With the Easter holidays fast approaching, it is nice to be able to plan out some welcome hobby projects. I have already based up some choice units for the Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers (more about them soon) and my McDeath project remains an ongoing concern.
But before I dive into those, I want to take a look at the humble battered Citadel figure - very much like the five you can see here today. It seems to me that a great deal of effort is put into the acquisition of near mint lead. I hear talk of 'perfect castings' and 'never painted' all of the time. I am sure that many collectors get a great deal of satisfaction from locating desirable miniatures in mint and near-mint condition.
Collecting things is a buzz after all. And I can honestly say that I have been guilty once or twice in the past of focusing a little too much on the rare or pristine stuff, especially when you consider that most classic Warhammer figures are in a pretty shoddy state indeed. Dented, squashed and hideously painted - models like this must exist everywhere and it seems for many, just not worth the effort to strip and reuse. They reside, like forgotten children, at the bottom of every grognard's leadpile - ignored and unloved.
I adore restoring them. Cleaning away the years of abuse, tending to their damaged limbs or weapons and finally painting them up so once again, they can be part of a display or game. Over the next few posts, I will be chronicling my efforts to breathe new life into these battered models. By Sunday, I hope to have all five of these models complete and ready for the table top.
An early Easter painting challenge if you will. But first, to strip them of decades of decadence and remove all of that clinging paint.
So, to the Dettol they must go!