Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with a Cold One)

G'day all,

I've just signed up here, though I've been collecting for a very long time.

Thought I'd share some of the Lizardmen that I've painted recently. They aren't particularly well painted, far from my best work, but the nice thing about them is that they're really fast to paint. The Skinks took about 20 minutes each to paint, the Saurus about 30 minutes each and the Salamanders about an hour. I'm usually a slow painter, so for me this is "speed" painted (by comparison my orcs take about 2 hours each to paint, my wood elves about 3 hours and a bretonnian knight takes me the best part of a night to paint ).

Typically when painting I start with a black undercoat, a dark base coat and work my way up with layered highlights. That looks great, but it takes forever! These lizardmen were painted with a white undercoat, then using progressively more watered down paints and washes, creating shades. This is a much faster painting method and if you're careful it can look quite good still. Over my 15 years of gaming I've painted a lot of different models yet have very few actual armies simply because it takes me so long to paint them and get bored before I finish a full army... I wish I had of learnt this method of painting 10 years ago, I'd have a lot more armies now, lol.

Enjoy.

Saurus Warriors...




Skinks...



Salamanders...


After this I'm going to get a Battalion and a Stegadon to paint up.

For anyone interested, here's a quick step-by-step on how to paint the skinks....
White spray undercoat, spray is important as paint spreads better over a spray than a hand painted white, also I've used white as you can paint watered down paints on to it and the white acts as a highlight.


Paint the scales with a mix of Liche purple and black. Use it heavily watered down, and you'll get the "highlighted" look. Dont water it down so much that it becomes like a wash, you still want decent coverage, just not perfect coverage. (3 minutes per model)



Paint the skin using a light purple, this was around 2 parts Bleached Bone 1 part Liche Purple. Again, water it down to get a bit of shading rather than a solid color. (6 minutes per model)


Give both the skin and scales a generous wash with Leviathan Purple. Make sure you coat the entire model quickly using a big brush, I use a 10mm flat brush (around 7/16") that you can get from any art store, then before it dries use a finer brush to manipulate the wash (prevent it pooling on flat areas and guide it into some of the smaller crevices that the wash may not have naturally fallen into). Also by using a big brush, the wash will go on more evenly than if you tried to use a finer detail brush. Dont worry about accidently getting the wash on the other parts of the model, we're gonna repaint those bits anyway, the goal here is just being fast and neat. (2 minutes per model)


After that I paint the shields and do some detailing with shining gold, boltgun metal, scorched brown and blood red/solar orange for the wrist bands (around 10 minutes of detailing per model). I should also paint all the eyes, though I think they're good enough for the battlefield as is and I can't decide on a good color for the eyes. A note on painting gold... it sucks for speed painting. I like the LOOK of gold, but it takes so damn long to paint because it takes multiple coats to get a solid color, which is why the metal on my Saurus are a mix of gold and boltgun metal, boltgun metal is great for speed painting.

For all of these use a big brush to speed things up. Its important when using watered down paints and washes like this to get the entire model painted before the paint starts to dry too much. If you try to manipulate a half-dried paint or accidently go over the same area twice after its dried slightly, you'll end up with something very blotchy looking. So when painting the scales or the skin I use a big brush initially then quickly swap to a smaller brush to do details which were too fine to do with the big brush (swap brushes quickly so the paint doesn't have a chance to dry, I dont try and clean the brushes when swapping, I just dump them in the water then clean both the brushes once I'm finished with the given colour). Even be a little bit careful how you hold the model, if you have the model upside down when washing and have a big pool, when you turn it right side up the pool will shift and if its half dry it'll leave an ugly circular ring. Obviously you might need to turn the model upside down to reach certain parts, but be aware that deep pools of paint can shift and create blotchiness if you aren't careful.

Cheers,
ASS

EDIT: Oh, and excuse the crappy pictures, they were taken with an iPhone 3 without a photographing station, I just turned on a few flouro lights and held the models in one hand and the phone in the other, lol.

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen

Their looking really nice!
I've just started painting my Eldar with a white undercoat, and boy does it speed things up!
I used top paint my lizzies white, but moved onto black (as I never washed down paints and the white undercoat looked to flat), However, I fully intend to go back to white now that I'm a little more experienced in painting!

I look forward to seeing your take on a Stegadon, keep up the good work!

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen

Thanks for the compliments I think GW should have some articles on painting with a white undercoat to create highlights without layering as you can create some really good effects in a fraction of the time compared to starting dark and working your way up to a highlight. The trickiest thing is getting the paint consistency right to give the correct amount of highlight without it become too pale.

