Citadel FF5 Fiend Factory Winged Demon with Whip and Sword/ C31 'Balrog' 1982

I've not been idle this Easter. I promise...

I have had a myriad of projects on the go, this one just happens to be the first completed and ready for blogging. I have to thank The Lead Head Who Cannot Be Named for this model. He is another one from that grognard's deep drawers of chaos. When he arrived, this model was in a terrible state. Smeared with enamel paints and suffering from damage to his sword and whip not to mention a touch of the dreaded 'lead rot' around the base and wings. As you will know, I'm happy to restore those models that have sat in leadpiles for decades. 

Happier still if I can bring them back to life from near death!

To resurrect him, I drilled the soft metal with a pin vice (using PPE equipment and plenty of ventilation), filed it all down and smoothed over the damage with green stuff. I then paint over with a layer of superglue to seal my work.  A good thick layer of white acrylic paint over the stop has prevented any further decay, I hope. 

I've owned several of these models over the years but never got around to painting one. So I was pleased to finally have the chance. As I said, this example was pretty beaten up with lots of damage to the casting, especially the wings due to age and wear and tear. But I am happy with the result. 

Unlike others, I avoided the obvious trope of sticking to the LotR source material. I wanted a more '80s style paint job similar to the 'Citadelesque' approach I've been leaning to. If you want to see a far better version of this model and one that closely adheres to the source material, then check out the work of matthewjkullivan. His version of this model is probably the seminal one and is painted with a skill and eye for colour I could never match. Have a look here...

This model is a very early piece by Citadel. From 1982 and was one of their biggest and best models of that early era. A one piece casting in lead, the form exudes power and presence in a way plastic printed multi-part kits of our high tech age cannot. Depicting evil in art takes skill and the eye of an artist. This model has all of that in spades. I cannot work out the sculptor of this model, though many enthusiasts point the finger at a young Bob Naismith. If you are after further details check out the Lost Mini webpage. 

There isn't a great deal to go on research wise. This fellow first appears in the 2nd Citadel Compendium as far as I can tell, though he may have appeared in one of the issues of White Dwarf running Table Top Heroes first. It's hard to fathom as my collection of White Dwarf magazines doesn't stretch this far back. I'm free to be corrected if any readers are more knowledgeable about the provenance of such a classic model. 

Here's his original ad. Its worth noting that the same model that would later be issued as 'Clint' the Treeman for McDeath was released at the same time as this model. Truly vintage. 

My painted job was restricted by the condition of the model. It was also affected by my workshop being inaccessible. Our new kitchen was delivered last Wednesday and the storage space in front of the workshop door was chosen as the resting place of cabinets, a sink, an oven, microwave and dishwasher as well as all of the worktops and what-not. I managed to liberate a handful of paints and a few brushes before the delivery was complete so had to work with what I had. 

As I said at the start of this post, I am working on several projects at the moment and this one was a bit of change. So I went all out on the colours. Deliberately going a bit crazy and zany with the colour choices. I was having fun! Except for the whip, which was a right pain to paint. I tried out several schemes before giving up on all of them and just going for black. When I have some more time (as some better brushes) I might come back and touch things up a bit there. And smarten up the painting around the highlights on the wings. Who knows? Any of you dear readers have any suggestions of what I could do?

Orlygg