Massive Lizardmen collector\\\'

[Bigdennis52]

INTRODUCTION:

Hello All,

First off let me introduce myself, my name is Dennis and I have been a fan of Warhammer 40k / Fantasy for about 12 years now. I originally was introduced to Warhammer 40k where I started with Eldar, then switched to Dark Eldar when they were released. But I have always been more of a fan of fantasy games (D&D, Lord of the Rings, etc.), So our group kind of all decided to change from Warhammer 40K to Warhammer fantasy. My first army was the Dark Elves, I loved the way their models looked, especially the witch elves and assassins. But somewhat through a fluke of new players we introduced to the game wanting to buy the 5th edition core set, I agreed to buy up the Lizardmen saurus and skink models from them, whereas one of our other players picked the bretonian knights from them, so this helped them purchase the core set…. Not too far after I picked up a few of the Lizardmen characters, and with some simple conversions had a pretty nice Lizardmen army (skinks galore). As many of us went off to colleges and had other lifestyle changes our group slowly stopped playing (it didn’t help that our local hobby store decided to close)

So with that, my warhammer fantasy days kind of stopped, until recently I decided to get back into the hobby (mostly from watching some Blue Table Painting video’s posted on Youtube. I picked up the newest lizardmen codex, looked at the new rules / models and decided that they would be fun to paint. Now here comes the torture…

I haven’t painted models in roughly 7-8 years, I have been reading a lot of the articles on this site for quite some time, and when I looked through the models I had, I decided it was in my best interest to strip them down and just start over from scratch. I also realized I am more of a collector of the Lizardmen army, than a player… but later you will read I probably have plenty of models to make whatever army I wished. (over 500 models)

Currently my digital camera is not working, I will be getting a new one soon enough to post pictures of the different things I am working on. But I will try to clipart whatever I can to at least give an idea where I am. Also I may be re-doing stuff as my painting techniques get better.

So now the fun stuff… Here are the various items I have to work on….

# Name
4 5th edition Slann Mage Priest
2 6th edition Slann Mage Priest
2 Saurus Oldblood/Scar-Veteran
2 Skink Chief
5 Skink Priest (various models)

4 Saurus Warrior Champion
4 Saurus Warrior Standard Bearer
4 Saurus Warrior Musician
85 Saurus Warrior w/ Hand Weapon
42 Saurus Warrior w/ Spear
4 Skink Champion
4 Skink Standard Bearer
4 Skink Musician
172 Skink warrior 5th ed w/bow
48 Skink warrior 6th ed blowgun/javalin
2 Temple Guard Champion
2 Temple Guard Standard Bearer
2 Temple Guard Musician
47 Temple Guard
3 Jungle Swarm
16 Saurus Cold one Riders
10 Kroxigors
3 Terradons
6 riders
4 Stegadon w/ greatbow
12 Skink Crew
5 Salamander Hunting packs
20 skink handlers
2 Cold one mounts (no rider)
1 skink on cold one mount
1 oxayotl
1 tenehunini
2 inxi - hunizi on horned one
1 Lord Kroak

I think that is all the models I have (all total easily over 10,000 pts with the new rules.

I believe the best way for me to start off is to assemble and do all the modifications I wish to the models before I prime and paint, I think everyone works on things a little differently, but I like this method. I have general color schemes / selections chosen for individual groups. I have been bouncing ideas off people as to whether or not the colors will blend but there are so many different models, I don’t think it will really matter.

As I wish to make my army as natural looking as possible, my concepts are as follows: I wish to have the skinks, to resemble poison tree frogs. The Saurus warriors to resemble generic lizards, iguana pictures seem to give a basic look. The Temple guard I haven’t entirely chosen, I was looking at an albino look to make them stand out. The swarms to resemble poisonous snakes / geckos / etc. The salamanders I like to have look like they are fiery, with a black onyx look then a blended fin in fiery colors (reds, orange, yellow highlights) The terradons I have chosen a tropical bird scheme for them, and the stegadons I am kind of undecided on. The kroxigor’s I like a look I found online where they made them resemble crocodiles, I really liked that scheme so I will try to match that. And as for the characters / champions I think those might be on an individual basis for whatever I am feeling for that day


Hope you keep reading as I post changes.

