Blog Going Back to Where It All Began (5th ed Lizardmen onward!)

Some more slow progress on the Slann. Very much going by the artwork - so the bone throne has to be....well, bone. Result was my older style layering up from rhinox hide to screaming skull with highlights in pallid wych flesh, but not too much. The horns are done up via Karak Stone to Rakarth flesh for an off bone, that sort of matches the horn in the image and ties with the fact the Stegadon on the army book cover actually has off-grey horns rather than white!



Slann himself is layered Caliban to Warpstone Glow, then green washed and washed again with some Warp Lightning contrast mixed in to get those darker green areas and the glossy wet effect on his skin, though might tone that down through a caliban green wash on the darker areas.

Still need to blend his belly up to the yellows yet.



Of course, his throne is the traditional red with some tarnished gold icons and glyphs. Matching the art of course - what he wears is tarnished, but figure that the gold on the horns of the throne, the standards and their glyphs and the bearer's glyphs are the brighter, warmer gold while the rest is the tarnished green-gold.

I've also gone off and undercoated - one Terradon and riders, one Kroxigor, one Cold One and rider, 2 Skinks - so I can do testers for them in the scheme. I figure I've already done the Saurus and the Palanquin Bearers are a good enough test for the Temple Guard!

 

This is brilliant! Absolutely fantastic work on the bone, and the slippery feel to the Slann. The details on the palanquin are incredible. Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

Frogress report. The Slann himself is done, the last bits of the Palanquin and the bearers are to do next and then I can get back to doing units proper! I'm liking him a lot. He clearly matches the Dave Gallagher artwork to the best he can.





Only the last bit of the palanquin to do (the handle) and as you can see I've made a start. Aged gold serpents, the tassles will likely be in white cloth with red, the dangles will probably be white and red as well.

The next Slann is being kept back for a Mazdamundi conversion when I get to the Stegadons (as a spare Howdah base made that decision easy )

 

He looks great!

 

Awesome work, love the pun

He looks very good.
Can't wait to see him finished and also get a glimps of your Mazamundi conversion

Keep up the great work

Grrr, Imrahil

 

Blerg. Currently I am the Covid.

However, I can at least work on odds and ends. Decided to take a shot at a Dave Gallagher style Kroxigor from the sketch art bits from the 5th edition rulebook. Ok with it, probably will keep it for a unit of seperate Kroxigor, not so much if going in units.



Currently still working on the Palanquin bearers for the slann. Bit of patience involved as involves white cloth and tabards which is a bit of an annoyance. Also, health's not been too great so a lot of time has been resting and lazing around.

More to follow.

 

So, sort of clear but recovering. Finished the 5th ed Slann apart from the basing materials - which are arriving tomorrow. Went with the Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready scrublands to get the right sort of look. So once it arrives Mr. Slann just needs to take a dip into it and he's done!

Only downside is that some of the footing looks uneven. Basing will help with that I suspect and with that the only 'mandatory' part of a 5th ed army is done.

Now I think I'll focus on the Saurus unit and then some Skinks.

 

I like the Slann! Looking forward to seeing it together among the temle guard.

 

And our Slann is finally based. And the basing scheme works. A mix of Geek Gaming Scenic's Base Ready scrublands, some of their foam scatter green flock and some jungle tufts of static grass and it just...works right.

Now to put it on the other things already done to see how it works overall. But I'm happy with it. Now I can start the units proper. Thinking first unit should be 15 Saurus with Hand Weapons and Shields. (Yes, I know I have 20, but 15 feels like an organic 5th ed unit size for them).

 

With a twist I went back to see if the basing scheme worked on what I'd already had done. Turns out it does. So the Kroxigor and the 2 Saurus Warriors done so far...are now fully based as well.

 

Oops. Forgot to post this quick one here. Last of the 'Core race' testers before I can start on units proper. A skink, along with the revelant Dave Gallagher art for him!

And with that, I can dive into units. Thankfully I don't have that much duplication (similar/identical schemes don't matter if armaments are different) - the only two units in the army that 'duplicate' anywhere along the line are a Stegadon, a smaller Temple Guard unit and a Skink unit with Javelins.

I plan on keeping the Temple Guard the same scheme as the larger unit, just changing the colour of the boss of the shield (so I can mix them together to make an even bigger unit if I want - just put the mixed in ones at the back to die first).

