Blog The Jade Host: Mayan Lizardmen

Skink Heroes

Finally got the members of the Skink Priest Council painted/fully based.


Otowik, Q'uq'umatz, and Yax Kuk'mo

Spoiler: Skink Priests

Otowik, the Red Skink Priest, fanatic of the Cult of Sotek:


Yax Kuk'mo, the Green Priest, devoted of Tzunki, also my first skink priest:


and Q'uq'umatz, the Yellow Priest with his javelin, Recorder of the Long Count. Also my first conversion.

And threw in a picture of my skink chiefs, I couldnt find any good picture of the two of them together:


Ubah Kan ("feathered serpent," also the Coatl Rider) and Chac Xook (the "rain shark," and the Troglodon Rider).

 

Chameleon Skinks

Glad these guys are finally based. They might have never been successful in an actual battle (they tend to get eaten up by wood-elf skirmishers) but they are characterful and fun. Super skinks that can become invisible, definitely a psychological weapon.


I also enjoyed fitting these guys into the backgrounds of my recent photos, that was fun. It reminded me of all the pictures in the "collecting" section of the 6th edition army book, where the authors had fitted chameleon skinks into the backgrounds of almost all the pictures in the section.

Spoiler: more chameleon skink photos

More shots of them lurking in my jungle terrain.









It would be pretty simple to resin cast these guys, especially the two in the back with no blowpipe. I tried once, I will probably try again to at least bring this unit up to ten instead of just having nine, it almost seems incomplete this way.

 

I am currently working my way through some Bretonnian terrain, but I started some more casting recently in conjunction with my continued work on my temple guard, and started a new project:



The four temple guard's bodies are cast resin; the cast didnt go quite as well as I wanted because most of the spikes are gone , but ultimately that was for the best because they probably wouldnt have fit onto the base otherwise.



Each of their non-litter carrying arms will eventually hold a shield. I based my inspiration from the samurai lizardmen over at Warhead.

Spoiler: inspiration

The model is beautiful, I doubt mine will look quite this epic. I am going to place one of my cast slann on top, but I want to add a bit to him first. I am considering giving him a headdress, maybe even something like Mazdamundi in total war 2, but that might be beyond my skill at the moment.

For the palanquin I was thinking to make some sort of a mayan-lizardman stela, similar to a sketch I did a while ago.



Maybe not quite that big, but I did make a few quick test stela not to long ago, so it might be possible.

 

Definitely looks possible! Make it happen!

 

Small step forward on painting the slann-carrying temple guard.



I have decided to name these four after the Four Bacabs of Mayan mythology; they are the Atlas-like gods who were tasked with holding up the sky at the four corners of the earth. Seemed fitting.

Spoiler

Started painting their shields and shield-arms:

Also did some more casting, lots of new barrels to add to the Bretonnian jousting terrain taking up most of my modeling time at the moment. But I also took the time to cast three chameleon skinks to add to my unit, bringing their total up from the unremarkable nine to a more respectable unit of twelve (and for a much cheaper price... )



They are partially camoflaged on the white paper at the moment. The cast turned out well, with the tail missing and a few gaps, but nothing some clay and paint can't fix. This also gives me the confidence to try my hand at casting regular skink skirmishers at some point.

(Edit: also you can see in the background the poor temple guard that was torn apart as a sacrifice to cast the previous three slann-carrying guards. Fortunately the dismemberment was temporary, and he is healing his wounds in this picture )

 

Project Burial Mound has commenced. Right now I have two small WIP constructions:

Spoiler: individual shots

The first one just has some leftover bits, it could potentially be the burial place of an ancient saurus warrior.

The second was much more foam-detail heavy, meant to look like the Serpent Mouth at Chicanna.

Spoiler: Inspiration photos

The Serpent Mouth:



And some burial mounds. Lots of good stuff, definately looks like old barrows, but mostly Vampire Counts themed.







I also posted up my sketches in my art thread, I am hoping to make a third burial mound that is much bigger. These two are just quick tests.

 

Awesome stuff!

 

Painting the burial mounds grey really helped. Especially the snake-mouthed mound.



Got a bit more panting to do with these two, plus the jungle plants. This does give me the confidence to start bigger plans...

 

As it should, they look great!