I'm looking forward to seeing my take on the Stegadon too! I haven't really figured out exactly how to do it yet, or what colour scheme to use. Originally I was thinking of using the same red as seen on the Salamanders to keep a bit of unity in the monsters, but then I thought maybe blue would look nice (medium blue skin with dark blue scales). Also not sure "how" to do it, as my method so far is pretty heavily reliant on painting the entire model before the paint has a chance to dry otherwise it'll look blotchy, gonna need to plan it out carefully since its such a big model with so many details.

It might be a while before I get on to the Stegadon, want to get more Saurus and Skinks done first to create a core for the army. Since I finished University and started working full time I dont have a lot of time to paint anymore, which is what inspired me to come up with faster techniques for painting.

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen

Looking Good,
I realy like your purple skinks.

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen

Blue sounds good for the steg!

You cold invest in a spray gun or the like and try that (I've never tried 'em myself, but there supposed to be pretty good). That way you could do it all in one go without having to worry about the paint drying.

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen

I like the saurus the best, they look good and striking! Nice work!

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen

G'day all,

Thought I'd update the thread... maybe I should just make a new thread in the painting log section, lol.

I'm awaiting the battalion and stegadon (ordered them the other day from my local hobby shop and he always takes a while to get stuff in). While waiting I thought I'd paint up some old temple guard. I've got another 5 for a total of 6, the idea being a unit of 16 when I get the battalion. These are the older metal models, bought these models years ago because my local shop was selling them 2nd hand (unpainted), 12 models for $40AUD, which was brilliant value for metal models (by comparison, 10 plastic temple guard currently retail for $69AUD!). Though now I've started painting them I've decided I dont like the models. The scales are sort of funny shaped with a weird spacing and pourly sculted/moulded around the tail, and sometimes the gap between scales is stupidly deep to the point its awkward to paint them. So once I get the battalion I have no plans on painting the other 6 metal temple guard, lol.





I'm not entirely happy with the way they turned out. Was going for a slightly dirtier look than my regular Saurus Warriors, so went with Knarloc Green skin and DA Green scales (opposed to goblin and snot for the Saurus).

I think the gold needs a bit of a highlight of maybe Mithril Silver + Shining Gold. I'm undecided on what color to do the shields, I'm thinking either red like the Saurus (blood red + shading), a slightly duller red (mechrite red + shading) or maybe for something different, doing the shields a bone color to match the TG's bone helm. What do you guys reckon?

I'm also not liking the black on the shoulder pad, I did it to match the weapon, but it doesn't really suit. Thinking of maybe repainting it either brown (maybe Calthan inked Devlan) or bone coloured to match the helm.

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with Temple Guard)

i think its looking great but with one exception. the green of teh scales and the green of the skin REALLY clashes in my eyes. individually they are both fine, but the combination is horrible (imo). i would switch one of them to match the other. the skin is a more natural green while the scales are more of a "fantasy" color. the mix of teh two do not work at all.

other than that it is really looking good. the green/bone/gold colors really come out well, and im sure the unit will look fabulous

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with Temple Guard)

I get what you mean, though I think it might be the lighting making things look brighter than they are, in reality its much more subdued, both greens have a devlan mud wash over them, I think the camera just captures more of the colour under the wash.

I need to work on my photography skills, and get a camera that isn't an iphone, lol. By comparison here's the same model taken in the slightly warmer lighting of my lounge room (compared to the above pictures which were taken 2-3ft away from a bright flouro in a mostly white room, this was taken 4-5ft away from multiple slightly duller flouros in a cream coloured room). I'm struggling to capture the range of colours on the camera though, in real life there's as much variation between shade and highlight as my above pictures, where as the colours are more accurate in the below picture, however the below picture doesn't do justice to the highlights and shades and makes things look blotchier than they look in reality.



But maybe you're still right, now that you've mentioned it I'm noticing it a bit more that the greens dont really match. Maybe I'll try and do one with Orkhide Shade scales rather than Dark Angels green, as DA green is a very clean and pure colour compared to the Knarloc Green skin. I'm not adverse to having different tones of green on different models within the one unit, I think it gives the unit a more natural look compared to having all the models an identical green (as long as the greens dont clash of course).

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with Temple Guard)

I finally got my Battalion Box and Stegadon after 3 weeks of waiting. I ordered them through my local hobby shop and there must have been a mix up, it normally only takes a few days. But whatever, I like supporting my local hobby shop still, and they gave them to me $40 cheaper than buying them from a GW store. But in the 3 weeks of waiting for my Lizardmen to get here I got bored and bought an old Battle for Skull Pass for the Night Goblins and have been painting them. Hopefully I'll get started on the Lizardmen next weekend as I wont have much free time this week.

