online.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7847&start=10), but he usually runs Great Weapon and Armour of Destiny, so its pretty pointless. You can also see here the first use of the Cold One Cavalry back banners, which I love the look of and copy over most of my heroes (who get two) and Saurus Champions (who get one) as a badge of office.



In fluff terms, he has defeated so many opponents that he has developed a code of honour whereby he grants the enemy a chance to attack first. The Old Ones watch over and protect their champion as he duels in their name. No. 1 best fight: going toe-to-toe with a Chaos Lord in a chariot over four rounds of combat, scoring two wounds whilst taking only one in return, before the Lord fails a panic test and breaks.



The One With the Ferocity of the Jaguar, aka Mr Choppy (formerly, the Jaguar Saurus of Doom).



A simple conversion using arms from the Saurus Warrior sprue. Although a new model, a similarly equipped and posed Saurus used to be the infamous JSoD. How I miss him. Mr Choppy is yet to see his first 8th edition game, but I'm waiting to spring him on an unsuspecting High Elf/VC player, where his Strength 5 will really shine and boost a Saurus block. Hopefully you can see the detailing on the scales here, achieved with a drybrushing of skull white followed by a healthy black inking all over. This is supposed to be representative of the ageing process - I think I read somewhere that as Saurus get older and tougher, their scales turn whiter. It also adds a little depth to the model, which would otherwise be rather flat and miss a lot of the detail on the scales.

 

Saurus Cohort



Lets talk colour schemes. When I started Lizardmen, I knew straight away that I didn't to use the GW scheme or any other bright variety. I wanted my Saurus to look both neutral and intimidating. They might be coming to help you out - but by the same token, the Old One's plan might say that today they need to attack you. I hope that by using black and grey I've achieved that. The tan shields and the bronze just add a bit of colour to the unit.



I've also got a few guys with spears, using spares from the Saurus Cavalry sprue, in case I ever decide to run with that.




All in all, I was getting through about 5-6 Saurus a day, so managed to have the whole unit up and ready to go in a week, which I was satisfied with.

Favoured of Sotek, Skink-Kroxigor Cohort



Compared to the Saurus Warriors, the skinks are a much lighter shade of grey (its not so easy to see in these pictures). I really like the idea that in the thousands of years since the Old Ones left, the Lizardmen have begun to regress and turn a bit tribal, and I wanted a banner that captures this. It comes from the Orc Boar Boyz, I think, along with the horn, and the Champion is converted from the Stegadon kit. I think the rubble was a bit of the giant bow that I trimmed off. Still need to come back and give this guy another go other as the base doesn't look quite right yet.



I went for red scales on these guys, firstly to differentiate them from my skirmishers who are in green, and secondly because my Skrox units tend to be so ferocious, it was only right that they were blessed by Sotek!



Some close ups of the Kroxigor and their scales. I love these models and actually enjoyed painting them (I usually hate painting metal). I spent hours meticulously picking out their scales in Scab Red, then drybrushed them in Blood Red as a highlight. It turned out really well, and the whole unit looks pretty fearsome (As they should!).





The Immortals



The Temple Guard are probably my favourite models in the range. So many parts and customisation options. They also look so big and bulky compared to the Saurus. Going in to this unit I hadn't ever really painted bone on such a scale before, so it was a real learning experience but I think it turned out well.



The shields use the same colour as the Saurus Warriors, but its been darkened down with a big of chaos black. I figure that the Saurus go out and kill whatever creature is used to make the shields from as their rite of passage after spawning - the Temple Guard go and kill its bigger, meaner cousins to demonstrate their superiority!

Whereas I was painting 5-6 Saurus a day, the Temple Guard slowed right down to about 3.

Skink Skirmishers



Lastly, the trusty Skink. I actually have two units identical, but I've only pictured one as the other unit still has some goblin green bases in it (you can see one of them has snuck into the back). They've got green scales so as to appear more passive than their red-scaled cousins. I always imagine that the Skink was never meant to wage war in the Old One's plan, and their current role as skirmishers is one of desperation and need rather than design - as if the common skink scribes and stewards from the Temple-Citys have been conscripted.



After painting some 50 skinks in two weeks, including the Stegadon crew and Salamander handlers, I never want to paint another skink for the rest of my life!

 

I actually had about 50 pics to upload! Sadly, imgur decided to stop letting me edit them about halfway through, so this will have to do for today.

I've still got another Saurus Scar-Vet, mounted, both my Skink Priests, the Stegadon and some close ups of the TG champion to show off. Sadly, there'll have to wait for another day.

If you are interested in the scenic bases and movement trays, I got them here at a very reasonable price: http://www.base-x-of-war.com/.

 

Great work, and I really like the kroxigors. But when I saw the picture above, my first thought was "awwww, poor little guy's got a cold and a snuffly nose."

I can totally relate about the skinks. So... many... scales...

 

He's suffering from the disease brought from the old world by the invaders!

 

Nice looking army! I have been planning on doing the Carnosaur on similar colours as yours. And my Slann's probably going to be purple too! Maybe a bit brighter, though.