Out with the New, in with the Old

Seeing Stylus's recent updating of his Savage Orcs got me mulling over some of my own previous painting crimes. I'd also run out of new models to paint (and hobby budget for the year), so I went through some of my old ice cream tubs to see what was stashed away in them.

These are the very first lead miniatures I ever bought. The minotaur is the actual first, from GW Preston (never lived there, long story), and although his paint job had been touched up a few years back, he'd had a recent run-in with my three-year-old nephew. Varnish proved insufficient to protect him from a few chips, given that said nephew rolls not dice but actual minis. After conclusively proving that he could beat a giant scorpion in a fight (the scorpion fell to pieces first), he was on the list.

I think my basing was supposed to represent stable sweepings on a dungeon floor.

The old Spawn of Tsathoggua needed basing at the very least, because it's my second favourite spawn and I'd like to be able to field it. Assuming I ever make it back to another game of anything ever, that is. I also figured I could do a bit better than the original job, not least because it had suffered from a dodgy coat of opaque varnish.

Purple Spaghetti

This troll used to be one of two, good old Marauder '80s leads. The other had a splintered tree club, but got snapped into several pieces some years ago, and the fairly thin ankles and wrists were beyond my repair skills. I don't know where the bits went, but I think they're long gone now, so this bereaved chap clearly needed redoing.

He was fully armoured, but he ate the rest of it.

And these two, these splendid Marauder Ogres that saw such repeated use in our Firetop DnD campaign as anything Large, these were, well, is 'seminal' a kind enough word? The second one was actually done by my brother Tom. Neat enough, just very unfinished looking.

Enough with the before shots - after a fairly swift three sessions of painting over the last week (minimal undercoating needed, all the base colours pretty much there already and I rush everything), I'm done. Everything could now find its way into a WoC list at some point, too, which is another reason I chose it all!

Aww, mum, I can't believe you made me wear this.

All these years, I honestly thought that was a feather in his cap.

Another transformation - under the old gunmetal enamel,
I'd somehow never noticed this guy's right arm was in slashed lace.

These two are my favourites out of this job lot. Mostly because I'd never really seen what good sculpts they are before, thanks to the lousy coats they had on. They're a bit stunted compared to modern gutlords, but as Imperial Ogres from a bygone era, they still great looking models with a lot of character. 

Put a shirt on, wait outside the palace and look menacing, he said. So I said to him, I said...

From a certain angle, he looks a bit like Ronnie Barker. 

Not this angle. 

Lastly the spawn.

Spawn models teeter a fine line between 'silly mutant' and 'pile of spikes', but almost all of them do look more or less like a viable creature. This thing looks much more like an explosion in an abattoir than it did formerly. It might not live long, but it'll give the bloke whose neighbour it's just erupted out of the screaming ab-dabs for a lot longer.

Although all of us actually have one of these just over the aortic arch.