A Rough Month in the Warhammer Cottage

One of the example cottages from White Dwarf 130. It is well worth tracking down these old mags if you are just using pdfs like I once did. There is nothing like the original article for inspiration. 

"So you got it then," the older lad asked. He towered over me, rucksack slung over his shirted shoulder while his blazered buddy lingered alongside. These were older boys, from the Upper School and the speaker was the brother of one of my classmates. Normally, such lofty beings wouldn't have deemed to talk to an underling such as myself. Year 8s didn't exist to lofty highschoolers. Even when we walked carefully past their bedrooms when visiting our contemporaries' own rooms. They listened to music we didn't know, read Q magazine and talked to girls. 

Now one was addressing me directly and was pretty impatient about it too. 

The reason was simple. My mum was matron at the local hospital and had access to something pretty distant for a youth in the dawn of the '90s. 

A photocopier.

It was September 1990 and we hadn't long been back at school. White Dwarf had just been published and everyone was talking about it. The Warhammer Cottage. The trouble was that the plans needed enlarging unless you fancied adding an additional 33% to the measurements which seemed too fiddly for most. Even the two Upper School boys I now stood in front of. I only knew the speaker. His name was Daniel and he was the brother of my classmate Moley. Daniel was an avid WFRPer, a system that I was then largely unfamiliar with, preferring to play endless games of Blood Bowl with his brother. 

My Dad had taught me to build the Warhammer Cottage the previous weekend, though instead of foamboard we had used plasticard. I'd learnt how to measure, cut and apply balsa wood, to cut out the tiles for the roof, to rough up the flat surfaces with Polyfilla and attempted to paint the thing with enamels, my father's preferred paint. This act had made me a god amongst boys when I'd taken it to school the following Monday and word quickly spread. 

It is hard to explain the impact of the Warhammer Cottage if you weren't there. It was the first time White Dwarf showed you how to do something (at least while I had been reading it) in a step by step fashion. These days we all know of the terrain guides that were published, the suggestions in later editions of WHFB and 40k and the Youtube videos of today. Making scenery has never been easier, even if most of it consists of identikit plastic sprues and lasercut kits. Not so in 1990. We were all fascinated by what we had seen and read and with a little luck, we even had all of the materials at home to begin work. 

You know, I can still feel the awe when looking at this page. The thrill is still there and the need to build my own version of this simple, little model. A great choice of build to inspire thousands of young gamers back in the day. Top work Dave and Phil! 

In my school bag were multiple copies of page 58 of White Dwarf 130, enlarged by 133%. This was the holy grail as we had been taught to lay the plan over foamboard and use pins to create holes. The magazine even included handy blue spots to guide our hands. These holes could then be joined up with a ruler and then cut out. Once the basic shape was there it was really easy to stick the embryonic building together with Copydex, PVA or Cowgum. Then an old box of Frosties could become the roof and matchsticks the woodwork. Sand or cat litter (unused I hope) would give texture and then it was a case of breaking out the Citadel Colour (RIP by the way 1986-2026) or Monster Paint Sets and bringing it to life. 

Daniel and his mate took his copy and swiftly departed. My relevance extinguished. A bit later, he would return the favour and hand me a battered paperback copy of WHRP, which I still own to this day. He'd upgraded to the hardback. The other copies went to eager friends, desperate to ape my build and produce something for their own games at home.

I've never forgotten the excitement of those early builds. The Warhammer Cottage has stayed with me ever since. Perhaps only the Mighty Fortress or Warhammer Townscape hold similar significance. Both of those needed to be paid for mind you, the Warhammer Cottage gave us the opportunity to create something for our games without spending any real money. Always a boon for a '80s kid making his way through this new decade. I was too young to remember the 1970s but I'd completed the '80s and now the 1990s beckoned. Zzap64, the Amiga 500, Monkey Island, Resident Evil, Britpop was all ahead of us. They've all faded somewhat now, but the Warhammer Cottage has stayed with me. I've built many versions through the years, often from memory. I've used the plans with school children for the Great Fire of London, for DT club and so on. From me spread forth numerous Warhammer Cottages even if those doing the building might not have realised. 

My sorry collection of models. Unloved but not forgotten. After months lounging in my workshop it was time to bring them back to life. 

