"Refurbished 1/300th desert armies:" Topic

A couple of months ago I was gifted a huge collection of 1/300th scale tanks by brother, most of which I'd actually painted and some of which I'd owned way back when we were both still at school.

Other than the sheer amazement as to just how dammned many of the blighters there actually were (and being mind-boggled that we managed to even play a single turn either of the old WRG modern rules, or the even more complex and marker-tastic Battlegroup moderns with quite so many AFVs on table..), it was also a challenge to see how easily it would be to upgrade some of them to a full set of CWC Middle Eastern forces.

None of them were based, and more concerningly a significant proportion of them were suffering from some sort of evil metal rot/fungal plague as well. The internet provided some help, and I ended up buying a large amount of Dettol to act as a paint stripper – and smelling out the house in the process with a rather different, more medicinal small than I usually do (with paint…)!

The end result is four full A4 trays worth of based 1/300th AFVs, and at least as much again that will go for sale to clubmates or on eBay in the new year.

For more pictures see my blog : link

Looking good, great work getting those tiny troops back into fighting shape, a hell of an undertaking, but well worth it, I'm sure.

V/R,
Jack

How extraordinary is that white lurgy that attacked your vehicles. It seems maximal along the edges, but that is no clue to the origin.

Fungal? Possibly something organic in the paint to encourage such growth.

Some salt leaching out of the paint instead and non-organic? Cannot imagine it was the underlying metal as surely the paint would have been lifted off. You did a great job of resurrecting them though.

The varnish…..suddenly though of it…..final guess. Not the metal, not the paint, it was whatever was used as a protective layer varnish.