Thank you
- Dennis

 

[Bigdennis52]

Sorry All this is a test as I am new to posting on this forum.

This is an image of what I would make one unit of the skinks to be, it is a poison tree frog.

 

[Bigdennis52]

As previously mentioned my digital camera is not working at this time, so I am going to pick a new one up in the upcoming weeks. but I will try to do my best in explaining the projects I am working on using pictures gathered from the net.

The first unit I decided to work on was a unit of 5th edition plastic saurus warriors, The two drawbacks I see of these models is 1.) they only came with hand weapon right arm choices, and 2.) they come with a tiny little shield.

Here is a picture of what I am talking about.

(This is not my work, sorry to whoever I thiefed it from)

I do still however prefer these models over the newer 6th edition versions of saurus warriors. However, the new box sets come with a variety of weapon options. And after some thought I decided to bounce around ebay and gather up some various bits of weapons/shields and convert myself a unit of saurus spearmen.

New plastics saurus spear arms:

Don\'t get me wrong, I do have some of the 5th edition pewter saurus warriors with spear\'s, but, again I just do not like the way the models look, I wanted a unit that was a little more impressive looking on the battlefield.


Here is a picture of the 5th edition pewter saurus warriors with spears.

(This is not my work, sorry to whoever I thiefed it from)

So I green stuffed the new plastic sprue arms onto the older lizardmen models, I made about 25 of these guys, they turned out quite well. I did not put shields on them, I am thinking about using the new shields as well. They look very impressive.

new lizardmen shields:

 

[junior elf]

Welcome to Forum

Some real good ideas and I agree the old warriors look way better than the new ones. And try to get that camera of yours as quickly as possible

JE, peace and love

 

[Monkeysplitters]

I think that would look really good the old suarus\' with the newer shields. Lizardmen was my first army, and even then, being like 14, i didnt like the old shields style.
Are you gonna use any of the newest ed. models, cause I like the Old Bloods. I think they look fitting all, craggy grizzled.

 

[Bigdennis52]

Thanks for reading, I did end up buying an ebay auction which had a mix of new/older models

I have a few of the new slann mages - love the model. I am more of a collector at this point and I am trying to get every figure that was put out for the lizardmen army.
I have the new old bloods on foot, i think they look pretty impressive as a model. I feel like with the 6th edition lizardmen they took a lot of time with the character models (lords/hero\'s) and just made some bad choices with the generic troup types.

I am sticking with the classic temple guard look, the classic saurus warriors. just converting them to the style I like.

I have read a lot about casting, and I think I am going to try it our when my milliput arrives. I am going to make copies of the new shields / old temple guard arms (halberds)

I am planning on continuing with the army since there are some models I am still looking for .... lord kroq on a carnosaur (i dont have any carnosaurs right now) that looks like a nice model. also I want a saurus oldblood on a coldone. but right now I am going to work on what I have, and maybe santa will bring me something (haha)

Again thank you for posting, I will get the camera soon, maybe a self bought birthday present ... my birthday is thanksgiving.

 

[mud duck]

you may wish to look up and see if you can find Sanjay\'s Engine of the Gods thread for some ideas.
Looking good so far, keep it up.

 

[Springbok]

Just a thought..........
Would it look good having the skin on your lizards slimy and shiny like the frog?

 

[Monkeysplitters]

well for the skinks I think its fitting since they are aquatic

 

[Bigdennis52]

Hello all,

Today I continued to work on my Saurus warrior unit. I actually have 22 basic warriors converted with new spears. and a command group. (champion, musician, standard bearer).

I am painting them a deep green color for the back/scales. and a olive green color for the underbelly.

I use Reaper\'s Master series paints, and the specific paints are as follows:

Pine Green for the back, highlighted with Olive drab

then Worn Olive for the underbelly highlighted with Dune Shadow

Then pick out the details as needed with various colors. Claws more than likely white / tan.

