I've moved these across from another thread (
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/804573.page). I used them as a test for paint-stripping etc ahead of doing a Skaven army.
So now it is one thread about Skaven and one about a Chaos warband.
I would have bought these to use in Advanced Heroquest when I was about 10, as I think there had been rules for them in a White Dwarf.
But also in one of the few issues of
WD I had (117?) there was an excerpt from Slaves to Darkness with all that (Rik Priestly?) artwork that captured my imagination.
Obviously it was for
WHFB, but there was a long article in there about building a chaos champion up - but done as a narrative about his rise to power and his different mutations - and I thought that was what the game must be about. Small groups roaming across the chaos wastes - maybe a bit like Necromunda.
My local hobby shop had a very limited range of Warhammer stuff - they were mainly about ships and railways. So considerations like what is Khorne and what is Slaanesh and what is Undead and what is for
40k, and how many models are needed for a unit - didn't all really feature.
1. A before-and-after
The 2 before minis were daubed seemingly randomly by my 8-year-old self in enamel paint. The chaos 'trooper' (1987) in the foreground shows the loss-of-detail around the visor.
And check out the poly cement on the chaos thug!
The other 2 are me trying to fix this. On metal (unlike plastic), isopropyl alcohol can be left on the model safely for longer (indefinitely!), but it hasn't resulted in such good separation of the paint from the surface.
After 2 days it reached a point where I had most of the detail back, but in some areas (particularly lowlights) the enamel is still stuck fast. In many areas it could be lifted off with a sewing needle, but it's not worth doing all of it.
Rather than priming the models, I tried to use the black and red as a base coat, and fill in the bare metal areas with several coats. Metallic acrylic covered the black enamel okay, but it took a few coats to hide the red. And even then it shows through in places.
On the 'Hound of Chaos' (which had been red and gold - and the gold Humbrol was lifted well by the alcohol), I found it was possible to blend the leftover red into the skin, so long as the dog was red.
The 'Champion of Khorne' I'm not happy with. He's a subtle sculpt (the footwear of a pirate, the head and body of a medieval knight, with a plasma-gun crossed with a bolter organically grafted onto him). The transitions between those things need to be picked out more carefully.
One of the other minis from his blister pack also has heavy armour. I will try and prime over the red areas left after the alcohol so that the metallics don't need so many coats.
EDIT (17/04/2022):
2. These are the other Humbrol-covered chaos minis after isopropyl alcohol and then acetone (as Mothsniper recommended).
I'm finding the alcohol makes the red enamel paint flake while the acetone seems to change its composition and make it rubbery. My acetone had mostly evaporated, I don't have enough left to soak whole models, and if it's brushed on it evaporates off again within a few minutes. But hopefully I've got enough of the detail back (e.g. the champion of khorne's teeth), and hopefully putting primer over the red layers will work.
The models can be base coated better with more of the paint off and primer over the red enamel. These will be the test minis for the Skaven. The (other) champion of khorne is suffering from the extra undercoat of paint - as the details on his helmet were a little faint to begin with (e.g. there is a raised area round the eye-slots). I have a feeling I'm going to struggle with how all the paints have changed. I might leave these at a nearly-finished stage and delay the Skaven while I get some cheap models to work that out.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Not many of the models are too badly-damaged. This skeleton (1990) is so slender at the ankles and neck that I think I'll struggle to get a pin in there.
The other 3 skeletons in his pack are wearing armour, and he's naked, and his posture is even like he's slightly chilly. So I think I'll give him boots and a scarf to hold him together non-destructively. Maybe that was all he wore to battle when he was alive.
Automatically Appended Next Post: There were also a blister-pack of 4 daemonettes.
For the Skaven army I was looking for alternative sculpts to include some female skaven - and bought a job lot of Heartbreaker ratmen models that came with some demons by the same sculptor.
These were from ~1995 and the succubus I thought could go in with the daemonettes.
Which are interesting sculpts: as well as a human/lobster synthesis, they are androgynous. But I wonder if the original concept - with one exposed breast used as a uniting motif for the Slaanesh units - might have been coming from the old portrayals of Amazons with one breast -removed-. One of them I'm not convinced is female - s/he has the posture of a vicar caught wearing drag - maybe on this one it's not a boob, but a moob.
3. NSFW
Automatically Appended Next Post: 4. Chaos Knight - conversion/kitbash made of different parts from ebay
The pack animals and child are from
iirc Gripping Beast miniatures