Blog Brainxigor's Painting Log (Seraphon and other shenanigans)

So with the new year i decided to start this Paintingblog, a kind of New Year New Army thing. But in this case its more of a "New Year Newish Old Army" situation.

I pondered how to start this Blog for a bit and I think first things first is to get an overview on what is already in my collection and with that what my workload for this project is going to be. So let's get this started by counting all the happy little and not so little lizard's that are maybe finding their way into my army.

First up we have twenty Skinks, propped up with bluetack because they were used in a small AoS match to see how they work. Sadly I lost the shield sprues for the little buggers. But since I want to get more of them that shouldn't be a problem. I built ten of them without shields anyway, I know its not the optimal setup for them nowaday's but I will build ten more without shield's and gift those to the Skinks that are missing their's. And since im not planning to play anywhere competatively, I don't have to play them wyswig.



Next up there are five of the older Kroxigor, I will paint them up eventually, though I do not like the sculpts that much. They are way to thin for Kroxigor for my taste and on top I have five... and with AoS being as it is I will never field the other two.
Maybe I can get my hands on a few newer metal Kroxigor, because I will never ever buy the resin ones (or any resin models from GW for that matter) that are avaiable now.



Now for a mixed unit of old and new miniatures, three Salamanders, complete with their Skink Handlers, three of them are old metal Skinks with spears, but that's just perfect for their new purpose.



The oldest Salamander is missing a leg, I can't find it anywhere in my bits, so this will be the perfect oportunity to whip out some greenstuff and try my hands on some sculpting of my own!



With the Salamanders and the old Skinks with spears I found the old command unit aswell, I don't know how to integrate them in the army at this point, maybe they will be added as Priests? The Alpha will find it's way in a Skink unit for sure.



The next lizard on the table was used to try out my colourscheme for the new Seraphon army, when I realised that it is the army standard bearer from the army deal. Then I went looking for all of the bits and for a change I found them! So I thought this is the perfect miniature for my Astrolith Bearer, seeing as it kind of fullfills the same role now. It has a unique look compared to the rest of the army and the standard can be spruced up a bit to look more like the Astrolith. This will be a fun project within this project when I come around to do it.



In the depths of the Box there were a unit of Terradon, back then they only had Javelins and they are quite small and not as dynamic as the new plastic sculpts, but I will add them to my Army, seeing as I have some Skinks I could run them in a Shadowstrike Starhost.



Speaking of the Shadowstrike Starhost, the box with the Terradons also provided a unit of six Chameleon Skinks, it seems as the plans of the Old Ones tell me to field this Battalion.

 

So now we come to a few Saurus Knights, with some older Cold Ones. Again I am missing a few bits for them, in this case the Lances, but I guess they can be kitbashed with some Spears from the Saurus Warriors or the newer Saurus Knights.



Speaking of Saurus Warriors and their Spears, there were some I already cleaned and debased for their new purpose and were stored away safely in a smaller box within the bigger box for when I need them, which will be pretty soon.



Now the deal back then included something I really like a lot. The Slann, it's just one of the most awesome miniatures the Lizardmen/Seraphon have in their range. I mean look at it, its so very very grumpy, I just love it. I already put some colour on it, which in this case is some Contrast Paint.



the Throne on the other hand is just primed with some Zenithul highlighting. I opted to not put the big decoration on top of the throne, but rather put it on the base. Kind of as a memento mori, remnants of the glorious past of the Lizardmen Empire, that is now shattered like the rest of the old world.




But theres not only a Slann, but some Saurus Hero aswell. I do not know what kind, maybe hes an Oldblood or Scar Veteran, I do not know. Back then all the names were translated and with me only having the german version of the 6th Ed. Lizardmen book, I can't really translate the name. Not because of my ability to translate into english, but the names they made up were kinda ridicoulus. (Maybe one of you can help?) But he has already the underpainting for the standard Colourscheme i use, so he will be a Scar Vet or Oldblood, but not a Sunblood, because if I remember correctly they are supposed to be Albino? In the


(His shield is mounted somewhere else for painting purposes)

And with the time of festive consumerism behind us, my LGS having a discount when you spend a bit of money and me wanting some BIG DINOS, i got myself something to add to the pile of work I already have ahead of myself. An SC box and a Bastilladon, I already finished building the Carnosaur, which will be ridden by an Oldblood, I just love the look of that one. With the Bastilladon im not sure, but I think it will be magnetized to fit both the Arc and the Sunbeam.

