Hey folks, I just wanted to introduce myself and ask for some advice, etc. I've been playing Warhammer since 4th edition and I'm mostly a Skaven and Empire player, although my son is into the game too and I am helping him paint about 2500 points of Dwarfs. When 5th edition came out I acquired 3 boxes of Saurus and Skink plastics and always meant to paint them up and play the army. A local GW store went out of business and I picked up a Steg and Slann for 60% off...and a handful of blisters in addition. But then I had a kid (this was 10 years ago) and my playing time got cut down to almost nothing. I sat out 6th edition and only started playing 7th at the very end (Skaven again). I am about to finish a campaign using 7th edition rules with my Skaven against the Orcs and Empire and now I feel it's time to give the rats a bit of a rest and finally open up those Lizard blisters and see what I can do with a new challenge. I have the "new" book and went out and bought a box of Saurus Cold One cavalry, and I'm very excited to do some conversions and colorful, atypical paint jobs. Now let me clear about one thing: I AM A CHEAP BASTARD! Hehehehe, just kidding! I am happy to pay $10-$15 for the occasional single figure, but overall I feel that GW's prices are OTT and I am a fairly accomplished sculptor, so any time I can sculpt or convert or use one of the 200 or so models that I already own I will gladly do so! Having been so generous in the plastics included with 5th edition, I suppose I should not be surprised that GW has vastly changed the look of the Lizzies. I am going to have to work around this. Here are the main differeences that I've observed between the new figs and the old: 1) Saurus now have 3 fingers, not 4. (Did skinks also change in this way? Have to check this...) 2) All the Saurus now wear baby Steg bone hats, not just the Temple Guard. 3) The Saurus hand weapons and spears now look refined, whereas before they looked rather primitive. 4) Skinks no longer have short bows, but blowguns and javelins. 5) Overall, the standards are much larger now; and 6) the shields all seem to be crescent-shaped lizard hide and no longer round relief sculpts. I can't help but wonder how people feel about seeing an Old School Lizzie army on the table. So my initial question getting into this is, does anyone care about this stuff, and if so, which issues matter and which don't to people who really love the lizzards? Will I be summarily banned from a top spot as "best army" in any tourney that I enter? P.S., I realized that the new plastic Steg is huge compared to the metal one that I have, but I see this as a plus, since I can use both and call the bigger one "ancient". Since the campaign I play in allows only a very small army to start out with, I will likely not be able to afford the ancient steg for quite some time anyway. Would the old and new Stegs look silly on the tabletop mixed together in the same army? Thanks! Expect some photos fairly soon of the stuff I am already working on...
I wouldn't be too concerned about the old models (as long as the base size is right, no one really should be). maybe you could get some problems with the small steg, due to the new LOS rules - someone might argue. other than that, I personally like some old models more than the new ones - all my skinks are old, some saurus as well, all sallies, some terradons, even an old slann (while I have to admit, that the new one is better ) I converted some skinks to javelins and they look quite good. other than that, the guys I play with know that all the "bow" skinks are actually with blowpipes and I completely agree with you - no need to buy new models, if you have some old ones or if you can convert some. even when playing with friends, I have no problem at all, when they pick a normal infantry/cavalry model and say: this is a hero/lord (they just need to do that at the start of the game ). for me it is about the game and the fun, not about how much I need to pay for a model just to be able to play.
What did you use for the Skink javelins? How well do the new Terradons go with the old? I have 2 old ones...why I never bought a 3rd when I had the chance I'll never know As far as TLoS goes and using the old Steg, I doubt the people I play with would have an issue. We all view the TLoS rule as rife with issues and open to abuse and we're a pretty mature group of very experienced players, so I don't think anyone is going to want to be the first one caught abusing that rule. Blowpipe conversions seem like they'd be very easy. My biggest fear is that GW will come out with a new Army book for the Lizzies halfway through this project and give the little buggers their short bows back!
