Old Schooler New to Lizzies

[T`hinker`er]

I know what you are saying about the primitive vs. more organized feel of the army. But aren't the Saurus sort of mindless brutes who just do what the Slann tell them to do? And while the newer weapons look more refined than the old, the old shields look very refined compared to the lizard scale shields the new models have, which is ironic to say the least, don't you think?

Equipment aside, as a matter of biology I like the old models as much as the new ones, so I really don't feel compelled on that basis to re-purchase my entire army. I think I can update the look of the old Saurus a bit with conversions and greenstuff. One thing I want to do is give the characters cloaks made from jaguar hide...we'll see how that goes...

Anyway, I appreciate all the feedback and guidance and ideas!!! Please keep them coming.

Meanwhile, here are W.I.P. shots of the standard bearer and the champion:


I admit, the Champion isn't much to look at yet, but I am posting it to ask how noticeable do you think it is that he only has 3 fingers? I can resculpt the hand...

 

[Rokanos]

3 fingers and a thumb...seems about right to me, I doubt anyone will really make a deal about it, however, if I may, the armys look a bit skinny and long compared to the torso.

Either way, lookin good so far!

 

[T`hinker`er]

Hmmm, perhaps. I will add a bit more muscle to the arm as well then, thanks

 

[T`hinker`er]

Well, it's been a while since I've posted here, mainly because the last campaign (where I was playing Skaven) went on a lot longer than expected and as a result I found myself painting more and more slaves and clanrats and building siege engines...and this left me no time to work on my lizardmen. Happy to report that I was victorious in the last campaign and now finally the new one has begun!

My friend made the map and I sculpted the capitol cities that you see below, using US nickels as bases (to give you an idea of the size). The "army banner" playing pieces (little disks that you see) are sculpted on pennies (using GW shield bitz).



This picture was taken after turn 1. We are now at turn 5, and I think by turn 6 or 7 I will be "stuck in" with the HIgh Elves! I'll post some close-ups shortly of these faction strongholds (especially the Ziggurat), as this photo does not do any of this stuff justice.

Here are close-up photos of the capitols I made for the prior campaign that we recently finished playing:


Look for me to be posting a lot of photos of my conversions and painting in the next few days and weeks - I've been quite busy and definitely look forward to your comments and getting to know the community here!

 

[SeBM]

Really nice work on all the parts for your campaign! How did your friend build the map??? Nice looking capitol cities and I'm looking forward on seeing your models .

 

[T`hinker`er]

Thanks, I was starting to think there wasn't anyone else on this forum

I am a little behind in taking photos due to a busy week, but I will get some taken this weekend and post them here shortly

 

[Arli]

That is some amazing detail on the city markers. You have some serious skill.

 

[FavoredoftheOldOnes]

Good work on the saurus. I like the scheme you chos for them. Also, the map and the capital buildings look awesome! I assume a lot of work went into those miniature capitals?

 

[T`hinker`er]

I actually made the Skaven one in about an hour, partly because I used Man 'O War bits and some pocket watch gears that I had on hand. With each new one I've spend more and more time, increasing the detail and doing everything from scratch, eliminating the bitz.

Here's a shot I took of the Skaven capitol shortly after it was completed to give a sense of scale:


And a look at other side, which shows the bell tower on top a little better than the first photo did:


The Ziggarut actually took the most time because I made each level separately and then detailed the levels and stairs. The easiest was the Chaos heard stone...I will post photos of the others soon!

P.S., SeBM, the Map was made by our Campaign GM, and I believe he used Campaign Cartographer 3, by http://www.profantasy.com

 

[Eladimir]

Don't worry lots of people on this forum. Read the whole post some cool looking pics and a nice campaign setup.

I'm also in the same boat, I just got back into the hobby after playing in fifth ed a long time ago. Bought some more OOP models cheap online and get started again. My opponents have been pretty nice so far about the shortbows, I just call them all javelin or all blowpipes for now as I work on a conversion plan.

I never had temple guard back then but I had a bought a box of the new saurus so I painted the top of the heads bone white and going to use them at my TG. Trying to glue the hand weapons on top of the spears to make myself some halberds.

