Making a Kings of War Display Board

So, I've spent the last two weeks building a display board for my Kings of War Lizardman army. It was a bigger project than I anticipated!

I started with an Ikea serving tray. This would serve as the foundation for the display board. I picked the Ikea tray because it had a nice wood finish, and carrying handles...very handy for moving an army around during a tournament! I also picked up a big piece of cork bark from the local pet store. After cutting up the cork, it was time to build an arrangement.

I wanted to use the cork bark as a mountainous backdrop for the display board. After settling on the general look of the backdrop, I glued all the major pieces into place.

I knew I'd be doing a lot of spray painting and glueing on the board, and I didn't want to ruin the tray's wooden finish. So, painters tape went on every exposed wooden surface.

The mountains were backed with pink foam board, and the gaps were filled with plaster.

Next, the cork bark mountains were supplemented with extra decorative rock and cork ballast. Then, the mountains and backing were spray painted. I used an acrylic black primer to ensure that the foam did not dissolve! The mountains were then sprayed with a succession of grey tones and coloured inks. The whole range was then drybrushed to finish off the rocky look.

I placed a natural cave entrance in the middle of the backdrop, which I wanted to frame with a pre-historic post-and-lintel entranceway. This was made from pink foam and plaster.

The post-and-lintel was going to be adorned with Lizardman glyphs. These are metal GW pieces saved in a box for many years! Sprayed gold and washed orange.

The glyphs were then glued on to the stone portal.

This small structure was then glued down to the board, and I started the process of laying down thinned white glue and sand to texture up the main part of the display board.

The groundwork was then primed black and sprayed a few shades of brown. I then spent some time drybrushing with orange-brown.

Next came an overall drybrush of off-white, followed by the application of random patches of white glue and static grass. The tape was removed (this was actually a time-consuming, horrible job...the tape was inadvertently glued down to the board)!

And there you have it...a display board for the Lizardmen!

Thematic, easy to carry around on tournament day, and not half-bad-looking to boot.

Up next: more Lizardmen, of course!

'Til next time.

A Few More Lizardmen

I needed a few filler pieces for my KoW Lizardman regiments, so yesterday I knocked out 5 quick soldiers. Can almost do these guys with eyes closed now.

'Til next time.

Lizardman Cavalry

Here's another unit of GW Lizardmen that will see service in Kings of War

I started painting the mounts well over a year ago (maybe two), but never got around to finishing them, or painting the riders.

A situation now rectified.

Hmmm, what next?

'Til next time.

Troglodon...Step by Step

More Lizardman Madness! 

Next up is this new Troglodon model, which comes in the Warhammer Carnosaur kit box. I'll be using it in Kings of War as a Lekelidon.

The kit comes in a number of pieces. It's well cast in typical GW grey plastic, and very well sculpted. The build is a little time consuming, but very straightforward. I built up a 50x100mm base with balsa and Gale Force 9 urban rubble plaster.

And...primed.

So, time to think about a color scheme. The back of the assembly booklet had a black and white line drawing of the finished model. I used this to pencil-in a basic camouflage pattern, which would serve as a guide while painting.

Next came color selection. I decided on a cream-colored underbelly, with a bright green back and sail. The demarkation between the two colors would be dark chocolate brown spots. To add more color into the scheme, I figured on having some bright red-orange spots (inspired by the Dragon Turtle I painted up a few months back).

Here is the progression of colors I'd be using, from the bottom to the top of the figure. The paints are arranged from left to right.

And after airbrushing, this is what the base colors looked like on the model.

Next came some brush work to add in the detail spots and orange highlights.

Next came a long sequence where all the detail colors were added in. All the gold was done. Then...turquoise feathers. Rawhide leather straps. Claws, teeth, "whiskers," and tongue.

Finally, I painted the base, and sprayed a few coats of sealer on the model.

And there it is. I'm a real fan of this kit...very easy to put together, and it makes a nice painting project with lots of potential color schemes.

It is a bigger model than I was expecting. Here you can see it next to a rank-and-file Lizardman for scale reference.

Almost done that first 1200-point Kings of War army. One unit to go.

'Til next time.

The Lizardmen Get Resurrected

I haven't done anything with my Warhammer Lizardmen army for years. However, with the release of the Lizard army for Kings of War 2nd Ed, it's time to start thinking about them again.

I have a couple of KoW games set up over the next few weeks, so I need some new units to round out my army list.

The insanity starts once again with this 16-man infantry unit.

And a hero on a Carnosaur...or as it's known in KoW, a Rhinosaur. Whatever...

I had done the mount some months ago, but I just finished up the rider today.

Finally, for this week, there's a hero on foot, with a few extra GW bits attached.

And one final view.

Now, on to a stack of new models...

'Til next time.