 

Now, this is supposed to be a Painting Blog and not "a list of unfinished miniatures blog", so to start things off right, I post some pictures of things already in progress and nearly done. I guess you could call the Slann wip, but thats just really underpainting and some contrast paint... so not really a lot of work done on that.

But first the inspiration for the colourscheme im going to paint this army in, its this neat little Lizard a friend of mine sent me when I started painting.



First up some Saurus Warriors with Clubs that are on the half way mark of being done. They were zenithully primed with an Airbrush and then drybrushed with the final highlights of the colours being used on those areas. After that i put on the contrast paints, Black Templar and Gryph Hound Orange.



The Scales on the back were then drybrushed again with three different blues, in order Prussian Blue from Vallejo, Caledor Sky from Citadel and lastly Deep Sky Blue again from Vallejo, to achieve some kind of black/blueish shimmering scales.



The scales are edgehighlighted again with the three blue colours and then toned down by a glaze of a mix of Drakenhof Nightshade, Black Templar and the Contrast Medium.

The result of this can be seen on the next ten Saurus Warriors which are finished, apart from the shields.



The markings on the heads and the spine scales were done with Sotek Green, Temple Guard Blue and Deep Sky Blue.


(The top row need their gold being done aswell as some spikes and their eyes, the lower row is done painting wise. The shields and bases are the last step before completion.)

Some close ups of the Saurus Warriors that are so to say done. Here you can see the finished Skin, which is just contrast paint and then highlighted again two or three times, depending how dark the Contrast Paint dried. The colours are all from P3, being Khador Highlight, a mix of 50/50 Khador Highlight/Midland Flesh and finally pure Midland Flesh.





"Why dont they have pupils in their eyes?" May some of you ask (or not), well that has to do something with the Lore.
I've read that the Seraphon are not really "alive" but only memories of the past, which is now being rewritten again to them really existing.

In my mind it's still something like that (Headcannon silly fluff time): The remembering part stems from gene sequencing units (Spawning Pools) that reconstruct the Lizardmen/Seraphon back into existence. So they are kind of "remembered" but not literally.
Also it seems they are hunting after Old Ones Tech, so this kind of fits my narrative aswell.

The Slann, of course, being the only one to kinda understand the technology behind that, has to use his memories to give them personality beyond being a mere clone emerging from the spawning pool. But he can't remember every single poor Lizard that lived, he only can fully remember a handfull that were closest to him, and inject their minds with all his memories. So the only ones with pupils, and with that a personality or "life" behind their eyes will be my Skink and Saurus Heroes. That's why they have abilities and are able to command and lead on their own.
And of course with this I can also explain why there are so many different miniatures, even for one kind of unit in my Army. The machines are broken / outdated, they need new gene sequences or parts, scattered throughout the different realms.

The rest of the army, as I said, being some kind of clones that are bread and trained for one purpose on the battlefield. Of course if they survive, they will be able to live a life of their own and maybe become heroes aswell, or die another day.

The interior of the Seraphon Ships exist outside of time, kind of like this training chamber in Dragonball Z, where outside a minute passes and inside the ship it can be a year or decades. Depending on what they need, and of course it is quite taxing on the powers of the Slann, so they just can't let it run like that forever. Thats how they are able to reinforce so quickly and fight all the battles they need to fight, making it seem like they are actually just summoned from thin air.

So as I see it, my Slann has his team of trusty Lizards that he knew for ages, with whom he fought countless battles and will continue to fight, providing them the units they need to achieve victory on the battlefield. Some kind of like a pro gaming team, with him being the leader of the whole operation.

Yeah, thats the "fluff" i made up for them when i was painting, it's kinda silly but gives some kind of narrative to what i have going on there on my painting Table. Plus the potential of a Warcry band consisting of Seraphon tech hunters, to update the machinery of my Lustrian Spaceship / Tardis.

 

Reserved

 

Loving the colour scheme on those Saurus!

 

Awesome work on those Sauri!!
I love the colorscheme and you're great at edge-highlights
What colors will the shields get?

I like your explanations as well(especially your comparison with Dragonball Z )

Great stuff, good luck with your stock-pile

Gr, Imrahil

 

Thank you for the likes and the positive feedback!

The shields will get the same blueish black scales as the back of the Sauri, because i think they are made of the same hard material. The squad/regiment/cohort markings will be either made in bone colour or in the same green blue as the markings on the Sauri. And then some gold of course, can't show up without some more bling on the battlefield!

 

It's been a few Days and I think we need another work in progress update here.

Talking about the shields of my warriors got me thinking about how they should look like and I started painting up a few of them.



