Restoring Jes Goodwin's Masterful Adeptus Sororitas Seraphim

Evening all,

After a particularly long and verbose staff meeting I was able to snatch a few moments in the workshop before the needs of MFM's hungry tummy arose. The mass of old figures inside my old miniatures box await repair, restoration and photographing and I was able to tinker with these figures a little. They had survived unscathed save from the odd bent support strut and a couple of detached backpacks. A little glue and red paint and they are good to go. 

And what figures they are!

Beautifully designed and joyfully, all metal castings. I've seen here and there that the mighty Jes Goodwin is retiring for GW after all these years. So it was poignant to return these to my collection. Such a skilled artist, especially with 40k and of course, the elves. It could easily be argued the Jes Goodwin was the greatest miniature sculptor of all time, especially in the 1980s. In metal at any rate. Though Kev Adams could also lift that crown for very different reasons.

Jes Goodwin's work is always very technically proficient. Plausible in a fantastic setting. His models have their own signature style. You can recognise his work instantly and his elves/eldar have never been bettered by anyone.

Nor will they. As we live in an age of multi-kit printed plastic which will eventually snap, crack or be crushed. These chunky metal classics are far more robust and likely to be around for centuries to come one way or another. 

   

My memories of painting these take me back to my days lodging in Braintree. I was a young teacher, single and in a new place. I had no friends in the local area and my colleagues were friendly, but far older than me. My weekends were mine to fill as I wished. I lavished an entire weekend over many of these figures. Painting numerous layers of Blood Red on the armour and carefully edge highlighting in orange. 

I can't remember if this was an official colour scheme I copied from WD or the Codex back in the day or one of my own invention. I have a few memories of creating my own background from the Witchunters Codex. But they are hazy after twenty odd years. 

I've got a whole army of Battle Sisters to repair and restore, including an inquisitor and retinue and a squad of Deathwatch marines. I fielded them only once in the GW store in Long Wire Street in Colchester just before I threw in the towel and went retro. This army took me over two years to paint and put together and the opponents on offer had lazy, undercoated models at best. It was all about the interpretation of the current codex and not the beauty of the setting and models. I feel that though these models have nothing to do with our regular content, you can appreciate them for what they are.

Masterpieces of miniature design.

I hope you readers share my love of the beauty of Jes Goodwin's metals. And that my paintwork has done them justice.

Orlygg

Converted Plague Marines based on Mk V Heresy Armour

 

Last post I spoke about my old GW figure case making it back to me. It was full of the models I painted during the Silver Age of GW. Paul Sawyer was editor of WD and the magazine had a real community feel with plenty of fluff, new releases and fresh ideas. I was hooked again. As we all know, it wouldn't last and I gave up on it all with the infamous 'Giant Issue' that totally lacked any substance at all. 

Modern GW is a British Success StoryTM but even I can see whoever runs the company is moving 40k further and further away from its source material. Imagine not realising that the Imperium aren't the good guys!!? Still, if you ever have an issue with GW in any era it is very simple to just focus on the period that best works for you. 

It is what I did.

These figures were my only serious attempt to convert models and kitbash properly. I worked on these around 2005 just after completing my first year as a teacher. I was working on a maternity leave in Peterborough and one of the staff members working there had all of the old catalogues. He told me that practically anything ever made could still be cast up. Like a fool, I opted for these old metal early '90s bodies to create a plague guard force. The keen eyed will know them as the original Mk V Heresy figure without arms.  Only these two were ever completed as I ended up chasing a different project altogether but it is fantastic to have these back. I sold the unused bodies off around that time. 

The arms and the weapons come from the old Chaos Marines plastic sprue that was available back then. The shoulder pads use the metal legion specific examples that were available back then. Typing these words, I realise I should have taken a side shot like I did with the Rogue Trader Chaplain. I sculpted distended bellies on both models and even curled a few entrails for good measure. The tubes and wires were made from bass guitar strings and fishing wire. Two marvellous materials that I really should gather again for future projects. 

A pin vice was used to drill out the holes on the body of the figure. I still have the very same tool in my workshop but with a single, miserable drill-bit remaining. Somehow it survived everything. You will be able to spot my attempts to recreate the three circular 'fly' symbol of Nurgle here and there as well as suggesting burst pustules and bullet holes.

During this time I was obsessed with painting with colour harmony and not using black at all. Looking back, I feel that these choices really help tie the figures together and give them a natural, battleworn look. I've flirted with this type of palette with a few of my more recent models but I'm not sure it would fit in with my '80s style 'Citadelesque' I've worked on all these years.

Only one way to find out I suppose. 

Rogue Trader Chaplain

 

It has been three weeks since I last posted. We've been busy with the house, dental woes (need a new mouthguard), Covid and the dreary English winter. Despite the relaxation and peace that can be found in my little workshop, the drizzling, soggy rain-soaked weather acted as a barrier to hobby time. 

We've had another round of electrical work done here too, so my workshop has a useful sensor light when I approach the door and MFM's parking space illuminates nicely when she swings in her beloved motor around the front of our property. We lost a week when he car's warning light came on and she dropped it off at the dealer... it took them some time to diagnose a corroded wire so much of my time last week was spent being her driver. 

