Heroes Miniatures Giant Lion headed demon, plus lead rot and a little more...

 

Due to the keen eyes of a good hobby friend (thanks Vincent) I now have a copy of the above mentioned Heroes Miniatures A1 Giant Lion headed demon, sculpted by the maestro of old school himself, Tony Yates. The Adversary range is a misc bunch of fantasy goodness. Still a few to id as yet though...

http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Adversary_Figures

On to the pics... as is Tony's style, he is a hefty hunk of metal, approximately 50mm in height.

Another sorry piece of Citadel history turned up... this old C30 Amazon Koka-Kolim (striking with blow-pipe or clubber, depending on which reference material you read). She is beyond saving unfortunately and will join the few pieces I have sent to that lead bin in the sky...

Another lovely piece turned up in this lot, an old Chaz Elliott sculpt for the Clarecraft Discworld range, DM09 (Captain) Carrot. The rest of the range can be seen here. This one is in the original white metal, much preferable to the later polished pewter of which I have a number of examples. I've painted the Luggage and Rincewind but they seem to have gone into hiding... I've had to use my poor pics off the Lost Minis WIKI so they are below...

More posts coming soon folks... I've been too quiet for too long. Don't forget to become a Politico (top left, grow the lead revolution please) or even hit The Little Soldier Company banner at the top and pick up some pieces... 

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Lead Rot rears its ugly head.......again....

Today's project (day off, woke up early, got up early) was to be finishing off a bunch of old Citadel Medieval archers from back in the day....1982 to be precise. Good old Citadel lead. I based and undercoated these about 8 years ago...possibly longer and have recently been following a painter (George Hatzopoulos) doing incredible work with some Claymore Castings French Medievals.....(pics borrowed off his Facebook page).....I was enthused!

Whilst I am not in George's league, I do enjoy my painting and was looking forward to some production line technique in order to get a bunch completed........imagine my surprise when I was faced with this.....

When I tried to clean them up it became obvious they were beyond saving....the undercoat had not protected them from moisture or acid vapour from the wooden drawer? Maybe I'd used PVA adhesive to attach them to the bases - PVA contains vinegar I believe - or even using the DIY filler for groundwork as that contains PVA. Who knows........the jury is out on the cause of the 'rot' and I have read many interesting articles / debates on how to prevent / restore etc. Suffice to say I knew these poor castings were beyond redemption......each scrape of the knife let loose a plume of lead (carbonate?) dust......not something to be taken lightly. 

The offending drawer.............it has featured in a previous post on the same subject so I will be losing these drawers forthwith.....

http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/2013/06/lead-rot-i-am-cursed.html

and grouped ready for the ultimate dismissal.....

Fortunately Wargames Foundry have them all re-released in fine new metal here (sample pic borrowed off their site for illustrative purposes only!)

I shall now go and make a cup of tea and then return to the mess that is my painting table......

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Lead Rot - I am cursed.........................

Years ago I read an article against putting lead in wooden cabinets - it warned against Oak and Walnut due to the acidic nature of fumes...more details once I have found the link. I have a bunch of IKEA wooden drawer cabinets - all pine and I had thought they would be safe. I have just gone looking for some half painted Empire of the Petal Throne figuress and decided to take a pic of some half painted (get the behaviour patterns here?) Heritage Lord of the rings Orcs when I noticed 'fluffy' bubbling paint and cracked bases....also the penny coins on some EPT minis have a discolouration due to oxidisation....a heck of a warning. Check out the pics and be afraid, be very afraid......

Citadel 80s Medievals with the paint bubbling up all around especially on the raised areas.....the quality of lead alloy they used was occasionally atrocious to begin with.... 

The offending storage drawer......old Citadel 'grey lead' medievals from the early 80s....

Note the verdigris on the pennies.....the figures appeared unaffected so far....this is a time bomb....

Thought I would take a few pics of various, mainly Citadel figs to show the discoloration of the various alloys used....these plastic drawers were the ones we used in Games Workshop in the early 80s to store the loose lead......I got given a bunch of them after the store was revamped for blisters.....a sad time for all.

Citadel (plus a couple other make) Medievals

Citadel Slann

Aly Morrison Hobgoblins

Citadel Perry Hobgoblins

Citadel C04 Thieves

Ral Partha Tom Meier CS series Elves

Citadel C series Amazons

There was an excellent lead rot article some years ago on this nautical archeology website http://nautarch.tamu.edu unfortunately my bookmarked link is no longer valid so you will have to search!