 

[StarFyre]

hey

thanks for mentioning my engine of the gods...

if you want some ideas...my engine of the gods (not painted very well) and my carnosaur (painted better) are in my gallery.

Good luck with the project.

What I wanted to tell you, Feb 2009 is the new lizardmen armybook release...there is a rumours thread at the Pyramidvault and at warseer....

The lizardmen sound like they will get pumped up a lot for 7E

Sanjay

 

[Bigdennis52]

Hello again, now that halloween is over I can go back to working on my lizard\'s. Today I tried to get most of the core units assembled and placed them all on a large display board... They take up so much room i might have to make a couple shelves. In doing this project I quickly realized I needed to make up some movement trays just to make everything a lot easier.

So I measured some basic templates out
1st template - 125mm x 125mm (5 wide x 5 ranks of saurus warriors.)
2nd template - 100mm x 100 mm (5 wide x 5 ranks of Skink warriors) or (4 wide x 4 ranks of saurus warriors)
3rd template - 40mm x 120mm (3 kroxigors, or two rows of 6 skinks, also can fit some cold one riders)

I made probabily 10 movement trays using these three templates. Yet again I wish I could post some pictures up,

Good news on that area at least - I went window shopping and saw some cameras I like. I almost bought one but I really shoud wait for my birthday... heh... (grown man waiting for his birthday, isnt that BS :cussing: )

Anyway that is all I got for this moment, I am staring at all the lizards wondering how I got into this mess. I think I have 672 models total to paint from when I last counted :no:

 

[Bigdennis52]

Method for making movement trays:

Materials:
- Thick Cardboard (any wil do)
- Thin Cardboard (cereal box stuff)
- popsicle sticks
- hot glue gun
- box cutter
- masking tape
- elmer\'s glue
- sand / flock / pebbles
- paint
- Sharpie Marker
- Scissors

Step 1: The first thing I did was go get a coffee because this is a boring project to do ... lol lol

Ok all joking aside, one of the most important things you must know when entering a project like this is to first know the different size bases your miniatures are on.

For the lizardmen army it is as follows:
Saurus warriors have a 25mm x 25mm base
Skink Warriors have a 20mm x 20mm base
Saurus on Cold ones have a 25mm x 50mm base (or 2 saurus warrior bases)
Kroxigors have a 40mm x 40mm base (or 4 skink warrior bases)
Slann Mage-Priest have a 50mm x 50mm base (or 4 saurus warrior bases)

From there the next thing I did was to check out the units I wished to place up, keep in mind this is for warhammer fantasy battles and the units are ranked up in rows. Most of my generic troop choices are either on a 20mm base or a 25 mm base. With that being said here was my method

Step 2: Create some templates for yourself with some of the basic troup formations, these are made for your own reference in making the rest of the movement trays, to make the task of measuring easier. for this I made several different dimensions

125mm x 125mm - A unit of 25 (25mm base) or 5 ranks at 5 wide.
100mm x 100mm - A unit of 25 (20mm base) or 5 ranks at 5 wide. OR A unit of 16 (25mm base) or 4 ranks at 4 wide
40mm x 120mm - A unit of 3 (40mm base) OR A unit of 12 (20mm base) 2 ranks at 6 wide

And by using increments of 20mm x 20mm or 25mm x 25mm you can customize the various unit sizes and templates from there

Step 3: ( To some this may be unnecessary, however at this point I am creating templates I wish to use over and over and I want them to be as exact as possible. ) So, I draw out my desired template shapes/sizes on graph paper, you can also use a computer program to ensure that the measurements/right angles are as exact as possible. From there I tape my graph paper (paper template) onto thick cardboard, and carefully cut through with a box cutter until you have all of your desired shapes cut out. I now tape masking tape and fold it along the edges of my cardboard cutouts, this just ensures I have a smooth edge when I go to trace it onto the next pieces.

