GRNDL:
This is a thread for my Lizardman army, “Sotek’s Defiance”, and related lizardmen projects.
I’ve been a Lizardman fan almost as long as I have known about Warhammer. One of the first gaming magazines I got was the First Citadel Compendium and inside it was a Warhammer scenario called “The Legend of Kremlo the Slann” - Vikings and Aztec frogs, what’s not to love? Obviously, things have changed a LOT since then. Slann and Lizardmen were two different armies in WHFB 1 and they’ve grown together, and so has the fluff. Overall, I still find it fascinating.
So, my army. Well, when I started it about 3 years ago, I had been painting a lot of very dark armies - dull grey, dull reds, black, etc, so with this army I decided to go all out on colour. There’s no overall theme to it and pretty much every unit has its own style and feel. After 3 years of working on it, I still don’t have very much, but what I do have, I like a lot.
Saurus Units
The blue unit was the first one I did and has grown a bit since this photo was taken. The colour scheme was worked out before the 6th Edition Lizardman army book was released - my local GW store (Burlington, Ontario) - ran a competition to paint one of the lizardman models, which was given for free.
The orange/red unit was done more recently when I was tired of painting blue. I stumbled upon a combination of vomit brown and red gore colours placed next to a highly contrasting hawk turquoise scheme. Hawk Turquoise is fast becoming my fave GW colour - it seems to be creeping into every project I do.
Kroxigor
This is the most natural coloured model in my army. When I started the army, I swore I wouldn’t use natural colours, but with the Krox, it seemed that I would have to - no other colour scheme I could think of fit the Krox. I did some experiments with verdigrised metal on the shield that is sunken into the ground, although you can’t tell its there in these photos. As a nod to the history of the lizardmen army, the shield is actually from the old plastic saurus kits.
The Salamander is modded - head repositioned and the body bent into a curve to give it some motion. Fluffwise, I figured the Salamander and the Skink’s tending to it might be from the same spawning/spawning pools so they would form an intimate bond between them, so painted them in identical colours. Once again, complimentary colours (purple and orange) are used for maximum contrast.
Both of these models have nods to real world Aztecs/Mayans with the turquoise plated skulls. I had seen a documentary which showed a human skull inlaid with turquoise shards and jade eyes, so I had to slap them onto a model.
Heroes
The Skink Priest Nuqalotl is a standard skink priest without any mods at all, he was cool enough already. I’m not sure why I painted his tabard like a tea towel. The base was carved from insulation foam.
The Saurus veteran champ was a large mod, but no one ever notices. Since there is no Saurus model with a Great Weapon, I modded my own, using a Kroxigor weapon and hands. There was a lot of engineering involved in positioning the hands with the Saurus Temple Guard body resulting in the weapon being split into about 5 parts. As with most of my projects, my enthusiasm for it runs out toward the end, so I tend to rush some things just to get it done (or not at all) - the base suffered on this one.
Slann Mage Priest
This is the model that got me really excited about the 6th Ed Lizardman army - the last remnants of the Slann that captured my imagination as a kid. It took me about 2 years to get around to even painting it because I couldn’t decide what colour to a paint it. Eventually, I ripped off someone else’s colour scheme for the mage priest itself, but used my own scheme for the throne. Most Slann are painted with a dark body colour and a light belly colour and this colour scheme is almost shocking by comparison. When I saw it, I thought it was a perfect fit for my army.
For those who haven’t painted this model, or seen it up close, there is TONS of detail on the model. I think the sculptor must have driven him/herself insane sculpting it - there are numerous frogs, lizards, snakes, skulls and other details hidden on the throne and it took me ages to paint. I did the Slann itself in a matter of 3-4 hours, but the throne took me a lot longer. I kept getting so bored of painting the throne that I took repeated month long breaks in between. Finally, I got it done and swore I’d never paint another damn throne - at least not one with the same attention to detail.
I spent a lot of time on the base, but the effort doesn’t really show. After seeing the “Stegadon on Parade” GD winner, I wanted to do a terracotta path. However, the method that the GD winner used involved “lizardman glyph plates” which you used to be able to order from GW mail order. When I built the base, they weren’t available, so I ended up sculpting and building my own - from scratch and by carving up Lizardman standards for parts. I made molds from these and cast resin pieces for the base, but looking at the photos they look pretty boring and unfinished. Shortly after I finished the model, GW began reselling the “glyph plates” as part of their “Collectors series.”
But we would like to see some more coversions! 
Its a shame I didn’t come up with it 2 years ago. /sigh
