In an earlier post I talked about a great deal I got on a Games Workshop miniature case that I desperately needed for more LOTR figgures... It came full of troops... most I didn't need or want and they all made it to and got sold at one of the HMGS conventions flea market sessions.
Well, some of the figures that I held on to were a batch of what appeared to be a Mordheim Reiklander warband. It was made from one of the newer Empire Militia box sets and other bits. It was not completely painted and, was pretty sloppy. I liked the look that the original owner was trying to achieve. The warband had seen some action for sure, so they were played and loved and like all things you buy second hand... they were now someone's broken dreams come to be made anew. As I already have well over 200 Mordheim figures as it is, I knew these would not be mine for the keeping. I would rework them and sell them.
I could tell that these were painted with predominantly all GW paints. The colors were right. I had a lot of straightening to do with lines and over-paint. I even found areas that lacked paint completely on the finished models. I was surprised that the figures were just painted and never primed! This was evident by the partially painted great swordsman and the unpainted bits I saw in the recesses on the other models. One thing I at least give the original painter a lot of credit for was that he/she at least tried to and painted the figures eyes.... This isn't something I take lightly... I suck and very rarely paint eyes. I need to go to an HMGS class at Hobby U and learn how to do this.. it is on my bucket list.
The first thing I did was go through and base coat all of the flesh on the figures, this cleaned up the edges and got rid of the horrible over-paint on the eyes. I then straightened all of the lines. This was mostly where the red and white lined up. I tried to use the same paints I thought the original artist used. Once everything was blocked out again, I went in and just made the paint smoother. It wasn't chunky, it was just thin in some places and just didn't look right. The white took many coats to clean up. The over-paint on everything was fairly straight forward. I went in and just made stuff look right, using the same colors as were originally used. I also used the IWM steel to go back and repaint a bit of the armor and weapons.... the GW shining silver is a highlight paint to me, not a base coat.... I really hate very shiny metal!
I went on to add in some highlights and never really came to terms with repainting the feathers other than white. I had a lot of ideas, but opted to let the new owner choose their own colors. I cleaned up the plumage and painted them white. One of the hardest things about doing repaints... IF you don't choose to strip the models.... is making sure you don't get buildup and a loss of detail. I was very careful and kept using very thin coats to get the clean up work done. The end result was fairly nice.
The last thing that was done was to rework the bases. I added in more flock and gravel, some grass tufts to bring them all together and then repainted the base edges and exposed top parts. The group now looks like a unit and is ready for the flea market at a good price!
I added in the last photo as a lead in to my next post and a bit of logic as to why I wound up getting these guys reworked finally. With HMGS Cold Wars 19 around the corner, I found myself lacking in a lot to sell in the flea market... AND... I believe that we are playing our regular Mordheim league at the show.... The two crossbow men are part of a henchmen group for my Reiklander warband and the guys have been giving me a lot of crap about having one that was unpainted.... So, I had to get him painted before the show and possible game.... along with the humiliation and teasing that would ensue if I showed up and he still wasn't painted yet. The guy I had to paint is the one in front... I pulled the other out so I could match them up.... The one in back was painted over 10 years ago. If you look closely, you can in the back left of the picture a part of what will be my new Reiklander captain.... he is an Empire hero and I bought him in "finecast"..... I hate that stuff, but I couldn't find the white metal version of him.
The six dwarfs on the right, well.. more Lord of the Rings Strategy battle stuff. These are the metal ones I picked up in a flea market deal at HMGS Historicon 18. There are 6 of them.. archers that is.... I am wondering why I took the picture of 5 archers and the ranger dwarf I was using as a template....??? All six are painted and I am working on Dwarf rangers now... I know I posted them all to FB and such.... I wonder where that 6th guy was when I took that pic.
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