I know I'm a bit late on the topic but just thought I'd say that I never field units of saurus or temple guard smaller than 30. That is the minimum I use. Anyway, what kind of tool(s) do you use to make the designs in your shields?
The process I settled on is I start with a metal glyph plate from GW Direct and make a bunch of moulds with Instant Mold. When the Instant Mold is set I cut down the edges so the moulds are only about 3 mm deep. I use stone cast plaster (dental plaster), it is easy to mix in small batches, sets fairly quickly and dries very hard. Then I sand the back and the edges smooth and even. Finally I add some battle damage with a small file. The first unit should be finished by the end of April, I'll post pictures then.
I finally finished, though it was slow going the first half of the month before I got all the steps settled. The last 10 were really fast though, so I should be able to update more frequently from now on. Undecided on one thing for the next Saurus unit. Should I keep repositioning the shield arms to get the shields facing forward? They are a nightmare to rank up this way and it is a bit of extra work, is it worth it? Also, should I add static grass and/or grass tufts in addition to the clump foliage I'm using?
The unit looks fantastic! Great work on the shields. They do look impossible to rank up (like the guy in the 2nd back row popping up now). The movement tray looks good, but maybe some variety like a little static grass would be great. Do you have a champion in there?
Those look fantastic! Maybe just have the front rank witrh shields in front of them for ease, as it does look fairly cool
lovely stuff! i would love a bit more green (perhaps tufts) on the bases just to balance the cold color a little bit, but they look great
Thank you all for your encouragement. @Old Mossy: There is a champion, he has shoulder pads. He isn't quite in focus though. @Moniker: I think I will try that. Cheers. @Lord Tsunami: I will try using tufts or static grass on my Skink Skirmishers as they will have a lot more base surface showing. If it looks right I'll carry it over to the Saurus units too.
Ah, I see him now. Have you thought about decorating his shield slightly differently, so he stands out a little?
Nah, I think he's good. Not so hard to spot IRL as in the picture. In May I'm going to try to do three units of 10 Skinks, two Salamanders and an Ancient Stegadon with Priest. Should be a challenge but not impossible.
That unit looks really, really freakin' good man! Colors are crisp and clear and those custom shields work well on them. Looking forward to seeing more.
That unit looks amazing. The cool color scheme and those massive shields out in front make the look really steadfast and resolute. Fearless, emotionless and cold. I really like um. Top 10 saurus blocks i've seen. Colors and conversion really work off each other here. It's great imo. I think it's totally worth making a few more blocks the same way. Oh yeah, and if you don't remember i'm the one that told you tonsavevthe shield for heros. Turns out it is worth the extra time. They look great. Also if you dont mind, i'd like to see a closer shot of the convertion to the shield arm. I did that conversion once and it turned out sloppy. I'd like to compare and see if i can improve my process.
Well, May is done and here is an update. I'm on schedule, if only just. Here's a shot of the army so far, two months of painting. The Skink Skirmishers. You'll notice that I did add static grass to these to see how it looked. I wanted to do it on the Skinks first since a lot more base is exposed on them compared to the Saurus unit. I think it is an improvement so the rest will get it too. A pair of sallies with extra snacks. Ancient Stegadon with Engine of the Gods. I use green as a spot colour on many models but I wanted to set the creatures of the jungle apart from the Lizardmen themselves, and painting them green felt like a good way of doing that. A closeup of the Skink Priest Itzla, the first character to join the army. @DanBot: You caught me there! The arm joints don't look very good actually, but I've filed down the front side of the forearms anyway to give the shields a good surface to stick to.
Great army! All your units really fit together well. I really love the depth that you've accomplished with the heavy shading and highlighting. And that howdah is so vivid. kind of eye popping. I might've considered a different colour for the skinks' fins, to pick it out a little. For some reason, the muted colours, and sharp contrasts between shading and highlight make me think of manga. I like it.
Great looking army so far! And you say it only took you 2 months to do? I think that would take me 2 lifetimes lol.
Small update. A WiP Scar-Veteran I built out of a spare Kroq-Gar (thank you Finecast quality control). It took a lot more work than I had planned to get him to ride a Cold One as I had to saw off a lot of the mount's sides for his legs and tail to fit, and then I had to sculpt a lot of detail back on. Fortunately it was almost all covered in scales. I have less than a month to go to my deadline of July 15th. In June I need to finish a unit of Saurus Warriors (18 done, 12 to go, no shields done and no movement tray), a Slann (90% done) and the above Scar-Vet. Then it's 24 Temple Guard in 15 days. It's going to be tight, but I think I can make it.
In June it finally happened -- I failed to finish what I should have. Now I have only 10 days left so I really need to make progress every day. These are the steps that remain: Saurus Warrior Unit 2 (30 models): Painting: 99% Shields: made, not painted Basing: not done Slann Mage Priest: Painting: 90% Basing: not done Scar-Veteran: Painting: 30% Basing: not done Temple Guard (24 models): Painting: 10% Shields: not done Basing: not done I will update the list every day now to push myself to finish, and to hopefully get some extra encouragement from you lot. Pictures may have to wait until everything is done though.
Thursday was pretty good. Sanded 12 TG shields, and then 12 more this morning. Rewarded with sore fingertips as the shields are too thin to keep my fingers off the sand paper. At least now I can finally get rid of all the plaster casting and sanding stuff on my hobby table and make room for basing, I need to get started on that soon. Also did two hours and a bit of TG painting in the evening. Decent progress, though painting all 24 in one go means every step takes a long time. It is the fastest way to get the whole unit done though. Saurus Warrior Unit 2 (30 models): Painting: 99% Shields: made, not painted Basing: not done Slann Mage Priest: Painting: 90% Basing: not done Scar-Veteran: Painting: 30% Basing: not done Temple Guard (24 models): Painting: 20% Shields: made, not painted Basing: not done
Wow, this looks great! I'm working on one of my own and this is inspiring! Keep us posted and keep up the good work!