Still from adversity comes opportunity. 

That opportunity was the ability to retrieve some old bits and bobs from my old life once again. No '80s glory but I did get back a large figure case of my miniatures from the early to mid 2000s. The Silver Age as it has become known. I got back into GW just after I graduated university in 2000. I walked into the Poole branch of GW which was then off Falkland Square. I fell in love with the Witchhunters models, largely off the back of my appreciation of Jes Goodwin's style. I'd spend the next couple of years collecting and painting up much of that range. 

It was those models that have made their way back to me. Among them was this lovely '80s Chaplain sculpted by Mark Copplestone and released in 1988. These classic Rogue Trader figures were advertised and discussed in my very first issue of White Dwarf... 108... and this model is very likely the sole surviving figure from the blister pack I bought during my early visits to Wonderworld in Bournemouth. 

I painted this figure up just after graduating and you may well notice a more modern style backpack being used for him. You have to remember, I put this figure together years before my Oldhammer adventures. I had no idea of the incredible things my little hobby would lead me yet. 

After twenty-five years he holds up well I think. If I painted this model today I'd no doubt spend a few more hours on the edge highlighting, using a lighter shade of grey. But I won't be touching this figure. He is a product of his time and his place in my life. I am glad he is back. From the '80s, to the early parts of this new millennium to 2026. In two years time, this little figure will have been with me (one way or another) for forty years! 

He will stay with me for however many more years I have left. 

The case he was stored in was one of those older GW plastic figure cases with the foam inserts. When I got the case back my heart sank as the hinge is badly damaged. Thankfully, the insides were untouched and were as I must have left them around 2011 before I sold off all my unpainted GW stuff and when full retro. Many of the models have been crushed, snapped and broken though. But only at the weaker edges where the glue has given way. I'll be spending the rest of this month restoring and photographing all the models, something I should have done with all my '80s material. I live in hope that if these old figures can make it back to me, my beloved '80s lead my also return one day. 

Orlygg 

The Final Day of Citadel: Nurglings

 

The festive season has drawn to a close. The decorations are down, the houselights switched off and up and down the country children are being bussled earlier into bed knowing that school starts again tomorrow. I managed fourteen painted figures in the end. A model for everyday of my holiday, though they were not painted in that way. I had the odd day off honest. Twelfth Night is tomorrow as well, and a suitable ending point for a Christmasy painting binge.

These classic little blighters need no introduction. I found these unfinished in one of the tatty boxes that were returned to me a few months back. I think I began work on this the year I did 'The Tale of the Four Oldhammer Gamers' with Paul, Steve and Chico. 

That was the best hobby group thing I ever did. 

Long time readers may well remember my small Nurgle Warband I created for the project. Somehow, these little creatures slipped through the net and never got to join their brethren of the boil. So it was fun to finish them at long last as testament to those glory days. 

Like a newb, I based all these figures before I started painting them (perhaps a factor while I gave up on them all those years ago...) so it was fiddly to reach the individual nurglings. The base was also a problem, my usual retro style far too green to work with these tiny models. I had also used GW sand from back in those days and it had loads of large stones dotted about. With hindsight, a more subtle level of sand would have been much better looking.

Still, they are finished. 

I hope you lot like them. 

Not sure when hobby time will rear its head again for me. Things will be full on again as of tomorrow. The electrician is due back to install lighting outside, we need to organise the initial works for the kitchen and my dental woes have returned to bring me down once again.

There are still so many models I want to get completed and I have that skeleton horde project to hopefully make progress on as well.

Orlygg

The Seventh Day of Citadel: C47 Ratman Skewer

It is a chill eve. 

After the sun fell, this enthusiast finally found time and inclination to wander down to his workshop to complete today's figure. The walk is becoming second nature to me now. A magical stroll past the large frozen pond at the foot of my garden, our neighbour's Christmas lights twinkling in the darkness. Distant lights reflect from the frosty surface as the ice hardens and spreads.

Soon to be over. 

The cold is interesting inside the workshop. It is almost too cold. By this I don't mean like a fridge or freezer. My workshop was long an abandoned place and on these chilly nights it seems to recall it's long period of silence. The small room is still and quiet most of the time with only the odd stray pigeon scratching across it's flat roof. The sound of their claws can be quiet unexpected and startling. Especially when in deep concentration.

Those footsteps remind me of the chittering hordes of Warhammer. The Ratmen. The Skaven. So it was just such a figure that I sought to complete tonight. 

Skewer is another one of those 1985 sculpts from the initial range. So early, that the name 'Skaven' was yet to be coined. The tag reads 'Ratman'. And a rat-man he is. I always liked the subtlety of the skaven, and chaos, in the 1980s version of Warhammer. They were both secret forces working to destroy society from within, without and of course, in terms of the skaven, below. According to the fluff, these creatures didn't exist and were just tall tales to be spun on frosty nights.

Secrecy and denial played right into the hands of the skaven back then. The old lore was well conceived and dark. Unconcerned by social justice or virtue signaling. 

