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The Lizardmen Palette

Mavriq
Jungle Swarm

Mavriq

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The portents are auspicious (the lizards have arrived), yet the Old Ones have left no predetermined sign (no paints) to outline their greater plan. With such a range of possibilities for painting the cold-blooded ones, the question is; how did you do yours?

I've viewed superb models in a host of shades and tones, but actually choosing my colour scheme is difficult. How did you all decide upon yours; was is predicated by basing schemes? the desire for a cohesive, similar-tone force? favourite colour? paint testing? A certain theme running through the army (ie a host of a particular temple-city)

My initial ideas are an 'authentic' feel, nothing too kitsch (by lizardman standards anyway!). Stonework where it exists to be darkened and highlighted, decorations picked out in a similar manner to the blue/red of Finnboy101's Tetto'eko thread. Chameleon skinks (when I acquire some) to be green (maybe even camo-speckled) to blend as they should. Everything else, though, is an open book.

My thought-process suggests a blue theme, contrasting with an expected jungle-style basing system. Varying shades of colour per strata (ie, saurus, kroxigors etc) of unit a probable. Overall I'm thinking standardised figures within their units, upscaled by the addition of more aesthetic characters/champions (favoured spawnings?).

  • Random upscaling/converting thoughts:

The fluff suggests Slann are attended by certain skinks at all times - yet only one exists on the palanquin. Has anyone based a Slann with additional itinerant skinks on the base, or would it be a little too crowded?

The Cold-One Cavalry fluff refers to Horned One riders, and specifically "those especially favoured by Itzl may sport massive crests upon their heads, marking them out from the moment they come forth from the spawning pools". I like the idea of a cavalry champion with a huge punk-style mohawk.

The jungle swarms seem a licence to have a little fun. All snakes and lizards, but no spiders? Has anyone seen miniature tarantulas that would be suitable for basing on a swarm?

A unit(s) with watery bases, redolent of freshly emerging from the spawning pool or perhaps a detachment from Chupayotl, the sunken city.

  • Paints
Having zero knowledge of the current GW palette, and reliant on buying materials online at the moment, can you guys give an idea of the basic/useful colours I will require?

As a novice painter, any useful tips you fine people feel like imparting will also be welcome :D
 
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I've gone with green and blue as the
Main colours for my lizards but the scope you have is endless.

Hard to say what paints you need until you decide a scheme but choosing can be made easier by following a basic system,

Main colour> shade> highlight

You can buy certain Gw shades that can be used on several colours namely,

Nuln oil, reikland flesh shade and agrax earth-shade

Google the lizardman painting guide for an idea were to start, once you decide a scheme the paints will be easy to choose
 
I am going with a brownish/blackish theme with some bright orange accents here and there. I basically i decided on a desert theme first, and i always like a "natural" look with mutted collors. And i used the orange as a contrast to prevent the army turning into one big brown drab.

I am using Vallejo model collor and game collor, so cant help you that much with the GW codes.
 
First rule of painting - paint whichever colour your lizardly heart desires

If you want to follow colour scheme GW has done, you can look up some of the army books. If you are a bit undecided on their scheme, seeing as they change scheme now and then, you can always look at their other schemes or someone else's models and say, "I like the way he/she has painted that, I'll do that"

In our latest 3 books, the models have pretty much been the same colours. If you want you could always make an adaption of theirs, use spawning colours...

I like most of GW colours schemes with the blue core and green Slann so I've painted Saurus and skinks a slightly dimmer blue with a grey tone for that cool neutral feel.
 
JamJar said:
First rule of painting - paint whichever colour your lizardly heart desires
Click to expand...

That is great advice, but it is not the first rule of painting.

The first rule of painting: You do not talk about painting.
The second rule of painting: You do not talk about painting.
Third rule of painting: "paint whichever colour your lizardly heart desires"

P.S. The "rules" above are a joke, it's an adaptation from the movie Fight Club. In actuality, we love talking about painting!
 
Forth rule of painting: Only two brushes to a model (metallic and non-metallic paints)
Fifth rule of painting: One unit at a time
 
JamJar said:
Forth rule of painting: Only two brushes to a model (metallic and non-metallic paints)
Click to expand...
That's a good one. You have to keep those metallic paint brushes separate!

Sixth rule of painting: use multiple thin coats of paint instead of one thick coat
Seventh rule of painting: if at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again
 
Eighth rule of painting: If there is an unpainted model, you have to paint.