Im quite happy with how they turned out, the crystalline look happened almost on accident but I think I will keep them this way. I could reproduce the effect over five shields aswell so I think there shouldn't be a problem with that.

Heres a close up of one



They were again zenithully primed and then I put on Black Templar contrast paint for the first step. After they needed a coat of Matt Varnish from Vallejo to prepare them for the dry brushing step, because the Contrast Paints tend to rub off.
When the varnish was dry, the shields were drybrushed in three steps, same colours as the scales of the Sauri. I pulled the brush always from top to bottom, paying attention where I put the initial zenithul highlights to keep the direction of the light consistant.
In the next step, the same three colours were used as a glaze to push the light and shadows around a bit and finally to sell the effect I put on the edge highlights. Again glazing over them if they got too harsh.

All thats missing now are the cohort markings and the gold.

And one last WIP, because I couldnt help myself and just had to start painting this.

 

It's been awfully quiet in my painting log, after the holidays the regular work days have been keeping me from doing as much painting as I wanted to.

But the first goal of my let's get motivated babystep has been achieved.

BEHOLD! The first 10 of my 40 Saurus Warriors are done.





And a few close ups of one of them.






Im really happy how they all turned out, the only thing I realized when I was batch painting them, was that I painted them in weapon groups, so now 5 out of the 10 all have those "swords". So I opted to not put any cohort markings on the shields because I want them to be mixed up a bit more.

Working towards a Sunclaw Battallion they will be 2 units of 10 with clubs and one bigger unit of spears, taking them first to 20 and maybe upping to 30 or 40.

Better pictures will come on Sunday when I have an actual photographer at my disposal! And with that I will commit them to the Itza Gallery too!

Happy painting everyone!

 

Awesomely painted

I love, love the detailed highlights on the scales, skin and shields
Incredible great work!!

40 of these must be a marvelous sight

Gr, Imrahil

 

Thanks man!

I really hope to pull it off, my ultimate goal is to get this project ready for Armies on Parade and to submit that Carnosaurus for the Everchosen contest. I do not intend to win anything, just for fun and to challenge myself!

 

Amazing work! It must take you forever to paint these!

 

Thanks!

To be honest I tend to not look at a clock when I'm painting, just sitting there and the time passes. But I think, one of them is about two hours from start to finish. I painted five of them at a time and still was trying things out with some of them, so I will get faster in the future, knowing exactly where to put my colours, which brush strokes etc.

Since I have more Saurus Warrirors that want to be painted, I will take one of them and paint it with a stopwatch nearby so I can let you know how long it actually took! That is from Priming, to Basecoating, the whole process.

Will be fun to do so, even if it's only for my sake of knowing how long a unit takes. It's always good to know an estimate how long it takes to finish a Unit when having a project going.

 

Once again thank you very much!

I'm verry happy you all like them, I will try to do them justice as they deserve it all. Well apart from the Knights, lets see if a paintjob can help there at all. But I think there will be greenstuff involved or the Cold Ones of the Dark Elves.

 

Oh for Aztec sake now I though I knew how I wanted to paint mine but now.....

Good man there looking great!!

Can I assume those are all highlights and barely any dry brushing?!?

 

Thanks to you for the kind words, glad you like em!

There is some dry brushing involved. On the black/blue scales on the back an the shields the initial highlights were dry brushed and then blended in with the help of highlights and glazes.
The orange skin had a zenithul highlight and drybrushing as undercoat and then some contrast paints, after that again glazing and edge highlighting to blend it all together.
The only part without any dry brushing are the turqoise scales and markings on the heads.

I use dry brushing as an initial step to establish the light volumes and then glazes to try and get rid of the chalkiness. Usually I use an Airbrush nowadays but with that im not nearly confident enough to do that after i already put some work on the skin for example.

Edit:
In the opening posts you can see how they look before they get the whole treatment.
If I find some time I can put up a Tutorial on how I do some things in my painting process.

 

Love how your saurus came out! The green of the bases works fantastic with the orangered and blue!

 

I can't get my head round this.

So you edge highlight the scales...?

WITH A BRUSH!

You really made me rethink my hobby life.

I was in mind set of just bashing out lots of miniatures as fast as I could.

My problem was I bought to much plastic all at once. And I listen to, to many people who say, just do it fast etc, only spend time on the characters etc.

I really like your methodology, how you paint a few at a time to really high standard.

When I am painting I have blind panic, to get them "done" because I have a 100 other models I need to do as well.

I was a stupid boy. I might be visiting ebay to off load, a lot of my crapped up plastic.