The Skinks - well, I figure most will match this scheme (blue stripe crest and mottling) but the second will be pure yellow crests with no mottling.

Kroxigor in either skink unit will be the same blue/yellows while the seperate unit will be in the green/yellow already seen. And in 6th ed games (the only edition where Kroxigor couldn't join up with Skink units) the Green will be one unit and the blues will be another.

So, here's the Skink! And again, this basing scheme is working!

 

Quick update while we work on more Saurus in our own time.



As you can see, we have a rank by 5th/6th edition standards, but I prefer my ranks 5 Strong personally.

So, we now have a Plan - a Discord group has managed to willingly fall for my crazy hobby project idea, just to stir up interest over the next year and see what people can make with partially random-factors on a restrictive base.

What Plan? The Thorskinson's Island Hobby Challenge!

Essentially, it's a 1500 point 5th Edition army with some restrictions (1 General, 1 Level 1 Wizard, 1 Monster, 1 War Machine, 1 Magic Item up to 50 pts) and some modifications to the restrictions based on 3 random starting territories.

We've wound up with a happy total of 5 people, myself included so far - my Lizardmen, 2 High Elf armies, 1 Dwarf army and 1 Bretonnian army!

Territory wise I randomly generated a Shrine (allows me to include 1 additional Wizard up to Level 3 and 1 additional magic item up to 75 pts), a Gold Mine (3 additional magic items up to 100 pts) and a Forest (2 additional War Machines).

So the army planned is as follows...

Lord Whaaf'xha-Fhan Xhi'xhtic - Slann Master Mage Priest - Battle Standard, Plaque of Dominion, Amulet of Xapati - 550 pts
The Revered Guardians - 9 Temple Guard - Halberds, Shields, Standard & Musician, Dread Banner - 259 pts

The Jade Host - 15 Saurus Warriors - Hand Weapons, Shields, Standard & Musician - 255 pts

Bhik-Nurd - Skink Shaman - Short Bow, Poison Arrows - 58 pts

The Azure Striders - 10 Skinks - Shortbows, Poison Arrows - 55 pts

The Azure Stalkers - 10 Skinks - Javelins & Shields, Poison - 65 pts

The Ancient One - Stegadon with 5 Crew, Standard of Shielding - 256 pts

Seems like it'll be a fun project to focus on. 3 nice, solid hammer or anvil units, 2 skirmish screens and a magical powerhouse. Of course, I am maybe a little disappointed that I didn't roll up any Villages or Towns for unit champions or heroes but to be fair, the jump in stats from a Mage Priest Champion to a Master Mage Priest in 5th edition is quite a significant one in terms of wounds, toughness and attacks!

Of course, the initial idea is to do the armies this way during a year and maybe meet up in a year's time to have a weekend of playing 5th ed. Of course, depending on folk's speed and readiness I might just have to rig the rules about a third to halfway in, allow folks to generate 3 more territories or maybe do a natural points bump.

 

Great work, love the classic kroxigor and the little bit of artwork to go with it.

Would make a nice diorama!

 

Update time - from 4 Saurus to 9! What a shock, right? Including the command group as well! Currently working on 3 more to bring the numbers to 12 and then 4 more to bring to 16

The first actual 5th ed regiment is shaping up nicely enough! And once the Saurus are done I'll probably do the Skink Shaman (Tenehuini mini) and the 10 shortbow skinks before going to Temple Guard....

 

I like how the unit is coming along, keep up the good work! The bases look really good together with the blue, gold, and redof the warriors.

 

These look great!

 

Thanks! It's a minor thing but I'm kind of happy with the fact there's two different golds throughout. The 'warm' gold that is on the shields, Standard, Palanquin bearer's chestplates.... and the softer, tarnished gold that's on the weapons, bracelets and odd decorations and pieces. It's a bit of variety and works.

Bases are growing on me...somewhat. The mix is sold as scrumbland but seems to work well being the mix of coastal and jungle - basically that mix you get when the jungle meets the coastline. Which sort of lends itself to the idea that this Lizardman force tends to be most active when invaders set foot down or set up, emerging from the jungles to do their duties and then disappearing back in....

 

Just a slight update - things have slowed so I can focus on commissions for a bit (have some square base Empire to work on, some Battletech mechs, some Orks to basecoat and BEARIOTS to paint so need to focus) - but still took some time to build up the components and test build at least one of the Slann Special Characters from 5th edition!