It had been a bittersweet moment and few months back when I received a few surviving models back. Mistreated and ill stored, they were in a sorry state but I was loathed to dispose of them. These were the Warhammer Cottage after all. The pinnacle of boyhood crafting, though sadly none of them were that old. The earliest build is the model front left with the grey roof. This was made from memory before I got my hands on another copy of WD130. The dimensions were slightly off, and the beam placement rather unusual but it is the Cottage through and through, though you can see that I got the window, door and chimney the wrong way around. Like that first model, this one was made from plasticard and cereal box cardbaord. I even took the trouble to glue sand to the walls to create texture and individually placed stones into Milliput to create the cobbles which surround it. The next model to be built was the postcard perfect example front right. Made from the plans in WD130 for this blog many moons ago. The building behind with the blue roof was also constructed shortly after and both cottages saw action at Foundry over the years. The larger one never got further than being undercoated in black. 

What is probably harder to see here is the dust, cobwebs, mould and damage that only having been dumped in a shed for some years could inflict. In cleaning the models up, further damage was dealt, especially on that grey roof. 

Another example piece from White Dwarf 130. This was the one that encouraged me to do different coloured titles. I seem to have gone a bit OTT with the look but I think it adds character. 

After interviewing Wayne last post, I've been thinking about that impossible dream... the spectacular gaming table and of his remarkable scenery. Surely I could do something similar? I've been busy restoring old figures and models from yesteryear so why not the classic Cottage? They would be the first step in creating a decent set up for the models I hope one day to have. Of course, I'm keen to explore this 'Citadelesque' aesthetic I've been waffling about in greater depth and any gaming table I produce would need to be in keeping with the source material. Like something from the back page of White Dwarf in our era or, dare I say it, the first few pages of WFB3. 

So I have been busy over the last few weeks repairing and restoring my surviving models and I feel like I have learnt a great deal, especially about drybrushing and colour harmony. The roofs are now secure, walls patched and woodwork joined. I've added new details, and save the grey-roofed model all of these pieces have been totally repainted. 

Shall we have a look?

And here they are completed. After the refurbishment, MFM even said she'd have one on display in the lounge with her other ornaments - the ultimate praise any enthusiast can receive, surely!?

I hope you like what you see. And that the models are worthy of gracing a gaming table that hopes to replicate Wayne's classic. Starting with the bottom left, you can see that the original Warhammer Cottage boasts a new colour scheme. I am not sure that the blue look works with a pure '80s approach. Searching the internet for other people's attempts (go on, try it is wonderful to see our enthusiasts' attempts) it seemed to me that blue was the go-to colour, perhaps because that ghastly GW house released about 15 years ago sported the same shade. Who knows! I switched that out and played around with some different looks to see what worked for me. 

So from the bottom left, the first cottage's roof was based in Terracotta and drybrushed with Bleached Bone. Getting the angle and amount of painted loaded on the brush took time to acquire so I repainted the basecoat more than once. I picked out the edges of the tiles with Skull White too. Bottom right looks a bit Lilliput Lane now but I'm rather taken by the hotch-potch of shades here. It has a fantasy look about it without being to over the top. This was achieved again with a terracotta base followed by a heavy Hobgoblin Orange drybrush and a tickle or two of Bleached Bone and White. I went back and mixed up various greys and browns and added plenty of water to them. I washed these tones over the bricks and tiles to create subtle differences in colour to try and stop the models looking to uniform. The 'Citadelesque' Warhammer World is a lived-in place, and its inhabitants know nothing of Chaos, or Ratman or the dark dangers of the warp. The people's lived are based on rural reality and I wanted that to show in the colour choices. The final one, back right, was actually the easiest. Ghoul Grey mixed with a little black, followed with a Bleached Bone drybrush and a tickle of Skull White. Roofs are everything on these models and it is worth the time investing in them. 

Let's have a closer look at each model. 

Up close and personal with the Warhammer Cottage. I kept the windows black. I've seen some with handpainted leaded glass which look fantastic. Something to try when I build new models from scratch. 

The walls are painted Skull White, washed over with Orc Brown and then repainted white. I blobbed on the paint in a fairly liberal way as the limewash often is on the old buildings of Essex where I live. The woodwork was just Chaos Black drybrushed over with white. This aged the wood more than using Bleached Bone and added to the tumbledown but someone-still -lives-here feel. I was hesitant about using washes but dotted a few green glazes here and there on this model along with adding the flock and foliage clumps around the base. Less is more with this, obviously.