Step 4: Now that the templates are created, we can move on to making the actual movement trays, simply take your template you made, place it over some thick cardboard, and trace the outline of it onto the cardboard. Once you have made all your selections you can put your templates away for later use, and start cutting out your cardboard as you did when you were making templates

Step 5: Now cut out the shapes with your box cutter, you can measure them again to make sure they are the correct sizes, actually you should have a tiny amount of additional room available (a few millimeters) you do not need to put masking tape on the edges of these, since we are going to use them for the actual movement trays. I take my shapes I cut out of thick cardboard and glue them over a piece of thin cardboard, leaving about a 10mm lip around the edges (so for a 125mmx125mm piece of thick cardboard, I would glue it on a 145mm x 145mm piece of thin cardboard directly centered.)

Step 6: When the glue dries, you can start to build the edges of your movement tray up. I like to use Popsicle sticks and a hot glue gun for this portion. It just goes faster. I glue the Popsicle sticks on the thin cardboard lip flush with the parameter of the thick cardboard. Keep in mind nothing should be glued on the top of the thick cardboard as that entire surface area is exactly measured for our troops, if we glue anything on that area, then the entire unit will not fit on the movement tray as we expected.

Step 7: When the parameter is built up, place your unit on the movement tray to ensure there were no errors made, it should work out fine if all the steps were followed correctly. Now your unit should fit on the movement tray snug. I take my models back off the tray, and finish the parameter (the portion with the Popsicle sticks to the thin cardboard.) if you used a hot glue gun, and not so much Elmer’s glue the base will seem more solid.

Step 8: Flock/base the parameter of your movement tray, just remember, this is cardboard and if you get if very wet it may warp. Just be smart about the amount of glue/flock you use, if you become concerned just allow it a day or so to dry and go back to it.

Step 9: Repeat steps 2 – 8, then repeat step 1 and give me some

Anyway, I will post some pictures on this as well as soon as I get a camera to make it clearer. I hope this mess made sense

:drunk:

 

[Bill]

To be honest, I don\'t think you have enough lizardmen to paint. Buy a few more before you start

Seriously though, it\'s nice to see lots of lizardmen. They\'re awesome. I have plenty of naturally inspired colour schemes in my head...

 

[Bigdennis52]

Here are some of the natural schemes I have been thinking of using, let me know what you think bill

Red Frog

light blue frog

dark blue frog

yellow frog

red frog

yellow/blue frog

 

[Bigdennis52]

some more froggy schemes (these will also be units of skinks) I will not paint more than 12 or so of the colors unless they are generic

yellow/black frogs

yellow/white frog

yellow/black frog

blue/orange frog

OMG frog?

 

[Bigdennis52]

Here are a couple natural choices I was thinking of doing the Saurus warriors as:

Green lizard:

dusty lizards

DIRTY LIZARDS!

 

[Bigdennis52]

Today I didn\'t get much done. I spent most of the day watching NFL Football, my team is 8-0 (go titans). Anyway, I got completely sidetracked this afternoon when I was looking through the General Discussion topics, I stumbled accross the squalor or Safety topic, and then saw Mickc22\'s workshop.... WOW ... :idea: So I posted a couple over there and spent most of the day cleaning up my work area and making myself a new paint rack out of PVC pipe, I also put up a couple shelves, and stole an old TV stand from our backroom to put stuff in. The project took up most of the day but it turned out pretty nice.

I did however get a basecoat on my saurus spearmen done. which was a nice bonus. I also thought about making some jungle terrain.

When you organize something you really see how much of a packrat you are lol So I looked around at my different materials and definitely need to start putting some projects together.

 

[mattsterbenz]

I really like those old saurus models. Lots of character to those. Keep up the painting! Hope you get a camera soon

-Matt

 

[Monkeysplitters]

im not bill, but I like the yellow/black frog pattern but I vote u do it in red/black. and since the skinks are going to be so colorful I think the saurus warrior should be like the chameleon in color since they are all coming from the jungle. A bunch of muted green/brown saurus\' would seem out of place imo.