One of my all-time favourite monsters is lizard people. They're classic villains, deceptive and insidious, deathly fatalistic, and they fit neatly into fantasy, modern settings, and sci-fi. For that reason, it's no surprise that when I was in the market for an alien army to add to my roleplaying and wargames, I searched first for lizard people. What I found was one of Wargames Atlantic's best model kits, the Lizardmen. This is my review of the product.
I was introduced to the concept of lizard people, in a roundabout way, through a TV miniseries called V. To date, I've never seen V but I remember as a kid seeing commercials or lunchboxes or something, so I vaguely knew that there was a sci-fi universe out there with lizards wearing human disguises in order to invade and dominate Earth. What a great concept. Later, I discovered the D&D module Danger at Dunwater, which made lizardfolk into something far more nuanced than the brutish orc or the chaotic goblins. After I started hearing the hilarious conspiracy theories about reptilians, I knew that lizard people had burrowed deep into the collective unconsciousness the way vampires and zombies had. Lizard people are a classic villain that may not ever be top of mind for most people, but they're always there, lurking in the background, hidden away in plain sight. And they were the perfect choice for my alien faction, but also a great choice for fantasy games too.
Essential options
The great thing about the Lizardmen kit is that it provides 24 models (8 sprues, 3 poses) plus options to build them as fantasy models with spears and swords or as steampunk models with rifles or as modern threats armed with machine guns! Yes, in one box you get options for 3 settings, and that's amazing.
Admittedly, this flexibility comes at the expense of variety. Because you have options for 3 different settings, there's less variety within each setting. If you choose to build 24 models just for a single setting, then you're building 3 sets of 8 identical models. There are a few head options, though, and just enough parts and greeblies to allow for a little distinction among your troops.
No kitbashing or customisation
The lizardmen kit is part of Wargames Atlantic's Classic Fantasy product line. Don't let that fool you, the scale of Wargames Atlantic models have no consistency from kit to kit, so just think of this as a self-contained model kit. It's visually representative of lizard people, but may not represent the actual scale of lizard people compared to other models.
Off-hand, I don't think Wargames Atlantic has the product line to support kitbashing lizard people models. The arms are tiny, and the only thing that comes close to being the right size are some of the arms from female sets like Cannon Fodder 2. I don't know what parts you'd use, though, because the lizard models have very distinct hands and bare arms. I was able to re-purpose some greeblies, but mostly this is a self-contained kit that's not sized correctly for compatibility with anything else that Wargames Atlantic sells, and it's the only lizard people set Wargames Atlantic offers.
In other words, don't get this for its potential, just get it because it's a good set of lizard people.
Building
Building the kit has the usual problems that come of Wargames Atlantic's lack of documentation or transparency. However, it does have the advantage of not offering many options, so there are fewer ways than usual for you to get confused. After a little experimentation, I managed to get the models built to a consistent standard.
There are some pretty noticeable seams in the models. The body and legs are one solid piece of plastic, so there are no seams there, but the head, tail, and arms are separate. There's a seam where the head and arms attach, but the tail seam is cleverly disguised by clever placement of some scales. After painting, I found it easy to sublimate the seams by interpreting them as creases or folds in flesh, but if you're bothered by seams in what's meant to be a single organic material, then you should have some liquid green stuff on hand.
Painting
These little guys were a pleasure to paint. I primed them green, gave them a base coat of Orc Flesh (Vallejo Xpress Color), painted leather straps and weapons with Cygor Brown (Citadel Contrast), painted loin clothes with Skeleton Horde (Citadel Contrast), and I was done. It took maybe a day, and much of that was just because I had to wait for paint to dry.
Must-have models
For the games I play, these lizard people are an essential kit. I've got a Danger at Dunwater adventure coming up soon, a Conan the Barbarian campaign using primarily Mansions of Madness: Path of the Serpent miniatures plus these lizardfolk, a Broken Legion game that could use lizardfolk, and a Warhammer 40,000 campaign that needed a unit of Kroot. This box covers all of that. If you need lizard people, get a box for yourself. Better yet, get 2 boxes. In my review of Ooh Rah, I said that it was destined to be a classic Wargames Atlantic kit. Lizardmen is another future classic.
Photos licensed Creative Commons Zero.