So now I have the lizardmen... brainstorm with me, please

[Conquistador]

Muchas Gracias for a great set of GW lizardmen for my VSF on Vensus gaming fromfilbanto@yahoo.com - an outstanding and gracious individual.      

Yes, they are very good and I must clearly give GW credit (heaven knows I have been critical in the past where they seemed deserving) for some outstanding figures!  Egg-zactly the kind of figures I was looking for!            

Right after my return to CONUS from a  short personal (not professional) trip they will be moving beyond basing/priming.   

So, let's talk painting.     All colors are from my predominately Delta Ceramcoat, Apple Barrel, and.... colors.  Heyit's what I have... 

First the bodies - (Hunter, Leaf, Light Foliage, Forest, Woodland, Vineyard, English Ivy, Festive) Green, or (Country, Dolphin, Pewter) Grey, or Soft Suede,Golden, Toffee, Brown Oxide, Chocolate Bar) Brown, or (Sandstone, Territorial beige, or Country) Tan, Black, or (Bungalow, Liberty, Nightfall, Midnight, Brilliant Ultramarine) Blue?

Clothing (loin cloths) - Thoughts? 

Crests - Tropical bird colors for identification/mating/ dominance display?  Hunting/Hiding complement (their visual range may be more insect like or even B/W oriented) to the body color?

Weapons, decorations, and gear - more stealthy colors or bright "war paint" colors? 

Blades/arrow tips - crystal, bone, stone, or other?

The archers seem to have a different appearance from the melee troops.  Different (maybe competing) tribes/species?  The smaller looking archers - Youngsters  or Old timers who have shed the muscle but developed poison glands  to tip the arrows with?

Other thoughts?

Gracias,

Glenn

[Sheerluck Holmes]

How about hunter/sneaky types have colours that let them blend into their surrounds, and the warriors have bright colours (think Aztec) that allow them to stand out on the battle field and make/accept challenges.

Body colour - for me this would depend on what their environment looks like, and then use a colour that matches it a bit. So if red/brown soil, then brown skin. Jungle = green skin and so on.

Clothing - natural colours - unless they are high tech I would imagine they make their own basic clothing, so these might be faded versions of the local vegitation.

Crests - as per body colour suggestion above, with maybe Bird of Paradise type crests for warriors and leaders.

Weapons - as per clothing suggestion, depending on tech level.  If you go with an Aztec idea, then maybe the warriors decorate their weapons to show off how many kills they have.

Blades etc - something exotic to match the world they live on - crystal shards maybe?

Any chance of seeing a pic of what they look like? Seeing them can help with the thought process.

[Red Orc]

GW do their lizardmen blue, so you might want to avoid that (or, alternatively, go blue so you can use your forces as Lizardmen for WHFB too). In WHFB terms, the two types of troops are kinda different but related species, I think, like orcs and goblins, only these are skinks - short sneaky dextrous magical but not very physically hard dudes, and errm, Big Lizards (that might not be the technical term) - who are big and like to run towards things and hit them with pointy sticks.

I like the idea that these are different stages of the life-cycle. I like the poison idea too. There's no reason that youngsters couldn't be poisonous - perhaps they produce a toxin to deter predators when they're vulnerable, but as they develop a tougher skin they rely on that more and lose the poison ability. It could be mark of becoming a 'real' warrior in Lizard society that juveniles give up their bows and blowpipes to take up a shield and pointy stick.

You haven't suggested orange or purple for lizard colours, or even multi-coloured... I think a gila-monster pattern in for example orange and deep purple would look rather spiffing. But I think Sheerluck Holmes is right, you need to have an idea of environment in mind. Potassium Jungle? Purple. Iodine Wastes? Yellow. Cobalt Desert? Bright blue. Titanium Swamp? Err, yellow again. Now I'm running out of colours but you get the drift I'm sure.

Again with complementary colours for crests, warpaint, and clothing - how do you see this society? Are these fellows all about display? If they are, do their eyes function the same way as ours? Does red look like black to them, is blue a brilliant flourescent colour (this is the principle I use for my Orks, reasoning they've got different colour-sense to humans). Even 'bright' warpaint might look dull to our eyes. Conversely, 'camoflage bodypaint' might be in odd (to us) colours.

Maybe they're very naturally-camoflaged, so all their clothes, as well as skin and crests, blend in. Maybe the young ones are more camoflaged (again as a survival tactic) but the older ones are more colourful (as they reach sexual maturity and must attract mates).

Their clothes could be decorated to denote many things. Perhaps these dudes are more organised than the humans expect, into fraternities or guilds of some kind - Spawn-Siblings could have similar patterns on their clothes, or Devotees of the Cosmic Egg could have different markings to the Cult of the Prime Hunter, or they could even be organised in military units. Perhaps they're wearing uniforms that mean as much to them as the number of buttons on a cuff means to the Earthmen.

Just some thoughts, hope some are useful.

[Ricco]

I like the idea of the lizards' colour matching the environment.  The feathers etc may be thought of as trophies of critters that the warriors have personally had to kill to show adult warrior status ( feathered Raptor-like dinos etc.) or maybe tribal affiliations/clans etc.

I would have the weapon tips in obsidian - (very sharp stuff - some surgeons use it today) with warriors who have had human contact using steel/bronze equipment.

[Conquistador]

What if they see UV light like insects?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-473897/A-bees-eye-view-How-insects-flowers-differently-us.html

Not sure how you would represent that though...

Gracias,

Glenn