Saurus don't really wear steg hats, they just have crests on their head now (i personally really love those crests) I don't think anyone will complain about using old school models. I also fielded a unit of 5th edition saurus. I personally had more problems with it then my opponents, since it kind of ruined the unified look i want in my armies. But it can work though. As long as you use the right kind of model (any kind of saurus to represent saurus, not using chaos warriors or etc ) with the right equipment (spears or handweapons) you should be fine in a tournament.
you can check out the skinks here. http://picasaweb.google.sk/mstrenk/KroxSkinks?authkey=Gv1sRgCMKKnNHDvuCQ2wE&feat=directlink I used copper wire for the javelins. the models are not painted, though, as I don't like painting very much (or am just too lazy )
Do you think spear arm bits from the new saurus will fit with the old saurus models, or did they make a subtle change to scale? At this point I am thinking about sculpting my own spear (a lot of work to make them good really good) and just picking up crescent sheilds on eBay...
The new saurus are bigger then the old, but i just tried holding a "new" spear arm against an old saurus, and it could work.
I actually happen to have some of those already converted - but again - unpainted (well, torsos are painted, as I bought them so, arms with spears are not...) I uploaded them, you can find them under the link I posted before in this thread.
Thanks for posting the photos! They look like a great match. I would never guess that they were new arms and old bodies mixed together (unless I counted the fingers on the right and left hands - but the left hand is completely covered by a shield anyway).
O.k., so here are a few photos of what I've been up to (sadly, not that much!) Again, the goal here is to make the most use I can of 3 sets of Saurus/Skinks from 5th edition, and I hate the "blue skin" look that GW seems to favor. Frankly, real-life lizards come in so many varied, colorful and beautiful varieties and I want to emulate that for my army. Having painted 400+ skaven over the years, the idea of painting about 100 lizardmen in colorful schemes does not frighten me. The only hitch being that I am starting a campaign with this army in January (and under our campaign rules you give up victory points at the start of the battle for unfinished work), so I need about 1200 points "done" by then. Here is a photo of the color scheme that I am thinking of using for the Saurus (this was speed painted, so please ignore the sloppy work!) Next up, I am converting champions, standard bearers and musicians for the Saurus. Here's the first of the lot, a musician (not quite done yet): Finally, as frugal as I am I have purchased some newer minis (and I have a bunch of 5th edition Krox blisters among other stuff I've accumulated over the years). I want to use the cold one cavalry (assuming I can find a use for them under 8th edition!), but I was really bothered by the lack of variety in the plastic miniatures - every single tail was identical! So, I made a new tail for one of the Cold Ones, and eventually I plan to customize at least half, if not all, of these minis: Not quite done with that one yet either, but hopefully I will get back to these soon. I may have to switch over before then, however, to skinks, as the mainstay of my force, at this point, will likely be two units of 22 skinks, each with 2 Krox in the second rank. On a tactical note, I was planning to covert all my saurus to spears, but under 8th I have a feeling that shields would be more useful. Any thoughts on that would be greatly appreciated!
After cutting my teeth on hundreds and hundreds (and hundreds) of Skaven, I can paint a pretty mean model in 20 minutes Planning to take a bit more time with the Lizards though...
Thanks guys. I am almost done with the second conversion now, a standard bearer. Sorry, I didn't stop to take a photo yet, but I will. I just need to make the Champion and 17 other guys and then it's out to the shed to airbrush a base-coat of colors. Hopefully by Sunday. So what do you think of the "red with stripes" look? P.S., going to do the unit with Hwp/Sh first, and later, if a second unit of Saurus makes sense, finish the spearmen conversions that I started.
The tiger stripes look great. Maybe you could mix in some of the newer hand weapons in with the old ones? Great sculpt of the cold ones tail. The old saurus actualy look perety decent with enough gren stuff.
Yeah, I actually really like the old Saurus - the new ones were modeled like little velociraptors which really doesn't match their low initiative. I was thinking about swapping out a few handweapons, at least for the champion. Seems that there is an extra new-style hand weapon in that box of Cold One riders that I bought....right? Thanks for the feedback!
If you haven't seen it yet, the new plasic Temple guard have a great variety of bits that come with them, check out eBay they are constantly selling off temple guard bits.
nice paint job T`hinker`er in my opinion i prefer the new models and the blue skin (im happy to spend £45 on three Kroxigors) , the primative look just doesnt work for me, the new models look like the lizardmen have been created for a purpose and are much more organized I agree with n810 the green stuff (especialy the musician) makes them look great But at the end of the day its your choice, Keep up the good work