Blog Horrifying Murder Lizards

Thanks! I really appreciate that, I've had some good success experimenting with more detailed bases recently (as opposed to the simple texture paint, wash, drybrush that i used to do) with fun details like Derrick, and I'm looking forward to expanding on that with other army members. Big plans for the Carnosaur and Troglodon in particular!

Warpaint wise I used a really old pot of thick skull white with some added dried pigment (I just ground up the caked up bits you get in the cap and sides of the pot in my fingers) to make a really chunky paint and stuck it on his face, making sure to not apply it to the deeper recesses/skin folds. I've always had terrible experiences with the gw white paints, I find them gritty and chunky no matter how much i shake them. Which is bad for my white scars but amazing for this

I got the method from this Vince Venturella vid and I really like the effect too. So much so that I'm going to be doing it on all of my non-albino models - Think it will help to really tie the army together.

 

Great work! Nice and bloody too

 

What an awesome concept and paintjob! A "grimdark" style has never crossed my mind for lizardmen, not sure why as there's plenty of mention of how brutal the jungles are in the fluff. Reminds me of the movie Green Inferno, I love it! Great job!!

 

Return of the death dino’s! Murder lizards 2: revengeance, rising from the ashes, Phoenix edition (etc etc).

I have returned! I’ve finally managed to get a new job + fuel for the plastic crack so I’m back to my lizardy bois. I’ve got a saurus start collecting box on its way but in the meantime I had these guys hanging around in the box where I found my stegadon, so they should tide me over until the fresh stuff arrives!



They took a fair bit of tidying up (and 1/2 of them had spears for some weird reason). But a nice fresh basecoat and some TLC and they’ll fit right in! I Just need to decide what colours to paint them (and the rest of my Saurus)

ALSO note the square bases - the old world announcement has me unreasonably excited (which also explains the 40 odd dwarf warriors I’ve painted since I last posted here) - plus I’ve been watching a lot of 8th ed batreps on mountain miniatures’ YouTube so there’s no way I could resist the urge to make them a full fantasy army (sorry AoS, not this time). Does mean I’ll have to rebase the steg but at least it’s only one model.

anyway I’m rambling, super happy to be back to working on these little psychopaths and will update on my progress.

 

Nice work!

I did. Nicely done!

I'm with you on the excitement. I just keep reminding myself that it 'ain't over until the fat White Dwarf has sung...

We'll see what they actually come out with.

 

Had to work late tonight but I finally found time to apply paint to lizardmen. Decided on a Tan skin and dark reddish purple scales:



Can safely say that my airbrushing accuracy needs work, I had a lot of splash from the purple scales onto the tan skin. Just need to get more practice I guess (also I noticed my airbrush’s needle tip is bent - that might have something to with it).

In better news Santa came early!

Now wishing I’d given the champion a weapon from the cold one knights sprue - they’re a fair bit more impressive. But patience is for cowards so I regret nothing

Means I have a difficult choice for tomorrow evening though, painting or modelling, which do I pick?!?

 

Hey! I don't think the accuracy is what bothers you, but the speckling, which can be reduced by thinning your paint further or increasing the psi. If that doesn't do it you can try to polish your airbrush needle, but if it's bent I'm afraid little can be done. If it's just accuracy though, it just comes with use and practice. I actually like the speckling anyways .
Also, love your colour scheme and your choice of bases

 

Oooo really? I hadn't thought to increase the PSI to avoid speckling - it does make sense though, I was spraying on very low PSI because the paint kept getting pushed around on the model by the force of the air. Maybe I thinned the paint too much? I'm not sure, more testing is required!

And thanks! this is the first army where I've really put effort into the bases so I'm glad it's paying off!

 

Yes it has! I've been busy with studies, but hopefully sometime I'll update the blog to at least end it with some cool pics .

Yes! Increase the psi and hold the airbrush further away. It's really a matter of finger control on the trigger, which needs practice like a traditional brush. It's good practice to draw lines and circles on a piece of paper and to experiment with different consistencies of paint and pressure.
And on the matter of bases, I really think a good base is better than a good paintjob, but I admit I'm a bit of a basing fanatic myself haha. I also meant to imply that I love the shape of your bases

 

Ok so spent a couple of hours playing around with a test Saurus and here's where I'm at (doing all the bases at once later so that's just a placeholder colour for now):



Honestly I'm not completely happy with the scales - it was a 50/50 mix of khorne red and rhinox hide through the airbrush but it came out really purply originally and i dont think i really managed to fix it with the drybrush of khorne red that i put on this guy - also the scales seem kind of...idk dull and uninteresting? I wanted them to be dark and fairly desaturated but maybe i went too far with that, welcoming any advice on what I could do for the other models.

