Going Back To Abandoned Models…

I managed to grab a decent amount of painting time this weekend, but didn't fancy painting any Malifaux. I've been reading through the Warmachine and Hordes rulebooks that I have on my shelf and decided to dig out my old Mercenaries starter models (above) that never got finished.

Unfortunately, aside from Magnus the Traitor above with the rest of the crew as a blurry background, I have no photos of how they used to look so you'll have to trust me. The Heavy Mangler Warjack especially was only half-painted.

Anyway, I spent Saturday afternoon repainting the Mangler's armour from scratch (for the simple reason that I couldn't remember which paints I'd used all those years ago!). I took the highlights much brighter that previously – I used to paint so subtly that unless you had the thing in your hand you couldn't see any highlights at all.

I then moved onto the Light Warjacks and highlighted their already established armour to match the big guy. I also went back and repainted the bases on the entire crew.

Finally it was Magnus's turn, although to be fair he didn't need much doing. I added some highlights and shadows to his cloak and some bits to his sword then repainted his base. The crew still needs some work – details still not painted – but they're in much better shape than they were. Once I've finished the details I can give them a matt varnish and get rid of the shiny ink look.

Overnight I got to thinking about the stack of (now sadly OOP) Rackham miniatures that are in the same case as the Warmachine Mercenaries – in particular the three larger Hybrids.

This guy came with the Hybrid boxed game and is one of my favourite models…ever!

As you can see above, back when I was painting these guys I coated them in Boltgun metal and drowned them in Black and Brown inks. Had I continued they would have got a quick drybrush and the flesh treated in a similar fashion – it was all about the gaming and not the painting.

I sat down this afternoon and gave the flesh some TLC to get it into decent shape and salvage such a precious miniature. The detail is exquisite and, whilst I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked, it's coming along nicely.

I wouldn't consider any of these models my best painting but I have really enjoyed the time spent getting them into shape. Problem is there is a whole lot more where they came from and, with Salute 2012 looming, they are about to be joined by another truckload!