Fixing some ancient Chaos models

With the number of reasons to go out reduced and GW closing down, I've had all the time in the world to work on my backlog. The recent restorations of Maalicia Ironhoof and Lt. Varras motivated me to fix some more models I've owned since I discovered Warhammer. Here is the result.

The good, the bad and the ugly?

With the end result out of the way lets see where I started off.

I (almost) never take old paint jobs off my models without apprehension. 

I bought the Slaanesh Champion when it was brand new and I remember loving it so much I didn't dare paint it. A friend with more talent gave it the paint job above. On the one hand a cool memory, but on the other against my ambition to paint all my models myself. The guy on the right is another story. Let's add a second picture.

I really wanted to convert this guy using Milliput way, unfortunately no Milliput was available back in the day (now get off my lawn!).

The Nurgle banner bearer guy was part of a blister of (I think) five Chaos Warriors. Way back in the day, armed with my fresh copy of White Dwarf 101, I used a pictured conversion of a chaos warrior holding an army banner in his tentacle as inspiration. How hard could it be to make a small tentacle? I lobbed off the guy's arm using an oversized iron saw, drilled a hole in the socket and added a bit of wire. Lacking Milliput to sculpt a tentacle I used globs and globs of two component adhesive. It flowed off the wire, but by adding more adhesive and blowing on it, I sort of got a tentacle shape on the model. I was quite happy with my first conversion...

Not the worst paint job in the world, but I was quite sure I could do a lot better. I briefly considered upgrading the model with washes, but back in the day no one told me to thin my paints so a lot of detail was lost.

Number three on my painting list was this casualty. I painted him up and covered the model in a slightly frosted layer of varnish to protect the paint job. Its one of those models that just told me I could do more with it. Recently someone on the Facebook Oldhammer group asked for casualties and I decided I should strip and repaint him (while telling everyone I wouldn't be stripping him in the near future).

You won't believe what happened to me on my way to work today...someone chopped off my arm and drilled a hole in the bleeding stump!

Having stripped all three models I took in the damage to mr. Tentacle. Now I could try to sculpt a new tentacle for him, but I actually wanted to return his arm. I dug around my bits collection and discovered just how many bits are way oversized for a classic Chaos Warrior. His rather odd pose doesn't really help either. In the end I discovered the arm of a (slightly newer) plastic Chaos Marauder fit, I could even cover up the shoulder with a shoulder pad from the same sprue.

Where would I be without a bits box? Nowhere, that's where...

I decided to let him keep his job as a Nurgle banner bearer. After thirty years I can't expect the guy to just join the rank and file again. After a bit of contemplation I snipped off the shield holding blob on his other arm and picked out a (Bretonnian I think) shield from the bits box. I have plenty of old school shields, but I suspecte the Bretonnian kite shield would work really well with the model.

Properly applying transfers is an important art to learn, promptly weathering them in a suitably destructive fashion is almost as important. 

I decided to keep his paint job as close to my work back in the eighties as possible. So I gave him a base layer of P3 Traitor Green and just went wild with washes and highlights from there. I found a matching pair of appropriate Nurgle transfers for the banner and the shield. They're both from an old Chaos Space Marine transfer sheet.

Always paint shields separately. Also always paint the back of the shield with some light stripes. No matter how awful your striping, someone will lean over and be impressed by the fact that you've painted wood grain. 

I had a lot of fun weathering the model. In part with washes. For the rust I decided against using rust in a bottle. Instead I opted for small stippled batches of Vallejo Model Color Rust, followed by stippled GW Ryza Rust. The orange really helps add some color and character to the model. I also discovered the joy of stippling Vallejo Smoke. It all adds up to a more functional looking chaos warrior. This guy's ready to proudly bear Nurgle's banner into a future battle.

Hello, never mind the screaming imp on my armor, I'm here to talk about our lord and savior Slaanesh.

Second on the list is this Chaos Warrior. After getting over the guilt of removing the old paint job I quickly rejoiced at the details I uncovered on this beautiful pervert. The model has so many stories sculpted on. The spreadeagled, screaming familiar (?) forming a Slaanesh rune on his front plate was a discovery in itself. I had to give that one flesh colors to bring it to life. I also love the sword that has teeth eating the blade although I failed to do it proper justice.

For some reason I had a hell of lot of trouble painting the plume on his helmet without making it look like a paint smear. 

I used some new Scale 75 paints for most of the armor, giving it a purple wash to turn the whole thing more towards the (essential for all Slaanesh painting IMHO) Vallejo Squid Pink pants and plume. At first I opted for a simple black loincloth as I figured enough was going on with the pink on this model. I was wrong. It looked rather bland and boring, so I decided to go for broke and attempt to paint Vallejo Yellow Green on it (a color that covers nothing in one go (or two (or three))). In an attempt to get near the original RoC style I built this up to nearly white. It works (I think) and now I have a proper pervert to lust over the chaos wastes.

I suspect someone rolled 'spawn' on the gift table. 

Last but not least was this casualty marker. I never dared take the paint off, fearing it would just end up unpainted in a bits box. As I was getting carried away this week I couldn't resist any longer. I have to admit it was a lot more difficult to paint then I expected. Basically the model is bent armor, with more bent armor, a pair of boots, some tentacles and a face. But in practice it's difficult to get some contrast going. I spent a lot of time washing, highlighting and washing the armor again. I spent even more time getting the face right. In the end he turned out to blend in with his base so I added a Vallejo Smoke outline around him, adding subtle amounts of Tamiya Clear Red and GW Nurgle's Rot to finish the model.

All in all not a bad triplet of refreshed models I think.