Hello from a beginner!

[Sensei]

Hello guys,
I am very new (as in "I don't own any Warhammer yet") to Warhammer but aim to change that soon. My priority is building and painting the miniatures, I am not yet sure if I am going to play officially, am also unsure about the player base here (Lüneburg, Germany).
Even though the internet is full of information it is really hard to filter what I need to know/buy. Especially now that AoS is out. I thought about starting with Saurus Warriors to learn painting, although I already painted with a friend, but that was a decade ago. I also thought about buying the Battletome first just to learn more about the game and the Lizardmen.
Today I spent the whole day just going through the forum and gazing in awe at all the beautifully crafted lizards, got me really excited and I can't wait to start my own army.
So i guess I just wanna tell you all: Hi, you have a great forum!

 

[Bowser]

Welcome aboard! Even if you don't play modelling and painting can be fun in itself! Hopefully you find all the tips and tricks you are looking for and if you do decide to play there is a lot of info here!

 

[Scalenex]

Guten Tag

We have a lot of painters who don't play many games. This is a great place to gets tips and constructive criticism or just show off your painted masterpieces.

We are more than happy to help you with gameplay too, regardless of what game system you choose to use your Lizardmen. I recommend using square bases instead of round bases. Then you can use the same set of models to play Age of Sigmar, 8th edition, 9th Age, or Kings of War and be ready for anything.

 

[Sensei]

Thanks for the warm welcome! That's a really good tip I hadn't thought about, thank you.

 

[Crowsfoot]

Welcome aboard, I'm mostly a painter but getting more and more into AOS as it's easy to learn and fun to play.

Regarding painting and collecting, paint and collect the models you like they will always fit into an army if you choose to game later on, getting the battletome is a great idea as it will give you loads of visual ideas for the creation of your own Seraphon army.

As to what to buy first, what ever you like

 

[spawning of Bob]

Greetings Sensei,

Saurus warriors are a great way to start painting. I always found the idea of a really well uniformed army a problem (elf, empire) because each would need their costume colors to match, and I tended to batch paint and mix my own colours and then lose the secret formula in the months between painting sessions.

Having a troop of Saurus with a variety of subtly different skin tones makes them feel organic to me. Not like robots.

If you pick one additional standard colour to tie the whole army together, scale tones don't matter much at all. My Saurus have red shields with black wash and trims, my temple guard have black shields with red wash and trim. Banners in red and black.

Saurus are also good because the models have a lot of texture to the surface. Flat things like cloaks demand layers of shadow and highlights. With a rough scale texture you can do a quick wash and then a rough dry-brush and look like a genius. *


* Real geniuses like @neveroddoreven, may disagree, but i was only ever aiming for "looks good on the tabletop" level of detail and my attention span is

 

[neveroddoreven]

I'm not going to disagree with that. I always encourage washing and drybrushing to newbies. They're fundamental painting skills that can be expanded upon.
Lizardmen are great models to start with. You can paint them any colour and they look good. When I started in the 90's I collected skaven, but soon found myself bunch of skinks given to me by friends that came with the starter sets. I used those models to experiment with and had a psychadelic unit of 20 or more. They're a great canvas.