The window here has a sculpted rag curtain. This was just greenstuff painted brown. I added a little doormat back in the day, so I gave that detail some fresh paint. Just needs an empty milk bottle. 

This second model needed a roof replacement. I originally used the same technique on the roof as the previous model but the colours didn't gel. I went for slate grey instead like some of the other models in WD130. It is my preferred colour out of all of the examples I've tried out so far, but variety is the spice of life and all of that. I did little else to this model save a light white drybrush over the walls and the woodwork. Obviously, I added some fresh flock to the roof as well. 

You can see I've got a lot more adventurous with my colour choices now. The chimney pots are all made from the tubes that cover paint brushes when you buy them. I simply snipped them with a pair of kitchen scissors and painted them Terracotta, drybrushed them with Hobgoblin Orange and highlighted with Bleached Bone. 

I was in my stride by the time I started work on this third model. You'll see the original Warhammer Cottage is here and I just added an extension of my own devising. With hindsight, I should have made the roof slope down a little more but we can live with such imperfections. Perhaps the citizen of the Empire who built it was a shoddy builder? You might notice that I sculpted some greenstuff flagstones years ago and I kept them in place as a little bit of character detail. 

In my haste, I forgot to paint the edge of the plasticard black, sorry!

Finally, the big boy is finished. I think it was well over ten years in the making. But the double extended Warhammer Cottage is as of today finished. I'm most pleased with this one as my skills at painting houses has improved considerably. I am also really pleased with the tones on the wooden extension. This was really simple to achieve too. Bestial Brown, drybrushed over with Orc Brown, then Bleached Bone and a tickle of Skull White. The metalwork on all of the doors was just Mithril Silver washed over with a dark brown wash. 

Looking back, I've had some wonderful evenings bringing these models back to life. I hope you like them as much as I do. I'm certainly keen to try some of the other articles that Dave Andrews and Phil Lewis put out around this time. I am sure that many of you will be familiar with those projects. I wonder how many of you dear readers created your own Warhhamer Cottages back in 1990. Anyone have any fond memories of their own endeavours? 

I plan plenty more scenery pieces (they are much easier to build and paint than tiny 28mm minis) so if you are an expert in these matters and see any glaring mistakes that will only dawn on me in the months to come, please let me know. Any old scenery tips gratefully received. 

Those of you who love WHFRP first edition should have got the little joke I had with the title too. 

Until we next meet, 

Orlygg

 

Every Gamer's Dream: An interview with Wayne 'The Duke' Millard

The later part of the 1980s saw an explosion of fantasy inspired fare. From He-Man to Knightmare, British screens were packed with imagery of the stalwart champion, the muscular barbarian and the seductive sorceress. Fantastic characters graced the covers of numerous magazines, often airbrushed to '80s perfection by the likes of Oli Frey. 

Michael Van Wijk, who would become Wolf from Gladiators in the next decade, postered menacingly on the cover of 1987's Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior on my C64. Maria Whittaker at his feet. Like many kids in the 1980s, we knew the Page 3 girls just as we did the popstars of the era. Pop Culture of the time wasn't safe or sanitised. Part of the appeal of White Dwarf and Warhammer was that it chiselled into that zeitgeist and seemed dangerous. 

That danger was part of the appeal. Especially for the generations of young people who had only four channels and limited access to kids TV. We made our own entertainment and Warhammer was a fantastic way to express all those craft and art skills we had. The entry was often White Dwarf... plucked off the shelf by an intrigued youth fascinated by the imagery on the cover. Devouring the magazine many times over would lead you to a fantasy shop, or if you were lucky one of the official GW stores that were opening around the country. Then the difficult choice of what system to play. In the era before the big box game model became dominant the choice was often between several rulebooks. And picking up Warhammer Third Edition would have introduced you to today's subject: Wayne 'Duke' Millard. For it was he that put together the incredible scenery that has inspired thousands of enthusiasts to dream every gamers dream... a spectacular gaming table. 

Wayne's work is still outstanding today. In a world of flat, characterless battlefields packed with generic plastic scenery kept simple these images stand out as a lively, believable world. A place were monstrous horrors could lurk. Where terror could be made real. Clip out plastic sets up don't give that feeling. They are nondescript. Lifeless. Wayne's work tells a story. The cut and thrust of the battles we imagined fighting were made plain. What helps are the wonderful models of the time. All of them little miniature characters with their own personalities.  Overdetailed plastic kits can never share the same dynamism or immediacy.  

