Infrequent Lizardmen WIPs

2nd time, but the first was a half-assed effort. It's a pretty intimidating technique, but this guy is ideal for it. There are a range of different surface sizes, from his staff and headress with loads of big open areas to the beads and gimmicks he's wearing, which I found a lot easier to do. By doing the smaller surfaces first I was able to get a better idea of how to tackle the bigger bits: the end result is that the staff is the best bit of NMM overall. I've got another few figures I'm going to try it on, but I am somewhat frustrated with my lack of progress on real metallic colour.

 

I'm back! If only briefly to share some pictures.

I've been working on some Temple Guard over the last few months. I should clarify, these are not the product of month's worth of work, I just get bored easily and flit between the different projects on my desk with little thought of organisation. I'm also pissed off with the quality of the photos, but I am investing in a light box soon.
I painted 9 of these guys, having picked them up second hand off Ebay. The tenth is waiting to get a slight remodelling after attempts to strip his primer coat with white spirit instead melted his weapon. In the battalion box I won however there are Temple Guard sprues with enough spare bits that I can give him a whole new look without any additional effort. That also means I have 10 more Temple Guard to work on.


Crappy group shot. They look better in real life, as the light here has obliterated the detail and over-saturated certain colours.


Slightly better view showing the scales and gold bits. I decided on purple because these guys accompany the Slann, and thus have some sort of affinity with magic, if only protection against it.


Again, another view. A few things still need to be done: the claws need a wash, the gold needs a highlight (the Guard on the left has not had it done, compared to the one on the right which has), the bases a tidy-up, the feathers a wash, the skulls a pickup and the eyes. They're pretty close to being finished however.


This guy is my next hero. A Scar-Veteran on Cold-One, fully plastic. I didn't take any photos of him when I mocked him up, so apologies for him being in pieces.


I greestuffed his headcrest to look like he's wearing a load of feathers. I've decided that feathers will be a recurring theme throughout the army (the Temple Guard have some for instance), so the Scar-Vet gets an impressive crest to stand alongside the skink priest.
I'm entering him into a competition on the minipainting subreddit, the theme of which is "turquoise". I'll have to see how I apply the colour, at the moment I think he'll have turquoise skin and be riding a turquoise Cold-One: NMM gold and colourful feathers should provide enough of a contrast.


Not reptilian I know, but he's the only other fantasy model I've been messing around with. I'll be taking him away on holidays with me in case the Scar-Vet gets too much.

Thanks for reading!

Fytzer

 

Yeah I pull open the tea bags from the copious amount that is drunk in my house, dry them out and attach them with PVA. Thinned coat of dark green acrylic followed by a dry brush of a yellower colour completes them. The leaves are as before, dried oregano.
I tried to do some experiments with vines and similar, but it wasn't really satisfactory. I'm gonna mess around with some bamboo however on the skinks I've got coming up

 

I like the cape!

 

Hello again

Spent some time over the holidays working on this fellow. I'm working towards completing the skintone in the next few days. I am however debating whether I should try some free-hand scales, or whether he'll look fine as he is.








I'm really happy with the scales: I was unsure of the colour so it shifted around a bit from olive green to ochre, before some experimentation with Tamiya Clear Yellow gave it the really nice deep yellow-green tone in the pictures. It's glossy as well, which I actually quite like, as it gives it a sense of hardness. I also made a mistake in the colour selection as I wanted him to look like he was spawned under Quetzl, but confused Tlazcotl's colour with Quetzl's (who doesn't have one). Ah well, I'm still happy with the result

I have yet to get started on the NMM: I'll have to see how I get on. Once that's done though I'll have a few minor bits and pieces to sort out. Oh yeah, and his Cold One.

Thanks for reading!

Fytzer

 

I've painted quite a few Horus Heresy marines in batches and sub-assemblies, so I'm confident it'll look grand. When it comes time to glue the parts together I scrape the contact points clear of paint with a scalpel, and glue. If it's particularly small surface area I'll give it a quick going over with a file.

 

Great work Fytzer! Looks quite clean keep it up !

 

Hello

More WIPs. I finished up most of the things on these skinks. There are some bits that need doing, such as bracelets etc. I am planning on giving the eyes a coat of clear yellow to make them lizardy, but this is causing me some issue. These guys have been shaded using floor polish and acrylic ink, which is essentially a gloss wash with customisable intensity and colour (not to mention straight out better value than GW). This gives the skin a very glossy finish.

The problem is that due to their dark, monotone colour (fully intentional: these guys are supposed to be ambush hunters) and glossy finish, I've struggled to photograph them well. I would very much like advice as to whether I should matte coat them down OR leave them glossy. This then affects when I will apply the clear yellow.

Essentially: gloss or matte? And again, apologies for the awful photos.


Another experiment, not entirely related, was this Mantic greater earth elemental. I painted him mostly in oil paints, then used some basing stuff to make him look like earth. The finish is not quite as I would have liked, but my general aim for Mantic models is "tabletop".


The oil paint allowed me to do some funky stuff with the crystals. The slow dry time literally allows you to wet blend for hours, so on some parts I simply applied dark blue and white, and went to town. I was pretty tough with the brushwork, but this guy is supposed to look messy, and I think the less "smooth" style suits him.

Messy as hell, but I like it. Mixing up style and medium can be very therapeutic.

With regards to lizardmen, this has got me thinking about oil paint on larger models. While 28mm is a bit small for oils, the monsters are big enough to go to town on. I will try some oil washes on my stegadon, but I doubt the oils I have could be used for a whole piece as they aren't artist quality, and thus a bit rough.

Feedback on the skinks please, and thanks for reading!

Fytzer

 

Hey!
Not quite sure I know enough to answer you right, but when using varnish (which is not all the time…) I tend to go for matte except when I need to make sth look wet.. I think you could try to bring it down. Also, when using varnish, be careful not to apply it on the metallic parts, it messes with metallic paint. Unless you go NMM of course.

Gorgeous bases by the way. i'm a big fan.

 

Your skinks look good, and so does that earth elemental! Great paint job and use of flock/basing materials to get him nice and earthy.

 

Cheers for answering that! They're big models alright, they can dominate a game through base footprint alone!

In real life news, I'm away for the next two weeks as part of my basic training, so funnily enough I won't be able to post any progress pics. I did however finish up a blog post on washes which some people might find interesting to read:
https://sloppybrushwork.wordpress.com/
(Mods please let me know if I'm breaking any rules by posting a link to my blog)
RE the skinks: I gave them a few highlights which helped matte down the finish, so I will give them a once over of matte varnish before applying the clear yellow. However those plans will remain 2 weeks distant......

Thanks

Fytzer

 

Hello again. I was being brutally honest when I titled this thread, as I hope has become apparent I am NOT good at posting regular updates. I have however jumped back on to my Saurus Scar-Veteran project and spent a few hours over the last week working on the NMM gold. Having committed to it on the priest I need to stick with my decision, and boy am I cursing myself. I've currently completed about 1/4 of the gold on the rider, but it's not quite finished, and there's a lot more gold on the cold one. I really need to figure out a satisfying true metallic recipe......


The left side of the shoulder guard is done, the right side needs a few more layers. The headress is actually almost there as it has lots of small bits which I find easier to do.

In other news I tried some oils on the stegadon. I'm actually very happy with the result, although it again will require a bit of work to finish up. The skin and scales are oil, the horns were an attempt with oil but I'm going to have to go over them with acrylics as my plan didn't really work.




Thanks for looking! I might get my act together and sort out the Scar-Vet at some point in the next few weeks, by if my current progress is anything to go by I wouldn't hold your breathe!

Thanks again, Fytzer