I have been offline for nearly a couple of weeks now, but I have not been idle. I have taken to setting myself a ‘Christmas Project’ at the end of every year, where I have the luxury of just locking myself away with a pile of DVD box sets (since replaced by Netflix) and cracking on with something I would not ordinarily have time to do. In the past this has been polishing off a novel or painting an entire army – things like that. This year, I set myself the goal of, well, catching up on my Age of Sigmar painting. As it happened, this involved on making a (very) decent start on three armies…
There is still some basing and photographs to get done (I managed to crack through the best part of 200-odd miniatures!), so expect a few updates over the next few days, but I did manage to get the snaps of this little lot – the Skink portion of my new Seraphon army.
That is a total of sixty Skinks, plus characters, plus special units, plus Kroxigors!
The Skinks themselves follow the same scheme as the Saurus Warriors I did as a trial earlier this month, so everything fits together. All the Skinks came ready-assembled via various eBay auctions so it was more a case of collating them into themed units rather than any grand design. I ended up with two units of twenty javelin throwers, one unit of ten blowpipes, and one unit of ten sword-wielding Skinks – a good way of doing things, or else I am not sure those sword guys would ever have got done (they are really not the optimum choice of armament, as far as I can see).
One unit of Chameleon Skinks had to be done as well – but only one. When used in number, these guys are open to some serious abuse so you just want them present as flavouring rather than a game changer. They can be removed from the table at any time (even when in combat) and then replaced anywhere on the table in the next turn – that can cause some serious issues in objective-based Battleplans. So, if you have any of these guys yourself, be nice with them.
I went for a nice urban-camo scheme for them, using various greys built up to Fenrisian Grey. The lizard strapped to their heads (whom I started calling Steve while painting them – took me a while to remember it was because that was the name of the gecko in Madagascar 2…) are simply Ushabti Bone followed by Carroburg Crimson.
Got to have the flying squad when doing Skinks, of course! I went with Terradons rather than Ripperdacgyls principally because I prefer the dinosaur look, and went for a predominantly purple theme, to match what I will be doing with the really big monsters.
The body starts off with Xerxes Purple and a Druchii Violet wash, building up to Genestealer Purple (which initially seemed a bit too bright but it works well enough). The wings started as Daemonette Purple and were drybrushed with progressively lighter shades of grey, each starting closer to the trailing edge to get the gradiating look.
You can have some fun with the posing of these guys. This one has the Terradon tucking in its right wing as it banks into a dive – the Skink on top is leaning into the turn and really looks as though it is taking advantage of the Terradon’s speed to deliver a nasty javelin attack.
Of course, you cannot have Skinks without Kroxigors, and these three chaps came up really nicely. They are all Finecast, but there were absolutely no issues in their construction and they are much nicer pieces than the metal versions.
You cannot trust a Skink to just get on with things, so they needed some leadership too. This is a Skink Starpriest flanked by two regular Priests – one with a relic, the other with a featerhed cloak that will allow him to zip about the battlefield (meaning he will probably get into trouble sooner than his comrades!).
I like the Starpriest a lot. This is a plastic kit, and a very characterful one. However, I like the next model a lot more…
The Skink Starseer. Despite being a relatively minor character among the Seraphon (though he is about as trusted as a Skink gets), this may well be my favourite model in the whole army thus far. It is just so well posed, sitting cross-legged on his floating chair while searching for answers from the future through his magical globe. Great stuff.
This little lot was by no means the only Seraphon I managed to get done, however, and the next post will feature the Saurus Warrior contingent as well as some of the ultimate leadership.
A Tabletop Gamer's Diary 
They all look great. I like the colour scheme. Good job
Very nice. You did a lot better than me over the break. I had it in my head I’d get all this painting done, but turns out when I’m off work all I want to do is sit on the couch. I get more painting inspiration when winding down after work!