Those of us who lived this era poured over the pages of the rulebooks, magazines and supplements absorbing every last detail. Wayne's work set an almost impossible standard that so many of us strove to emulate. Over our pool and snooker tables. Over green mats and card playing tables. Pockets full of lichen scraped from the rocks and trees of our immediate environment became our hedges. Dirt from the garden became our fields and furrows. Sticks with the odd leaf our trees and forests. Matchsticks glued haphazardly together became our fences. In our minds were were going to recreate Wayne's epic work. We failed miserably, and we still fail to this day. Every gamer's dream. The third army. Call it what you will. A beautiful and detailed set up is the dream of us all. 

The incredibly talented and prolific Fimm McCool, also known as Geoff, led the charge recreating this famous set up for BOYL last year. This was one of my favourite Oldhammer endeavours ever. A sizable crew of enthusiasts organised themselves to recreate this famous set up and play a scenario based on these iconic WFB3 images. Geoff's blog is packed with great models and has some excellent pictures of their labour of love which he called the 'Big Orange Book Battle'. 

Here's a shot from his blog for comparison complete with nods to many of the original figures from that most famous of gaming tables. Geoff contacted Wayne for details about how best to reconstruct the Monastery seen at the far back here. Such was his passion for the project, ensuring as much of the original set up could be depicted last August. Thrud and the Townscape lavatory even make an appearance. Do yourself a favour and click the link above if you haven't seen this wonderful project. 

I got talking to Wayne online the other day when he shared some of his photographs. I was immediately intrigued by another name from Warhammer's epic past and sent him a message. Clearly a humble fellow, he seemed reluctant to chat at first considering his contribution too small or limited to be of interest. I am sure you will all agree this is very much not the case. We got chatting further and he began to open up a little of his memories of his involvement with WFB3 and wargaming in general. My old desire to ask questions and soak up as much history from our chosen period rose again and this post is the result. 

RoC80s: So how did you get into miniature wargames and Warhammer in general?

WM: I am a long time member of the Skirmish Wargames Group. We started gaming in 54mm scale in the mid to late 1970s. The founder of SWG was Mike Blake who is also a long time friend of mine and was the Best Man at my wedding. I managed to get some of the group to do Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 54mm (now THAT is a real challenge) and to this day is almost unique. I tread a lonely path these days on that though. Back in the 1970s there wasn't much fantasy gaming around and I had seen the odd Lord of the Rings game played. We were based in Bristol at the same Wargames club and then, like now, everybody was jumping on the new bandwagon. Warhammer Fantasy Battle was that new bandwagon. I saw a guy paint up a mercenary Ogre unit and was blown away by what I saw. I was hooked from then on in. From the early '80s we were all painting furiously producing stuff for Warhammer Second Edition. 

Roc80s: Tell us about your famous scenery? How did you end up with such an incredible gaming table?

WM: Most of the figures, nearly all in fact, that you can see on the table in the photographs were mine. My ideas for creating terrain on this scale came from seeing someone play Warhammer on a big selection of 1ft by 1ft polystyrene ceiling tiles... I kid you not! From there I scaled things up to 2ft by 2ft two inch think high density polystyrene. It was designed to be modular with edge protection. The monastery came from a scenario in the Citadel Spring Journal in 1986. It took me about a month to construct it from start to finish. It was a printed card building and I just scaled it up. Doing so meant that I could add further detail such as a cellar for the Black Ark. Everything looked suitably destroyed by earlier skaven attacks. As for the rest of the terrain, the bridge and walls were vacuum formed models produced by Bellona who were a decent Wargames company in those days. The hedges were homemade by me and the trees were from Britain's models. I cut the rivers into the boards and along with all the tracks and roads these were modular so always matched up. Doing this is pretty common now but was unusual back then. The GW card buildings were cut out by me, then re-roofed, based and the windows and doors recessed. 

Editor's Note: The bridge and walls Wayne used can be seen here if you look closely. 

RoC80s: You mention the famous monastery model from WFB3. What can you recall about it's construction?

