As a follow-up to the Dancing Dragonborn from last week, I have the actual replacement model that I purchased for it, nigh on 10 years ago and have only just completed. This is a Reaper model that fit the general description and more “realistic”, “human” proportions that the D&D miniatures have overall – It’s a Degenerate Serpentfolk, which seems a little unfair. Reaper obviously only have limited models via their Pathfinder licence, and their actual Lizardman models suffer from the same kinds of over-chunkiness that GW’s models also have, which is why I rejected them for the D&D Fighter role. But I did find this one. Obviously nowadays there are the Wizkids/Nolzur’s models and they seem to look pretty good from the renders, but this one is now done and painted and good enough for me.
Obviously, your D&D purists would note that this “Dragonborn” proxy doesn’t have quite the same kind of spiky draconic face or dreadlocks that much of the official art and the official models have, but given that this is a mini for a boardgame and I’m not super-invested (or even vaguely invested) in D&D lore, I’m obviously okay with it. This model is somewhat aother Contrast Paint experiment – I used both Aethermatic Blue and Terradon Turquoise over white to get the two (slightly) different skin and scale tones, and a bit of Apothecary White, followed by really thinned Skeleton Horde for the bone axe handle and skull-hat. Anyway, job done and the model is a decent upgrade over Dancing Disco Dragonborn!
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
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Seems like a worthy blue Dragonborn proxy for D&D to me. Like you, I’m not super invested in the art either, especially if it gets in the way of what I or a player wants to do. I remember the campaign we were doing (pre-Covid) where the major civilized race in the starting area were green dragonborn. After some back and forth with one of the players we decided that the menfolk had a sort of crest on top of their heads that they could raise and lower while the womenfolk had (in the player’s words), “Beautifully feminine cheek spines.”
Worked for me. 🙂
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Oh! Be still my aching heart! 😀
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Very nice! 🙂 I was quite surprised some of it was contrast paint – all looks good, and all the colours work for me!
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Yeah, as an addition to the toolkit it works well. I’m still experimenting with it on bigger projects, though!
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Very nice, I really like that blue. He looks friendlier than GW’s lizardmen, more civilised and less animalistic.
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He does, and Reaper’s look positively feral. I mean, they’re pretty cool looking, but really savage looking (but with sophisticated weapons and armour, because of course!)
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This guy looks great and I like the shade of blue you chose. It stands out from GW’s brighter color scheme but still gives off the lizard feel. Choosing something less chunky was a good move too as it also helps this guy stand out. You should have quite the squad of D&D figures together now. Any chance there might be a group shot in the near future? 🙂
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I’ve cleared the table space, so I just need to find one of my small mats and the plan is to then do a group shot of the Castle Ravenloft monsters, which I completed the last of this month.
I’ll do a similar one when I finish the Ashardalon ones (maybe at the end of this month?) and sometime after that I’ll do the lot of them, with the Reaper Not-D&D models, and the Nolzurs’ etc added in.
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Sounds great. I’ll be looking forward to them both! 🙂
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Looking good mate
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Cheers, Mate!
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This looks really nice, much nicer mini than the discoborn too, although it’s starting to grow on me.
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Yeah, Marouda has been using the Discoborn in our games while I finished this one off, and he’s grown a little on me as well. Enough that I no longer despise it as a table model, anyway! 😉
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Nice one mate, though the name seems a bit unfair… he/she/it doesn’t look too degenerate to me – that armour is quite sophisticated!
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I know, right? Way to slander a serpent for no specific reason!
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Great work on the proxie, if it works for you that’s all that matters, and your brush skills have certainly elevated the model
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Thanks Dave! In this case the combination of my early exposure to D&D being in the Red Box days when things were not so codified as they are today and not having cared much since (or ever) about the D&D lore means it’s all good for me. 😉
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Much better sculp. Nice work on the bone handle too.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete – especially for back in the day!
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Contrast paint has worked really well, especially for the scales – A degenerate, but a very nice degenerate!
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Yeah, I think that kjind of thing is one of the paint’s strengths – and I’ve got no idea why he’s considered a “degenerate”!
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Can’t see enough Julie Guthrie stuff, she is an amazing sculptress.
Nice job on this Az. I have a future project for my RAFM Reptiliads (way in the future) that this dude would be a great leader!
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She absolutely is! And RAFM Reptiliads… there’s a range I haven’t seen for a very long time. I painted a ton of those back in my teens for a commission. Someone I knew had designed a custom Lizardman Army list for WHFB 3rd edition, back when they were just a few bestiary entries – long before they were an official army.
Looking forward to seeing what you do with them!
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RAFM still sells them btw, not that you want to add to your trays! It will be a while for me – I have, gulp, nearly 200 or so plus a book on their original color schemes.
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I’ve got more than enough Lizardmans from a bunch of manufacturers here already – so as you said – plenty here still needing to be painted without adding to them! Intrigued by the size of your force and the book – will be looking forward to it! Might they go up against the Aztecs in the CP supplements?
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