New player looking for some advice :)

[Little Wolf]

Hiya,

I recently started collecting a bit of warhammer, basically cause i thought i'd like the painting (and not really for the game, though if I paint a whole army I wanna be able to use it too ). I choose empire. I finished a box of flagellants and then started some state troops. Somehow they don't really appeal to me though so I thought I'd better pick another army now that I'm still starting. So I got me a box of skinks to see if I like them better.

So I'm starting on lizardmen and am looking for some 'general' advice you wish you'd have known before you started.
Like what types of colour schemes look good? Light base, darker scales, or darker base with lighter scales, or real different colours? What metals do the lizardmen use? Paint the mounts in the same scheme or should they be different? And if so, what base colours for mounts look good with the base colours for the main army? What look should I aim for in my bases?

I really want some purple in it and I love bright colours (Mainly why I choose lizardmen), so if I don't think about it I'd just pick a rainbow scheme but I guess that won't turn out as good as it sounds

So basically I am looking for all sorts of advice for a new player/painter and on picking my colour scheme in specific .

Thanks!
~ Little Wolf

 

[Little Wolf]

Yay, I already have a specific question.

I hardly play the game so I can't be bothered to make an army list yet. I want some units first and play with it and proxy to see what extra's I want. Basically I just want to paint some models, but if I decide to make it an army in the future, I don't want them to be useless.

I see there are skink fighters and skink skirmishers. Is either of these considered more or less useful? (Something like, for example, 'everyone uses 1 or 2 units of skirmishers but only themed armies use fighters').

I don't wanna finish painting these first models, get into the lizard army and then find out I build a useless unit

 

[Stegadeth]

Well, first of all, welcome to what i think is the best army in Warhammer. I love the Lizardmen fluff, characters, rules, models, versatility and, well, really everything about them.

The thing I think every new Lizardmen Army player should know is that absolutely nothing is incorrect when it comes to how you want your army to look. Lizardmen look good with just about any color scheme you can dream up. My army's color scheme, instead of being based on jungle dwelling lizards (think of tropical lizards with lots of greens and blues) are instead based on real life animals from the Chihuahuan Desert in the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico!

My Saurus:

are based on the San Luis Potosi Kingsnake:


My Skinks are not painted yet, but will be based on the juvenille Great Plains Skink:

You can't see in the picture here, but they have a few red scales near the lips, eyes and necks.

My Stegadons will be based on the Horned Lizard:


And my Slann will be based on the Red-Spotted Toad:


I haven't decided how to paint my Terradons yet, but it will be based on a reptile from the Chihuahuan Desert, probably a Common Kingsnake, Western Banded Gecko, or Collared Lizard (this last option is most likely as the collared lizard is a real stand out when it is in a green phase!)

My fluff for this Army is that they were spawned to guard the Chasm of the Condor, a pass through the Spine of Sotek mountains in Lustria, that is bordered by the Copper Desert (all of these landmarks are part of the actual Lizardmen Army Book's map of the Lizardmen's home continent of Lustria). They can also be sent to recover artifacts or fight the evil of Chaos throughout the world in any arid climate.

I haven't based any yet, but my basing materials are now all gathered. I'll be using a fine sand with arid static grass and some longer field grass in straw color.

Anyway, my theory is if you want purple, use it! My army is based purely on one eco-system in reality. Yours can be based on anything and as fantastic as you want it. If you do choose purple, try and tie it in a little with unit or specie. For example, your Saurus might have purple skin and black scales. Then, maybe your skinks can have purple scales and a blue-purple skin. If every unit has a little color in common, even if it is just purple shields on your Saurus, purple skin on your Stegadons, Purple scales on your skinks and purple tails on your Terradons, it will tie everything together nicely! My tie in will be the red-brown color on all of my units.

Lizardmen do really well with bright colors, muted colors, and even starkly contrasting colors. There isn't really a wrong way to paint them so long as you like the result!

 

[chunky]

There isn't really a wrong way to paint them so long as you like the result!

exactly what i would have said had I read this first . My lizardmen are more of a red skin with black scales I like to think that they were spawned near a volcano and that the lava seeped into their pools and turned the color to red.

 

[Little Wolf]

Thanks for the extensive replies . I really like your idea of making every unit a little different with a returning colour. That means I could even make something yellow-purple (I love that combo but apparently yellow is hard to paint ).

What are your idea's on base coating? Somewhere I read you should take black if you want light colours, and white if you want dark colours, for contrast. However, I was aiming for light colours on my state troops so I picked black, but they ended up pretty dark anyway...

 

[Stegadeth]

What are your idea's on base coating? Somewhere I read you should take black if you want light colours, and white if you want dark colours, for contrast. However, I was aiming for light colours on my state troops so I picked black, but they ended up pretty dark anyway...

You have it mixed up. A black base coat will generally make all of the colors placed over top of it darker. A white basecoat will generally make all of the colors placed over it lighter, so it stands out more. The advantage of a black basecoat, especially on something like lizardmen, is that the black generally stays put in the deepest crevices adding a depth of field. With a white basecoat, you sort of have to go back and add that with a wash or good highlighting.

If you look at my Saurus shields posted above you can see what I mean. All of the black on them is from the basecoat of black primer. After that I did some drybrushing and highlighting to make the desert tortoise shell look.

 

[speedygeko]

ah ha ha i like the fat one ( the one the steg is going to be based on)
I have a leopard geko (see below)

moving on i like to paint my models the way they are in the army book with lots of gold and blues

Geko

 

[chunky]

I would defiantly go with black for lizardmen, sure the white will be harder and some other bright colors but it makes for a nicer affect around the toes and fingers that sometimes a black wash just can't get.

 

[Little Wolf]

I'll stick with black then!