Is it possible for a moderator to move this thread to the painting log section? Or should I just start a new thread over there?

I know they aren't lizardmen, but this is what I've been painting this past week...

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with Temple Guard)

Nice work! I love the skinks, I went with the same colour on mine but used a different approach. I'd recommend yellow eyes for the skinks if you were going to go back and do them, just a personal preference of mine though Nice Night Goblins too - i really like the sunburst look you've achieved on their shields especially.

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with Temple Guard)

Thanks!

I'll try yellow eyes, I intend to go back and fix up the eyes, just wasn't sure what color would go well with purple. Yellow is just an awkward colour to paint so I normally avoid it

 

Re: Some of my Lizardmen (Updated with Temple Guard)

Hey guys,

Its been a while. I stopped painting coz things got busy then I had to go overseas for work. Finally got around to cleaning the mould lines off some of my Lizardmen and get some stuff painted (FYI, I hate cleaning mould lines, if anyone in the Melbourne, Australia area wants to make some money cleaning mould lines off models, contact me ).

Here's the first in a unit of "speed painted" Cold One Riders. Haven't painted the riders yet, they'll be green like my regular Saurus, which I think goes well with the red Cold Ones, thought I'd post it up first to get some opinions and thoughts on it. Its also a bit of a prototype as I'm planning on using this same scheme for my Stegadon, so I'd love to hear any thoughts for them. I didn't put any effort into the saddle since it'll be covered by the Saurus.






What do you think?

Its a pretty easy paint scheme made up mostly of quick washes, I reckon it'd only take me a couple of hours to paint the whole Steg (minus the Howdah) like this.

 

Ooo that's very nice! I never thought Cold Ones would look so good in red.

 

Thanks! I know a lot of people don't like these Cold Ones, but I kinda do like them, they do have some flaws I'd like to change, but they're not THAT bad. GW chose a very unflattering colour scheme for them and something about the angle of the photos GW took makes them look worse than they look in the flesh. Initially I was gonna swap them out for the Dark Elf Cold Ones, but after opening the box and having a look at them constructed, I started to like them. They do go well with the Saurus, and actually look beefy enough to support a Saurus where as the DE ones look a bit too wirey.

 

Yeah, I'm among the ones who think they look pretty bad. It's hard to forget they suffer from stupidity 'cause they look very stupid... Although I do have to agree with you. The color you gave them makes them look a lot better. I also saw a version where they added some feathers to them and made them look like a cross between a late jurassic raptor (with the feathers) and a macaw. I thought that made them look pretty nice. I even thought it would've looked awesome if he had converted the snout into an early stage of a beak. I may try doing that some day.

I will defenetly use your color scheme for my own though... if I ever get around to painting them lol!

 

My main problem with the lizardmen cold ones are their hands, that three clawed cross look just plain ugly.

Your cold one is very nice, I like the colors!

 

Yeah, there's a few things I don't like about them. One is the hands/claws, one is the fact they all have essentially the same pose (S shaped body with head pointing upwards to the right and tail to the left), and the sculpts themselves don't feel like they've been well thought out. When they make plastic models the moulds are solid, so there can't be overlap and there has to be a bit of a draft angle for them to release them from the moulds. GW have gotten very good at hiding or overcoming that limitation in their models in recent years, but the Cold Ones are a bit of a step backward in that regard. You can see all over the models spots where things look like they should be recessed aren't recessed because they wouldn't be able to release them from the moulds, so overall the sculpts just feel, I dunno, less thought out I guess.

But overall, I don't mind them too much and am reasonably happy with the way they're turning out once fully painted. I can understand people not liking the "stupid" look, but I've kind of grown accustomed to it now, they look like big, slow, stupid but powerful lizards capable of carrying a Saurus into battle without looking like the cows we hard previously. The DE ones look good, but they look slender, fast, intelligent and a bit too wirey to carry a full blown Saurus.

I'll try and paint up one of the riders soon and take a photo of that. Though its forecast for rain for the next few days and I don't like spraying models when there's a lot of moisture in the air, so might put the riders off until the weather improves.

 

looks very neat (aside from that i think the model itself is an abomination). well done

 

Painted one of the riders.




I took those photos in natural light so they probably give a more accurate representation of the colours than the earlier ones which were taken in flouro room lighting at night.

I don't really like the way the "stone" on the spear tip came up, might repaint it, not sure how yet.