Other than that I'm fairly happy - and I think that left eye is the greatest eye I've ever painted on any model! It was also the first time i've tried to do a marble effect on the weapon - I think i maybe needed to do more lines to really give it that marble look though, and maybe thin the wash i put over it to make them more noticeable

 

I wanted to do the shields in a super dark purple (which is why i didn't want the scales to be too purply), came up with three options :



The top shield is two coats of Shyish purple on the left, and a 50/50 blend of Shyish purple and black templar on the right. The bottom shield is one coat of black templar, then one coat of Shyish purple. Not too sure which of the three options fit the model best to be honest - any feedback on that choice is welcome as I'm really torn.



Anyway let me know what you think of the scheme! any feedback is always welcome (especially so early into the army's life!)

 

I like the overall scheme. I think the darker colours need some highlights though as like you said they seem a little dull. The red scales could have a highlight with a terracotta colour maybe, or even just a slightly lighter red like Mephiston red. The shields are all very dark and it's hard to see much difference between the 3 tbh. Whichever you settle on should probably get a bit of a highlight with a lighter purple like Xereus Purple or something. This will make the scales on the shield and the Saurus more defined.
Keep up the good work

 

Ok take 2 , the scales got some thinned black templar for some definition, then a highlight with khorne red, then another with an orangey brown like @Explodingzeb suggested and I'm much happier with them - I decided to go orange rather than red as it seemed like a more common and 'natural' reptile colour.


Next, the shields!



did another couple of test shields trying to find one I like, top one was done with prehighlighting, then a layer of contrast, bottom was contrast first, then some highlighting. I'm still not sure tbh, I might try a more pinky one with screamer pink/volpus pink but idk. I'm worrying that neither pink nor purple is exactly 'realistic' looking, nor do they make me think of dinosaurs. Maybe this calls for a complete left turn into something wildly different - a greeny brown or something like that - any ideas appreciated as always!

 

The scales much better now, good job dude!
I like the contrast then highlighted shield. As you say though if you want realistic colours then maybe green would be good.

 

I like what you have so far! Here's some thoughts I have. There is purple in Rhinox Hide so when you mixed it with the khorne red it prob brought out the purple a bit more. You could use a different brown for the base coat, although the second pass with more highlights looks better anyway. Since you are getting in reps with an airbrush, you could try hitting the shoulders and upper back scales with a brighter red at an angle from above to add some visual interest, and it would prob go quicker than hand painting them. I like the skin you have going on, and the eye looks great! I think green for the shields would be a great choice, it would contrast with the reds very well and make the scales pop a bit more, especially if you push their highlights further. If you do go this route, use a desaturated green so you don't pull too much attention from the saurus itself tho. Great work so far, I'm excited to see your final scheme!

 

Hobby update! So I had a few goes at the green shields:




I think I'm leaning into option 1 atm, it has a little visual interest while still being fairly muted - I might try putting a black wash in the recesses of 2 though, it lost a lot of definition when i washed it with camoshade - I think the wash colour was too similar to the base colour.

Any advice appreciated as always! Anyway, next imma show you the REAL thing I spent all day working on

 

ok, So I've been slightly unsatisfied with the Saurus sculpts (too small, too scrawny, shorter than some humans due to the hunch, etc) sooooo I cam up with this guy (He hasn't been greenstuffed yet so there are a few obvious gaps):

He's about a head taller than the other Saurus; also wider with thicker thighs and shoulders.

The actual conversion is a fairly in-depth kitbash between the saurus warrior and a bloodletter (who have the same basic structure and posture as Saurus), using most of the bloodletters longer limbs with the scaled parts from the saurus limbs spliced on to cut down on sculpting requirements.
Some group shots next to some other random miniatures:



To me one of the most important parts of it is that he's actually able to stand eye-to-eye with a chaos warrior:

Also the foot claws are sooooo much more defined than on the basic Saurus - that always annoyed me about their sculpt too.

I checked some bits sellers and the bloodletter legs are about £0.40 each, with the arms being £1 (sword arm was the killer there), so it adds a decent amount of £££ to the model - but seeing as the base Saurus were essentially free in the carnosaur kit it might not be that bad. I could also see how it looks just with the leg + posture conversion, and try to use a bit of armour to bulk out the shoulders.

I'm fairly happy with the result (though idk if if i'll remain happy after my mediocre sculpting skills get unleashed on him), for me, the biggest problem with the conversion is the time involved. Even if I streamline the process it's going to take quite a few hours to convert all the 30-50 Saurus I'll need.

Let me know what you think! couple more comparison shots below.

 

I agree on the shields, I like the first one the best. Great job on the conversions, the two models do kitbash very well. My only feedback is that the lower abdomen looks too thin I comparison, so that would probably need to be bulked up with greenstuff or have some armor or something added. But it's an awesome idea!