WM: As I said, by 1986 Games Workshop put out another Citadel Journal inside of which were details about a three sided game. In the scenario, The Lichemaster and his undead were pitted against the Grey Seer Thanquol's skaven. They were both after the Black Ark held by the Monks of Maisontaal. I used the printed card monastery inside the supplement to construct my own 3D version of it. It sat on a 2ft by 2ft MDF board and was scratch-built entirely from polystyrene, foamcore, card, balsa wood, gravel and scenic scatter. I made it as faithful to the original as I could with a few added details, as I have said. It saw many refights over the years and eventually saw publication inside the rulebook after I was invited up to Nottingham for a photoshoot. Over the years it was used for Spain 1812, Mexico 1863 and Italy 1944. As of 2026, its resides in Newport, Gwent in the United Kingdom. 

Here are a few photographs of how the model looks today. 

RoC80s: It is really something to see this famous scenery piece up-close and personal after so long. It is great to see it survived the decades. What befell the rest of that gaming table?

WM: I took the models to various shows during the 1980s, including Games day when I think it was held in London. We won Best Demonstration Game one year. From that, we were invited up to Nottingham to do the photoshoot which gave me several credits in the contributor index and in the pictures section. Nearly all of the figures you can see in the old photographs were sold off as interests waned over the decades. I still have some of the trolls and the three giants... Snap, Crackle and Pop! These were made from the Fighting Fantasy 60mm figures produced by Games Workshop at that time. The terrain board themselves were gifted to a friend when a house move resulted in reduced space. I do still have the trees though, and they are now alongside the monastery in a peaceful corner of the Empire (South Wales). 

The author of this blog knew little about the Citadel Journals or the articles that lie within due to his focus on Third Edition. So it was pleasing to head off to the Stuff of Legends site and have a look through the supplements Wayne mentioned. As a fan of the Warhammer card buildings it is always a joy to find some more to add to the never ending to do list. And the monastery is just another one in a long line. If you are intrigued then visit the Stuff of legend site for the Spring 1986 Citadel Compendium. You'll find the scenario of Vengeance of the Lichemaster there. Otherwise, I've included the details on the monastery and it's original card stock model below for reader reference. 

RoC80s: You said your interest waned over the years. Do you still dabble with Warhammer or fantasy wargaming in general?

WM: As I said, I work with 54mm models now and have done for many years. We've even fought full sized battles at this scale. It is a challenge taking you back to the good old days of sourcing and converting. Figure availability drives army choice. I've produced figures for the undead, beastmen, Bretonnia and even the Amazons!  Working in 54mm is all about lateral thinking. What I mean is that I have decades of experience looking for resources. My giant was a troll from a babyshop for example and I just based and painted the figure. The vampire was a figure in a Desktop Dungeon game.

Here are two of my ogres.

WM: Of course the big one these days is 3D printing. You need to find a printer which can scale to 54mm, though the cost of something like this can be prohibitive, possibly. My undead skellies number around 100 now and are from several toy manufacturers. The figures come in bags and with a few head and weapons swaps are good to go for negligible outlay. 

A huge thank you to Wayne for taking the time out to complete this interview and share his photographs. I must confess to being both intrigued and fascinated by 54mm Warhammer battles, even if I am a Citadel lead purist at heart. Of course at shows I've seen my fair share of large scale miniatures but its always inspiring to see the work of others and models like Wayne's skeletons make old Orlygg wonder what a larger scale Skeleton Horde would look like with hand painted shields! 

Anyone else have any fond memories of Wayne's classic battlefield set up? Please let me know about your successes and disasters if you did (:

Of course, the major thought I am taking away from this interview is the treatment of future gaming tables. I have dabbled with them over the years but they've always been opportunistic endeavours. Cobbled together from the odds and ends I've had lying around the house. I now have a dedicated space just for miniatures a gaming and with a little work a large scale permanent table could be constructed which I would hope would match the brilliance of Wayne's magnificent table of old. Hand made hedgerows, Britain's trees, scale model versions of the Warhammer card stock buildings. It all sounds so wonderful. Probably because I am still that enthusiast looking through the early pages of WFB3 today. I'm still amazed by people like Wayne. Still inspired by them. 

As I hope you still are too. 

Orlygg

Restored Imperial Fists, Sisters of Battle, more Witch Hunters and some curios from the '80s

The rain!

Two weeks of the stuff and it still hasn't stopped. The sound of the drops hitting the roof of my workshop, the puddles swamping my route to it's door and the insidious damp chill of the space have been unwelcome companions as I've repaired and restored another batch of my ancient figures. If you haven't been following along, these models come from around 2000-2005 (mostly) and were rediscovered in a battled old miniatures case a month or so ago. I've been trying my best to give them a second lease of life.

