Lazy painter

Hi there all,
The last couple of days I've been considering to start painting my old lizardmen, but for that I need some help. The last time I began painting my lizardmen, it got me so bored that I quitted warhammer for a year or so. Therefore, I'm looking for a very fast and efficient way of painting my lizardmen. I'm not quite creative, and I got no clue of color matching/blending (Some people might say that warhammer then isn't the thing for me if I don't like coloring, but hey, I like playing it and painting it to a certain extend). And because of my ignorance when it comes to coloring, I'd appreciate if someone could help me with which exact paints to use for highlighting/shading of pieces of a saurus/temple guard model. I've also been looking at Army Painter, which would probably speed things up a bit? All my colors have dried out, so I'll have to buy a bunch of new paint along with brushes. That raises another question, what brushes are necessary and what are optional? For the color scheme, my current lizards are the unoriginal light blue, with darker blue scales, but I'd love a guide to any color scheme, as long as it is "for dummies".
As you might have noticed english isn't my first language, and I'm not quite the writer, so I apoligize if the text is a bit messy or miss spelled.
Any answer is highly appreciated,
Stribe

 

I used to be the exact same way, I hated painting but liked playing, but I quit playing for almost a year because I just couldn't be bothered with painting for hours on end. Then I started to go to tournaments and was suddenly FORCED to paint a lot of models in a short time. Once I got started and found the dicipline to paint i started to like it and now I paint at least something every three days or so.

If you find painting boring and just want it to be over with your best friends are; Wash & Drybrush. If you want to you can always dip your army as well, but I've never done it so you'll have to find a guide somewhere if you are interested in dipping (basically a super wash). Pain an area in light blue, give it a wash with Blue Wash, then lightly drybrush a brighter blue and you've done super quick, easy and pretty good looking shading and highlighting. This does of course work with any color that has a wash (yellow, red, green, blue, brown and several more).

Also to save yourself from boredom I recommend watching something on the computer or on TV while painting. I always keep a couple of downloaded series and movies on the computer to watch when I paint, makes a big difference imo.

If you are interested in dipping I can give you a guide, but Im pretty sure its not ok to link to other forums even if they're not LM forums so if you PM me I can give it to you (or just google "warhammer dipping guide"). Dipping is extremly easy, just paint everything with a base color (like light blue skin, dark blue scales, golden weapons and white teeth / claws), paint on some dip from Army Painter and tadaa, finished model.

 

Thanks for the quick answer, gonna pm you in a sec.

 

I think Lizardmen are great for lazy painters. For instance, this is how you could do your rank and file Saurus and skinks. You can get away with just three colors and a wash. Get some flat black spray primer and prime the assembled models. Paint the non-scaly skin a light color. Paint the scaly skin a darker and/or different color. Use Games Workshop's Devlan Mud wash (or another appropriate color wash) over the painted areas. If that is as much as you want to do, you are done. Not only that, but your army is tournament legal with three colors or more.

If you wanted to add some detail, that's easy too. You can paint the weapon, you could paint the smaller details like bracelets and scale-caps, the teeth and claws, eyes, tongues, whatever. Of course, after that point all that is really left is some highlighting anyway.

As for color schemes, I am using a Desert-Themed army. I am basing my colors on the San Luis Potosi Kingsnake from Mexico. After I prime them black, I have a tan underbelly (Bleached Bone) with red scales (Scab Red) which I then wash in Devlan mud. After that I highlight the scaly skin with a dry brush of Red Gore. I use blazing orange for the big part of the eye and Golden Yellow for the dot of the eye. The teeth and claws I paint Skull White and wash with Devlan Mud. If the model has an open mouth with exposed tongue I just paint the tongue Blood Red. For the jewelry I use Shining Gold and highlight with Burnished Gold. I paint the spear shafts Vermin Brown and use Dwarf Bronze for the metal parts. I leave the head of the spear black and highlight it with Shadow Grey to represent the stone look "obsinite" should have. My shields are done separately and glued on later. I try and make them look like desert tortoise shells. Muted yellows, browns and greens (Bubonic Brown, Snakebite Leather and Camo Green) with lighter highlights.

Frankly, when I was choosing a color scheme I tried the Bleached Bone skin and Scab Red scales with only a coat of Devlan Mud wash and it looked pretty darn good without highlighting a thing. I cannot say enough about the new GW washes. You can use them straight from the pot without any diluting and they really make a flat model "pop". I am sure there are other washes out there, or you can make your own, but I am lazy too! Best of luck.

 

Ha, try Tomb Kings! There's white... and then a wash to make them dirty. Add weapons, and... you're done

 

What you've said so far have convinced me that washing is the thing. That way I can paint some decent looking models without having "cheated" and dipped the whole thing.
Thank you for convincing me

As for the brushes, which brushes do you propose I should buy? Fine Detail, Wash Brush, Medium drybrush and a Large Brush?

 

I wish I could answer this specifically for you, but each person differs in ability and technique. I suck at painting so I end up abusing the Citadel Standard, Detail and Fine Detail sizes most often. I say abuse because my technique is too rough. I am hard on brushes. I need the smaller brushes to get the detail I want without marring places I do not want to put paint. I also use the small dry brush when I need to. I personally think the wash brush is too big for what I want to do, so I actually use an older more beat up brush to apply washes.

 

Well, I'm about to make a great order of models/pains and brushes, so I need a decent estimate of what kind of brushes I need. I suppose the fine detail brush is a must, along with the standard brush maybe? I don't want to spend half an hour basing a model because I don't own a decent sized brush
How important is the brush type/size of a dry brushing brush? I guess drybrushing would typically be for the scales of the lizzies, so I suppose medium is fine?

 

Hi
You might not like this clour scheme but I think that my models are going to have red gore skin and chaos black scales then shining gold for armour and for bone I will have bleached bone.

Hope you like the idea

Kroq Gar

 

In the opinion of someone who has tried several different kinds of brushes (ie. me) citadel brushes suck. I was extremely dissapointed with the quality of the brush especially considering its price. Other miniature painting companies will give much better value for brushes, or sometimes general arts stores will have brushes good enough for miniatures. The main thing to look for is sable brushes, they are the best quality and hold paint very well.

 

Yeah. I figure Citadel brushes are much like everything Citadel makes, a poor value. It's just what I use because I can get them easier. I should visit the hobby store some time and look for real brushes, but there are always so many...

 

I have considered buying other brushes, but I've had a hard time choosing. I'm gonna order from waylandgames.co.uk which has a wide choice of brushes beside the citadel ones. Can any of you recommend a great "starter set"; like 3-4 brushes for a subpar painter who's gonna focus on washing/dry brushing.