Blog Gauntlet's Lizards

[Gauntlet]

I really like the color of stone you went with for the palanquin and rings surrounding it, it's like a sandstone, not something I've seen before while searching the internet. The green accents inside the throne portion look really nice with the tan as well!

I think the feathers look good, if you're asking for suggestions, maybe add a darker color at the base to separate them from the banner. And do some thin bright lines to create feather texture.

I definitely feel like gw skimped on the sculpting of some areas of Kroak. The feathers on the palanquin and the attendant don't have much texture and the snakes are pretty badly sculpted in my opinion

I agree, the sculpt is overall really wonderful, but there are some parts where I'm like "Really?"

Specifically, the back of the large snake banner, the feathers in general. But then again, I keep finding very tiny lizards and frogs all over this thing and it wows me.


Today I'm working on more touch ups, and more little details where I find them/etc. and I've started on Kroak. I may do the attendant last (or even just cut him off since he doesn't match any other skinks in my army).

 

[Imrahil]

What an amazing paintjob
I like the sandstone color a lot.

Grrr, Imrahil

 

[Gauntlet]

 

[Gauntlet]

So. Kroak himself is painted. I had a few objectives.

1) I've not seen anyone paint kroak without the mask. So I went and did that.

2) I wanted my Kroak to be withered, but technically alive looking. Thus the overall look.

3) and I didn't plan his paint job with the rest of the model in mind, and I think he's too close to the jade green and I should've done something else... However, he is magnetized, so I can always do another some day.

 

[Imrahil]

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Nice work, he looks great on his throne!

Grrr, Imrahil

 

[Just A Skink]

So. Kroak himself is painted. I had a few objectives.

1) I've not seen anyone paint kroak without the mask. So I went and did that.

2) I wanted my Kroak to be withered, but technically alive looking. Thus the overall look.

3) and I didn't plan his paint job with the rest of the model in mind, and I think he's too close to the jade green and I should've done something else... However, he is magnetized, so I can always do another some day.

It looks great! You could always change the jade green in the throne if you want him to "pop" more. That might be easier than repainting him.

 

[Gauntlet]

Good thought. I could easily make it blue like the orbs in the chair back.

 

[Gauntlet]

First Saurus Cav completed as a test run. Also my first use of contrast paints. The skin is terradon turquoise over dunes (tan).

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I think things look better with my traditional painting methods, but this is less work and my Saurus Cav have the riders modeled on top and less work means less mistakes and less cleanup. Also the darker colors here helps cover up imperfections in the print and assembly (these are much older models than my more recent work and I've gotten better at cleaner modeling).

I'll never build riders on top of mounts for significant numbers of cav before painting again.

The model is of course a hybrid. Uses lost kingdoms raptor body, with one page rules raptor head and tail.

Tweaked scales a bit during printing to help things match. Rider of course is the same, LK body with OPRM head and tail too.

Overall I think it's a great way to reproduce horned ones from the total war games, and of course almost any substitutes is a vast improvement over the official Saurus cavalry mounts and their inarticulate spike hands and such...

Anywho. Hope you like. I should probably paint that kroak attendant now....



PS: Also, compared to my Skink Cav, the model is the same length, but the beast is taller overall and gives a bigger and bulkier look all in all comparatively.

 

[Lizards of Renown]

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First Saurus Cav completed as a test run. Also my first use of contrast paints. The skin is terradon turquoise over dunes (tan).

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I think things look better with my traditional painting methods, but this is less work and my Saurus Cav have the riders modeled on top and less work means less mistakes and less cleanup. Also the darker colors here helps cover up imperfections in the print and assembly (these are much older models than my more recent work and I've gotten better at cleaner modeling).

I'll never build riders on top of mounts for significant numbers of cav before painting again.

The model is of course a hybrid. Uses lost kingdoms raptor body, with one page rules raptor head and tail.

Tweaked scales a bit during printing to help things match. Rider of course is the same, LK body with OPRM head and tail too.

Overall I think it's a great way to reproduce horned ones from the total war games, and of course almost any substitutes is a vast improvement over the official Saurus cavalry mounts and their inarticulate spike hands and such...

Anywho. Hope you like. I should probably paint that kroak attendant now....



PS: Also, compared to my Skink Cav, the model is the same length, but the beast is taller overall and gives a bigger and bulkier look all in all comparatively.

Both paint jobs are awesome.

I prefer the GW models personnally, but each to their own

 

[Imrahil]

View attachment 121100 View attachment 121098 View attachment 121099


First Saurus Cav completed as a test run. Also my first use of contrast paints. The skin is terradon turquoise over dunes (tan).

Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I think things look better with my traditional painting methods, but this is less work and my Saurus Cav have the riders modeled on top and less work means less mistakes and less cleanup. Also the darker colors here helps cover up imperfections in the print and assembly (these are much older models than my more recent work and I've gotten better at cleaner modeling).

I'll never build riders on top of mounts for significant numbers of cav before painting again.

The model is of course a hybrid. Uses lost kingdoms raptor body, with one page rules raptor head and tail.

Tweaked scales a bit during printing to help things match. Rider of course is the same, LK body with OPRM head and tail too.