But yeah, paint however you want whether it be bright and vibrant or dull and dim. I you don't like the way you've painted something, paint over it. It doesn't waste to much paint. I think I painted my Saurus three times before finding what I wanted
 
Mavriq said:
Has anyone seen miniature tarantulas that would be suitable for basing on a swarm?
Click to expand...
I have not seen any official fluff or art from GW that would hint at big insect life in Lustria. But, I have seen spiders that would work if you want to assume that such exist. Reaper Minis makes some from their Bones II models: Two in a blister pack for about $2.50 (US currency).
 
borkbork said:
tenth rule of painting: The only bad painted mini, is an unpainted mini! (should actually be rule #1 imho).
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This is very true... but man do I have a lot of badly painted minis then.
 
On the other had the 11th (or possibly first rule)

Never paint your favorite Mini first.
(trust me, you will thank me later)
 
n810 said:
Never paint your favorite Mini first.
(trust me, you will thank me later)
Click to expand...

That's a good one. But to add to it...

Never paint your favorite Mini first, but don't keep putting it off forever either.
 
I like to save character as rewards after painting a bunch of core units.
 
12th Rule: Always have a spare mini at hand, preferably your least favorite mini.

(For use as a paint test dummy, or as someplace to use up the last of the paint before it dries, or to test the dry-brushing on, or just something to work on while you have to wait for the previous step on the good mini to dry...)
 
n810 said:
I like to save character as rewards after painting a bunch of core units.
Click to expand...
That's a workable plan. Core unit... character. Core unit... character.

pendrake said:
12th Rule: Always have a spare mini at hand, preferably your least favorite mini.

(For use as a paint test dummy, or as someplace to use up the last of the paint before it dries, or to test the dry-brushing on, or just something to work on while you have to wait for the previous step on the good mini to dry...)
Click to expand...
That's a good one! I used to have an old 40k chaos obliterator for that.

n810 said:
Like Sprueasaurus ?
View attachment 16064
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No he's too nice for that... he's your reward for painting a core unit!
 
lol, yea he was the dummy for my skink paint scheme.
 
Mavriq said:
The portents are auspicious (the lizards have arrived), yet the Old Ones have left no predetermined sign (no paints) to outline their greater plan. With such a range of possibilities for painting the cold-blooded ones, the question is; how did you do yours?
Click to expand...

One of the main reasons I chose Lizardmen as my second (now main) WHFB army, was the freedom of colours you can use. Just check my plog (it's at the signature): All the units have different colours to signify their standing. And, uh, the fact that I can't decide on one scheme... But anyway, with Lizardmen, you can apply that outrageously cool colour scheme you have been wanting to try but other armies' boring constrictions have stopped you!


Mavriq said:
The fluff suggests Slann are attended by certain skinks at all times - yet only one exists on the palanquin. Has anyone based a Slann with additional itinerant skinks on the base, or would it be a little too crowded?
Click to expand...

The palanquin is rather small, and Skinks on the ground would look a bit silly if they are supposed to be attendants. How about this, you could get some of those Skinks that come with the Bastiladon. You know, the ones that hang from the apparatus on the creature's back? They could hang from the palanquin and, I dunno, reach for more Ixzti grubs or sorcerous scrolls or whatever.


Mavriq said:
The jungle swarms seem a licence to have a little fun. All snakes and lizards, but no spiders? Has anyone seen miniature tarantulas that would be suitable for basing on a swarm?
Click to expand...

The Orcs and Goblins Arachnarok spider comes with multiple medium and small spiders. You can buy them from bits stores or eBay.


Mavriq said:
Having zero knowledge of the current GW palette, and reliant on buying materials online at the moment, can you guys give an idea of the basic/useful colours I will require?

As a novice painter, any useful tips you fine people feel like imparting will also be welcome :D
Click to expand...

Personally, I think GWs paints are excellent for beginners. They have multiple hues of all of their base colours and the logic behind them is easy to follow. The division to base paints and layer paints helps, too.

As for general tips, I think this thread has already had enough great "rules" to be stickied, but I want to emphasize the importance of practice. My hands are quite shaky, and for at least twice by now I have thought that I have reached the limit of my abilities. Luckily, I haven't stopped trying to improve, and noticed that a technique I though was out of reach for me is actually doable. Rarely you can just read a tutorial and instantly learn what you need just by doing it once (or if you can, then you must be using the Matrix or something...). The thing is, knowing HOW to do something is only a part of it. This you can learn by reading. Then you still need to learn HOW YOU can do it. This includes very small details that really can't be included into the tutorials, as they are vary from painter to painter. For example, how to hold the paint brush and the model when painting something detailed. You can read about ergonomy and other other general tips, like always move the brush towards you and rather vertically than in horizontal lines, but by building up your muscle memory, you'll get way precise and controlled. This, of course, takes time and practice. So paint paint paint away! And don't forget to share your work! Good luck!
 
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