Converting a Great Big Lizardman

 

"Across roaring rivers their warsong rang

'Skull, skull, skull, skull,' the Norsemen sang.

They looted Lustria, lizards they slew

Till the Slann sent soldiers to slice them in two.

The Norsemen fought fiercely but their gold-quest failed

When the thane Thag Thagssen on a tail was impaled."

- The Saga of Thag Thagssen.

Years ago - literally, it was at least a decade - I subscribed to the Kickstarter for the first wave of Reaper Bones models. This was, in retrospect, not my best purchase, as a lot of the models weren't much good. The bigger creatures were a little better, and among them was a "swamp troll". This thing looked weirdly like a stegosaurus, but with a troll's head.

I pulled this thing out of a long-forgotten box, washed off the dirt and fluff and decided to turn it into a kroxigor for the lizardmen warband I seem to be making (extremely slowly). I cut its head off and sculpted a new one, going for that slightly bovine, snake-shaped head that stegosaurs have.

I made a new tail, too. First, I made an rough armature out of a piece of twisted garden wire:

Then I sculpted over the tail, first in DAS clay to get the right shape, and then in green stuff for finer detail. I find it helps to put a thin layer of PVA glue over the clay once it's dried, to stop it flaking off onto the green stuff. 

I added tail-spikes from a wood elf plastic dryad and an ornamental tail-guard from a tyranid bit that was lying around. Other details were added from lizardmen leftovers, green stuff and random odds and ends.

Bright colours were called for, but I surprised myself by painting his skin a drab khaki. Still, blue armour and bright red back-plates set this off, along with gold ornaments. I added the skull of a conquistador to his base, along with a little snake made of green stuff. Invaders beware!

So that was my weekend (and most of my week)! All hail the serpent god!