Overall I think it's a great way to reproduce horned ones from the total war games, and of course almost any substitutes is a vast improvement over the official Saurus cavalry mounts and their inarticulate spike hands and such...

Anywho. Hope you like. I should probably paint that kroak attendant now....



PS: Also, compared to my Skink Cav, the model is the same length, but the beast is taller overall and gives a bigger and bulkier look all in all comparatively.

Great job man, very nice conversion work. It looks very natural.
I love the color choices, he stands out good between the skink cav.

Keep up the great work

I more and more like to see a full army pic of your creations

Grrr, Imrahil

 

[Gauntlet]

Well it's difficult to photograph 2*4 feet lol

But here is a smattering of pics

 

[Gauntlet]

Oh. And this thread is intended for lizards only...

But some of the lizards are on the "miscellaneous" shelf... So here's some of that craziness

 

[Just A Skink]

Well it's difficult to photograph 2*4 feet lol

But here is a smattering of pics

View attachment 121163 View attachment 121164 View attachment 121165 View attachment 121166 View attachment 121167

 

[Gauntlet]

Since I'm at it...

Let's show off the office! Like all of you, I've been iteratively improving my equipment, storage, etc.

But this year I did a really big refresh, mainly by removing two unmatching steel shelves and replacing it with three matching ones, and putting in some strip lights.





Additionally I finally got some mdf paint racks installed!




Yes that's a fish tank in-between the computer and the paint rack...

And here is the to do pile for lizards! Getting there lol!

 

[JTSleep]

Speechless...

 

[Imrahil]

Well it's difficult to photograph 2*4 feet lol

But here is a smattering of pics

View attachment 121163 View attachment 121164 View attachment 121165 View attachment 121166 View attachment 121167

This is amazing!!

This is an awesome system, the light strips make it look splendid.

Grrr, Imrahil

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Well it's difficult to photograph 2*4 feet lol

But here is a smattering of pics

View attachment 121163 View attachment 121164 View attachment 121165 View attachment 121166 View attachment 121167

Oh. And this thread is intended for lizards only...

But some of the lizards are on the "miscellaneous" shelf... So here's some of that craziness

View attachment 121168 View attachment 121169 View attachment 121170 View attachment 121171 View attachment 121172

Since I'm at it...

Let's show off the office! Like all of you, I've been iteratively improving my equipment, storage, etc.

But this year I did a really big refresh, mainly by removing two unmatching steel shelves and replacing it with three matching ones, and putting in some strip lights.


View attachment 121173


Additionally I finally got some mdf paint racks installed!

View attachment 121175 View attachment 121176


Yes that's a fish tank in-between the computer and the paint rack...

And here is the to do pile for lizards! Getting there lol!

View attachment 121177

I love all the paint jobs. Fantastic.

Hobby room makes me very jealous! Nice!

 

[Gauntlet]

Hey there!

Thanks for the kind words.

Sadly my office is changed. My cat Uther of 16 years suddenly took terribly ill and has passed away.





I miss him. I suspect he knew death was coming because... Believe it or not... He started a fire in the office a week or so before he got ill.

That's right. A fire. He tried to kill us all in a funeral pyre like the kings of old.

He apparently was peeing directly into an outlet. This is the new outlet, but you can see where the fire was. Thankfully we caught it quickly enough and everything is fine (though I still have a fine layer of soot on a lot of models and shelves lol).





Since his passing, I've done some organizing, a work trip, and finished a couple models.

But, before I move on to the models... Our dog now has access to the office, so he's pretty pleased to hang out with me during the work day (I work remote).

Cato (senator of Rome)





Next up... Models

 

[Gauntlet]

Soooo

In my ongoing effort to avoid painting units of 10+, I decided to do my Ancient Salamanders. These are from lost kingdom miniatures, but I scaled them to 125 percent, with the torsos widened to 140 percent. I gave them 120*90mm bases. Which is honestly bigger than needed, but I wanted a lot of room for big plants and such. It was well worth it.

The skin is a mix of GW contrast paints, while everything else is my usual painting.

I'm not certain about the eyes, they are very small, and I question if I should paint them, but can't think of a good color given the existing contrast of colors going on here already. Maybe green?







The fireball isn't complete, and it's magnetized, but it was done enough for photography lol.

I was contemplating trying some lighting underneath the fireball, on the base, but I'm too scared now lol.

I'm most happy with the water effect, the big piece of drywood, and I'm always disappointed with myself on transitions involving yellow, or orange. It's less visible in photos but there are always imperfections and I hate it. I think part of the problem is I ink wash basically everything and sometimes I should just be leaving things without and instead doing proper highlights (which I despise doing).

Advice always welcome. Hope you love these guys, because frankly... They rule!

-next up:

Will gauntlet work on Saurus Cav?

He's printing Raventwin miniatures salamanders for normal Sals...

And what about the largest engine of the gods all the way back on page 1?!

 

[Lizards of Renown]

Sadly my office is changed. My cat Uther of 16 years suddenly took terribly ill and has passed away.

Sorry for your loss. Hopefully your dog is making an effort to cheer you up.