Good news in the Simian household with the arrival of a box of weird stuff from my teenage years!
This was quite the thing. Collected (I think) from various stages of a garage tidy-up by my Dad, it's presumably passed through two houses since some of it was first packed away - and it shows. Things have got dusty, some a bit worse for wear over time, and even the moths have had a go (eek)
But amongst the old scout badges (of more later), and early modelling gear (again, later), a prize.
This dude:
Once again, this is a Grenadier model - one of a blister pack of four, including a fallen orc, goblin and thief/magic-user (I could never tell), which a scan of Miniatures Workshop tells me was Fantasy Lords release 110: 'Casualties'. I think this was an early purchase - 1984 or 1985, as the spread of subjects was probably economically attractive, and I was very keen on dioramas and dungeon dressing back then. He's clearly had a few paintjobs. Well, judging by the way he's laid out he may have just had a few. Here he is after an initial bath and scrub in Simple Green:
Those are enamel paints, so the soak might need to be a bit longer. It's telling that some of the colours here were the mainstays of my 'Humbrol Years' of model painting: there's a burgundy, for example, which was one of the few paints I purchased which wasn't a hangover from earlier WW2 model painting (of which more, etc) Underneath that, of course, is the white undercoat. These days I use black and work up to light, but I think for a novice painter it was a blessing - as was the enamel I used. Both worked really well for washes, and the paint jobs held impressively after years of being knocked around - as the bath above shows. At least I only have one side to clean.
So now all of my old minis are present and accounted for. I'm pleased as punch. Time to get painting!
