While I was on holiday in July, I visited the Maroochydore Warhammer store and got the mini of the month - this Saurus Warrior. I’m not into the lore or anything like that, but I love the design of the Seraphon models - my first Warhammer model was a Skink Starpriest and I’ve since bought a pack of Aggradon Lancers to paint. Anyway, I decided that I would use this mini to stretch my painting skills and, as it turned out, also my basing skills.
Lighting Ref
Before I put any paint on the model, I did a zenithal prime and then took some photos to use as lighting references. I wanted a kind of dramatic lighting from the focal point of the shield/side of the head.
NMM Ref
Collected some non-metallic metal references. As you’ll see further in, I initially leaned towards the third picture, but corrected back towards the first two.
Journal
2026-07-26
Session: 23 minutes, Total: 23 minutes
I started painting and… I don’t think I actually wanted to paint this green but here we are. Maybe I’ll work it up to a yellow or a lime? Not too late to reverse directions. Could be cool to make the shield silver, usually these dudes have bronze/gold shields. I definitely need to work on my impulsiveness when it comes to laying down paint.
2026-08-04
Session: 1 hour 15 minutes, Total: 1 hour 38 minutes
Left off painting for a week before I finally got my shit together and blocked in the non-metallic metal. I’m quite happy with the reflected ground, but the blue is way too intense for my liking. I asked for advice on the mini painting Discord. I received the following advice from one of the pros there and saved it for my next session:
“You’ll think this is insane, but water some dark grey or black paint the fuck down and do a fat glaze all over and you instantly get a darker steel. When black goes very trasnparent you sometimes get a bit of a noise map from all the pigments and it can work really well for metal texture. If you’re into the little more unpolished finish.”
2026-08-18
Session: 34 minutes, Total: 2 hours 12 minutes
Took the advice above and glazed back the really shiny bits on the shield. It toned down the blues significantly as well, which I’m happy about. I’ll need to go back in and re-establish my highlights and shadows a little but I definitely like this better. I also went and gave the scales another coat and did the other side of the body so that I could establish local colour. Now I can crank the highlights on the side facing the light.
Next job will be to push the edge highlights, top reflections, and bounce light to make sure it’s still reading a shiny. It’s getting there though. This was a really short session, but after I hadn’t touched the model in 2 weeks, I’ll take it.
2026-08-21
Session: 41 minutes, Total: 2 hours 53 minutes
Brought back the shiny. Stoked with it now. Also started work on the base - learning new techniques here. Next step will be to prime it black (probs use the rattle can if I don’t pull out the airbrush) and then start painting it. I think this should be interesting though, since I’ve never tried building a base like this and it’s all about building little silhouettes to paint up.
2026-08-22
Session: 1 hour 15 minutes, Total: 4 hours 8 minutes
Primed up my base with the rattlecan and did some painting today. Once I primed it up, the vision started to become clear…
I took my painting kit to a friend’s place for a crafting afternoon - I didn’t get much done other than painting the base since I didn’t have a lot of light to work with.
2026-08-24
**Session: 2 hours 2 minutes, Total: 6 hours 10 minutes
I had a busy day at work today and took a nap afterwards. After I got up, I spent a couple of hours painting and basing. I used my new Gamers Grass Jungle Basing Kit for the tufts and used their guide - definitely think I overdid it a little, but that’s valuable information for the next one, right? I definitely learned a lot from doing this one - especially about NMM.