 

[SeBM]

You'll see that these forums are very active. I was away on vacation and I'm usually pretty active myself so expect to get a lot of comments from me, especially since your work is both inspiring and really cool looking. I'm gonna have a look at that map making program of yours since I'd really like to start a campaign myself. If only I could play less Starcraft 2 and CoDII Black Ops, I would have an army to play with .

Can we get a close shot of the Ziggurat?


Thanks in advance!

 

[T`hinker`er]

Awesome, because I am going to need all the feedback and inspiration I can get to get my whole army sculpted-converted-cast-painted...all by the next scheduled game. Barring life emergencies, my group gets together to play once a month, usually starting out by playing a campaign move, seeing what armies are clashing that turn, and then playing it out as a full scale Warhammer battle. Makes for some long days when we have 3 battles going on at the same time

So, as requested, here is a close up of the Ziggurat:


And while I have the camera handy - here is the Dwarven Stronghold:


And the Chaos Heardstone, which we aren't using because the guy who played Greenskins in the last campaign, and was going to be playing Beastmen in this one, decided at the last minute (when he saw the Arachnarok Spider and new O&G book), to play his Greenskins again:


So now it's back to my Saurus Command group conversions...stay tuned for pictures of those after the weekend. Until then "go go Godzilla"

 

[T`hinker`er]

Oh shoot...almost forgot to show you the Elven tower! Here it is:


Speaking of which, the Elves and the Lizards are almost certainly going to mix it up in the next campaign turn. First time for me using Lizards against Elves in 8th edition...I will be sure to post a short battle report and hopefully learn a lot from it, as I will be fighting the pointy ear a lot in this campaign - their territory and mine are sharing a boarder...

 

[strewart]

Wow very cool looking markers! Great work.

 

[T`hinker`er]

So to recap...I have about 98 old style skinks with short bows that GW, in it's wizdom, made obsolete, but which I am determined to put to some use.

I have to say, I like the slightly smaller size of the older variety skink for my Skrox unit anyway - they make the Krox look bigger, which is important because I mainly have the 5th edition Krox too. I also have this plan to paint turquoise and black stripes down the backs of my skinks, and I don't think these stripes would look good on the little "island" scales that GW's sculptors have put on all the Lizardmen.

So, my plan was to cut the arms and equipment off a shortbow skink, sculpt attachment points for the GW skink arms, and add scales that are more to my liking. Here are the results -

Before:


And after:


What do you think? Now to build a mold and crank out 24 or so of these little guys...stay tuned!

P.S., I don't mind buying a box of the new plastic skinks, but I plan to mainly use them as skirmishers.

 

[strewart]

Wow that looks good, nice work!

Would be too much effort for most people, good sculpting practice though I guess. How did you do the scales, if you don't mind me asking?

Also, don't be surprised if GW bring bow skinks back next edition just to mix it up a bit.

 

[T`hinker`er]

I hope they do bring them back...and if they do, I still have 97 of them left

The hardest part of this conversion is just cutting the arms off cleanly and removing the arrow quiver with a hobby knife. It's impossible to do it perfectly, so when done you just need to sculpt the torso back to shape. The scales were an afterthought, I really wanted my skinks to have smooth backs. But if I did this they would not have mixed in with the new plastics, so I sculpted bumpy scales that would be a compromise between something smooth and the 'cracked earth' looking scales on the GW skinks. Not hard really, just a few lumps of putty here and there and flattening it down and shaping it with a spatula.

The mold is setting up now and I should have more photos coming soon!

 

[T`hinker`er]

O.k., so here is the little fella, cast in rest in an RTV silicone mold:


And removed from the mold, cleaned up a bit, with arms glued on:


So what do you think so far? I will try out my paint scheme tonight and let you know how it turns out. Fingers crossed!

 

[Eladimir]

Wicked looking conversion so far. At some point I'm gonna try my hand at butchering some of my 80 skink models to try and convert. I agree with strew though, I'd put good money that bows come back at some point.

 

[n810]

Good Idea I tried converting some of those to cohorts, but it took forever,
Your cast came out great, are you planing to do 2 or 3 different bodies for variety?