I used pretty much the same methods and I did with Warpeye. Only instead of green I opted for a blood red shock when it came to the tattered clothing. This red was simple: Blood Red washed with Brown Ink, Highlighted with Hobgoblin Orange and Sunburst Yellow. 

The shield uses the same colours to match the rest of the paintjob. I found this added some coherency. I also didn't have much space to work with for a classic freehand design so its just as series of lines. It seems to work, at least to me. I see it as a looted shield from some forgotten storeroom.

The skaven were supposed to be scavengers. 

It grew late. Dark and cold. I took these three pictures before retiring to the warmth of the house. My workshop is a spooky place late at night. Those of you who enjoy the BBC podcast 'Uncanny' may have recently listened to the 'Priest Hole' episode. 1980s Warhammer plays a role in a terrifying tale of a teenager boy's encounter with a supernatural force. 

Search it out if you haven't heard of it...

All alone in my workshop it is easy to imagine spectral powers at work. Did I really place that paint pot there? Did I really fold up the grey piece of card I use as a photographic background?

What are those scratching noises on the roof?

Is it the roof?

The walls then...

Orlygg

 

The Sixth Day of Citadel: C07 Bounty Hunter

 

On the first day of a new year it is pleasant to wander beneath the stars down to your workshop. The sky was clear and the air chill. Stars, in there thousands, speckled the sky while the glowing, shimmering moon hung high. 

A beautiful sight. 

This bounty hunter was not a beautiful sight at all. Not good, not bad, but rather ugly. The slotta base was missing, one foot damaged while most of the crossbow at his hip was absent. To top all of this, he is another one of those dreadful pewtery casts from the mid '80s where the detail distorts and rubs away. 

All in all, he was a figure with no name. And no hope.

Thanks to a little green stuff and a lot of paint he lives to hunt again. Doesn't his visage grace a piece of art in the Enemy Within campaign, or was it the WFRP rulebook? I can't quite remember. Repairing him took me every which way but loose.

I tried to keep the colour scheme as brown as possible here, as a nod to Clint Eastwood's numerable Westerns (spaghetti or not) that clearly influenced this figures design. I didn't have long to finish him either, as MFM required me for telly watching. In fact, I am needed even as I type these letters. 

I'm satisfied with the paint job. I'm sure to go back and tweak bits here and there when I have more time, especially on the glowing cigar. Ultimately, this morning he was in a shocking state and now he drifts the high plains once more.

Perhaps I should hunt out another one of these figures, in better condition. But he will probably cost a few dollars more.

Orlygg

The Fifth Day of Citadel: C47 Skaven Command Warpeye

 

This post brings us to the end of 2025. Who would have thought a year ago I would be typing these words after a (fairly) busy year of Citadel hobbying. I'll avoid the usual retrospective just yet, it hasn't quite been a year of miniature painting as my first figure in many years was finished on the 20th of January. I'll wait to then to compare my first and latest model.

Fingers crossed I get there. 

For I have been deep in the dank sewers of my workshop trying to restore some really manky ratmen. I've cleaned most of them up and chose the figure you can see here, Warpeye, as the first one to complete. He was a challenging paint for many reasons. I've never been successful with these models, beautiful as they are. I've never felt able to do the models justice which was why I endeavoured to clean up and paint the small stash I have been given. 

Look at the state of them. I'm not sure what the muck is but it is very hard to shift. I had to use Dettol overnight to script the paint and acetone to shift the brown 'crust' adhering to the surface. A good brushing with some washing up liquid brought the models up to their best but much of the surface detail is worn down. They remind me of models that have been in a box or draw for decades and thoroughly bashed around, not that I have ever inflicted that on a miniature - honest.

The casting is also weak. All the models in this little donation are clearly from the mid '80s when the lead ran out and far too much pewter was in the mix. They are tinny and brittle which is why the detail has suffered so much I suspect. 

Beggars cannot be choosers. I have little choice but to restore other people's unwanteds. Not that I am complaining of course, I quite enjoy restoring these battered old figures and giving them a new purpose. 

Cleaned up and base coated they look okay but I've been finding it quite daunting to interpret exactly what the battered pieces of detail actually are. I have another three or four figures from the early skaven range on the desk at the moment so look out for them in the coming days. 

If any of you have any skaven related painting tips I'd love to hear them, Especially around my pet hate, getting the fur to look like actual fur. 

Warpeye was simple colourwise. I used Bestial Brown from the fur, my own Blood Red and Bronze Flesh mix for the skin on the hands, tail, face and feet. I went for the archaic bronze look I used with Daethskar for much of the metal work and Mithtril Silver, shaded with Black for the iron elements. I discovered some random green that I don't recognise from any of the Citadel sets in my stash of paints and used that for the filthy loincloth, highlighted as always with Bleached Bone. Not that you can see in the picture, but the eyes are bright red pupils. 

What do you guys think? 

I hope I've brought him back to life at least. Nothing worse than one of these precious old figures lanquishing unloved and unpainted any in some miserable place. 

There were couple more figures in this donation unrelated to their ratty friends. I've also been working on those so it is anyone's guess what whimsey will take the next time I wander down to the workshop and paint. 

Until than... Happy New Year...

Orlygg