First up is a squad of marines painted around 2001. These were for a Kill Team game in the Poole GW store that never went ahead. I never got around to adding the banners to these models, and I was tempted to do so but in the end opted to leave them be. 

I remember setting myself a challenge of not using any black paint save for bases and iconography. This was in response to practically every other model painted in that store being painted black. Even the orks!

Some more figures from my Witch Hunters army. Here I have the astropath, though he looks a little blurry. Sorry. Again, I wanted to do a 'no black' approach with this figure for some reason. Though I painted this one around 2004 in the front from of a house I lodged in Peterborough. I have clear memories of painting this figure and wasn't sure at the time if the colour scheme worked. 

What do reckon dear readers? Hit or miss?

One the other hand these two priests work extremely well colour-wise. The mix of earthy browns give them a 'monky' feel as well as a grassroots vibe. The use of metallics and darker browns give a clean and natural finish to these figures. Spot colours of yellow and red 'pop' the figure at a distance yet match the other tones close up.

I am really pleased with the restoration on these figures as I had to carefully mix up and reapply the cloth brown colours to fix some deep scratches. Big thanks to Ian's paints stash he donated me as I found a couple of sandy shades that were a close enough match to get going. The rest was Bleached Bone and circa 2000s GW brown ink. 

Servo skull. Says it all really. A really quick paint this. I found a second one of these models that I started but never finished. Not sure the black pole works with this figure. I'd use wire these days and do a snazzy base to cover much of it. Still, its seems to work well enough when the models are grouped together. 

More battle sisters now. These are painted in the same livery as the models I shared a few weeks back. I have another squad of these that need further restoration before I am happy but these are now good to go. The bases still look weak to my eye and, again, I was tempted to repaint them. What do you lot think? Should I keep them the same or give a wash and drybrush to give them a little depth?

I have lovely memories of painting these at my dear departed grandparents house. There was a photo of the younger me working on these in my grandmother's many photo-albums that I may track down one day. You can see some of these figures sitting happily on the table in her old front room. 

The greenstuff bases really look obvious on the figure to the far left. Apologies. I think I was trying to create an ashy mud look at the time. But you live and learn in this hobby.

Unless your eyes go, like mine!

And finally. These are a strange bunch of models. Said to be painted by Aly Morrison in the early '80s but he was asked and didn't recognise them as his work. They were supposed to have originated in the design studio but I know nothing about them. I am not even sure if they are Citadel models. They remind me very much of the Warhammer Armies era models I saw in Bryan's collection over the years. Beautiful work on some of those shields whoever the artist was. I've repaired them and reattached them to the bases.

If anyone recognises these figures. I am guessing pre-slotta Citadel. Let me know. They are a part of an era of British wargaming that predates my own and I find them fascinating for that. 

Note the hand made arrow sticking out of the red shield figure. Proper old school touch!

Speak soon,

Orlygg

Restored Witch Hunter Inquisitor and Retinue circa 2005

 

Here's another batch of figures from my Silver Age army of Witch Hunters. I've fixed these up over the last couple of days and the damages are now (hopefully) impossible to notice. I've also had a little bit of a play around with my photographic set up... poor quality as it is. I've switched to a light blue background which is exactly how 'Eavy Metal was presented  back in the '80s. Years ago, I chatted to GW's lensman Phil Lewis about how he photographed minis for publication in our era and I recall he used a second lamp to eliminate shadows. I'll attempt something similar as soon as I've got another one.

I don't recall much about painting this inquisitor. I can recall he was the first model I painted on the project and it certainly shows. I doubt I'd painted anything for years before working on this, though of course he is far superior to that plastic skeleton I attempted just over a year ago.

The shame of him....

I liked the servitor models available back then and I have four different ones now. This one was straight forwards to repair with just the base to reattach and the right leg to bend slightly. Purple was obviously a theme for my Inquisitor as a number of these models are painted with the colour. I am especially pleased with the angled liquids in his hydraulics. I used to pay really close attention back then. Need to again.

I can't quite recall what this figure was suppose to be. A Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus or some such. I nice bit of early freehand here with the scrolls. Thankfully his base too have been cracked but it has been repaired and smoothed out with greenstuff.