 

Project Burial Mound, Phase 2 has commenced, starting with a huge base with all the plans sketched out on top of it.



The plan is to make multiple doorways, for multiple points of entry.

Its just made out of old floral foam that I still have unused from my jungle fortress. I have about 6 blocks that I can cut through to make this new terrain piece.



And here it is more or less taking shape!



Three levels of pyramid steps, four doors (one which is to be boarded up), and a poorly foam-sculpted dino skull in the corner missing its teeth. the inner walls will come later.

Spoiler: secret plans

Ultimately I plan to put snake-carvings out of foam around each of the main doorways, similiar to burial mound #2. Plus there will be a magnetized roof, and several rooms with varying bits of treasure, and maybe a skink skeleton or too if I can figure out how to make some out of clay.

I also want to add a row of lizardmen glyphs around the entire top pyramid row of the temple, I just haven't decided what they will say yet.

 

I hope I am doing your suggestion justice!

Pictures are bad due to lighting, but I started placing some of the decorative foam.





I also added a stone-and-wood pile to the blocked doorway. Hard to see, but you get the idea for now.

 

Awesome stuff!

 

@Warden you're definitely a master of foam and glue! Such an amazing piece of terrain! If it wasn't a fun challange I would give up right now...

 

Thanks for the compliments! Got a bit more progress, all the fine detail is slowing me down.



So far I have gotten the base of the structure mostly complete, with all the glyphs around the decorated step complete, and sand added to the base. These pics are prior to the black basecoat.

Spoiler: hieroglyphs

After several combinations, I finally decided on the phrase "Serpent Mouth Temple- Sotek is Good, Sotek is Great." Originally is was supposed to read either "Serpent-Mouth Burial Mound" or "House of the Serpent Mouth" but I couldn't get the glyphs to line up the way I wanted them too in a way that looked good. The second half of the phrase, "Sotek is Good, Sotek is Great" is something I figured the cultists of Sotek would invoke within the Lizardmen ranks whenever they fought in battle, or else spoke the name of their serpent god.

Here are the pics showing the hieroglyphs:

"Serpent Mouth"



"Temple" (also a good shot of the ruined/boarded up entrance)



"Sotek is Good"



"Sotek is Great"



Also note since the full glyph spelling for Sotek would have been five glyphs long, I shortened the word to its shorthand hieroglyph, found in the 6th ed Lizardmen book, back when they still did sacred spawnings:

I also added the cracked paving stones to the roads leading up to the doorways and the interior of the structure.

Spoiler: Interior shots

Also added some extra details to the paving stones, you can see two lizard heads.



One of the entrances:



This one was based on a lizard-design I used in my previous plaza terrain.

 

Yeah... and its giving me lots of problems because of it. Thankfully it means that the details are "slightly" easier to do, but because of its size now I realize I have no storage boxes for it anymore, I will need to invest in something bigger for when I move next. On the plus size, I can finally make a structure large enough for models to really "explore" inside it, perfect for potential Mordheim shenanigans I think.

Some scale shots with a lone saurus spearman:



Also another major problem is the material I used. The floral foam, while super easy to cut into the shapes I want, it very brittle even after its first coat of spray paint. I am finding that before I can start adding grey paint, I will have to go over the ENTIRE structure again in another preemptive coat of black paint, just to prevent the bricks from flaking off every time I use a soft brush. Granted, this means more character and more age-damage to the bricks to make them look older, but I don't want the whole thing to collapse on me before I am finished! I am salvaging it slowly, but it is much slower than I wanted it to go...

Thanks for the compliment! Honestly though, please don't give up.

I love these contest the forum does, mostly because they are for fun. For instance, all the short story contests. I haven't had the time for writing recently, but each contest has afforded me the opportunity (and a timeline to beat) for me to sit down and work on a project that I had in the back of my mind for a long time but never had the proper motivation to go and complete. The Golden Serpent was another great example; I had always wanted to do my swimming troglodon, but never had the bravery to start until the contest made me take the plunge! This contest, since it is a fun one, lets me do something I always wanted to try but never had the chance to try before.

Plus look at all the inspiration we get every time we do one of these contests. That awesome engine-of-the-gods monster brontosaurus beast that @NIGHTBRINGER crafted is a great example. Someday I want to do something like that... someday...