Pretty sure that this poor chap to a psychic penitent or some such. The idea was that this meek soul was possessed by the warp and not our Inquisitor. He looks much better now and had been particularly damaged. I straightened out his tentacle rods and gave them a new coat of paint.

The Lord Inquisitor's acolyte. A powerful figure even today. You will probably notice the staff is still bent slightly. This is the best I can get things at the moment with risking further damage. Remarkably his paint work survived intact. 

And finally, two cherubium who needed extensive repairs to attach them once more to the bases. I tried unsuccessfully to glue them back together but the join ended up far too week. In the end, I used a pin vice and paperclip snippings to pin them back together. A few grains of sand and static grass and who's to know!

Orlygg

Restored Deathwatch Chaplain, Deathwatch Squad, Eversor Assassin and and old friend...

Teeth fixed (again). 

Car badly damaged. 

Long story short, deer jumped out in front of my vehicle earlier on this week and one of them struck the front of my vehicle. I was slowing down as I'd seen them but one of the animals collided with the right hand side of my car. Even at such a low speed, the stag flew through the air and smashed in the panel work and lights. Incredibly, it got up and ran onwards into the night. I thought I too had got away with it only to discover my door wouldn't open.

Fast forwards a few days and the car in in the repairshop and it is all a matter for the insurance company. So I have a little time to spend in the workshop and these figures were next in my restoration journey. Many of these models were crushed, had detached limbs, backpacks and so on and were covered in scratches. It was quick. pleasant work to rebuild and restore them over the last few hours and I even had a little surprise underneath the foam insert to make my day...

More about him later.

This first model was a classic of the Silver Age and I am sure all of you know it well. Brooding with menace and power, you wouldn't want to mess with this fellow on the dark battlefields of the 41st Millennium. He was part of a Deathwatch unit that I think I was including with my Witch Hunters army as an ally around 2004-5. 

Here are the rest of the squad I was able to repair. I have another model who is too badly damaged to include. I am quite fond of the colour scheme: black, silver, red and bone. Certainly one to apply to something more classic in the future. What attracted me to the Deathwatch was the fact that each marine came from a different chapter and retained their own iconography. 

Here are some early free hand shoulder pads I included on some of the models. Keen eyed enthusiasts will note a few classic Skeleton Horde skulls on these bases. This is were my original models must have ended up! Beheaded and binned in the early 2000s for use on these bases. At the time I though the bases looked fantastic, now I feel they are too cluttered and dense and distract from the figures.

What do you dear readers think? 

More skulls adorn this base. Which I am still happy with. I wanted this assassin to appear to be clambering over the remains of his enemies which I think still works. Obviously, the base didn't receive the same level of attention as the figure and is something I would change if I redid this model today. But this isn't a remastering project. I just want to repair and restore these figures as they were when they were originally painted. 

I know that are not from our chosen period but I hope you can appreciate them just the same. After all, they all all pushing a quarter of a century in age so surely they can be classified as 'old'?

And to end things today, I have managed to repair this incredible chap. He is truly 'old' and must be the older painted figure in my collection. A lone survivor from my original Skeleton Army from the late '80s and early '90s with the original paint job. What a classic for my archive. I was so pleased when I found him and I was able to just about repair him. He isn't going to last very long if I poke him around but what caught my eye was how terrible the painting was.... but not as bad as I started painting again last year!!!

He still has my dad's old railway flock on his base too. So this model was built before I realised that sand was a handy tool for decorating bases.

What struck me the most was that I took the time to string the bow. I am sure I got this idea from an 'Eavy Metal figure in White Dwarf. Now I have accounted for skeleton archers in my Horde but boy do I want some now. When I finally get around to doing a few models in this style I'm going to tie on some bowstrings as I think it looks really effective.

If memory serves, I borrowed this beige string from my mother's sewing box. Luckily for me, MFM also enjoys this hobby so some future thread should be easy to source (; 

I can see that my colour scheme for skellies hasn't changed much either. Its still a brown wash, Orc Brown with the Bleached Bone highlight. These were drybrushed and it looks like my paint didn't have enough water in the mix. Of course, at the time I thought he looked magnificent. 

Right, I am off to fix up that Witch Hunter and his retinue. The models are getting progressively more damaged as I work through them and there are less and less easy fixes. But it is enjoyable work... with half-term around the corner I might also find some time to paint up some classic models too.

Speak soon,

Orlygg