Dusting off some old miniatures

Recently, I've been clearing and sorting out my wargames collection. That has now extended to my cellar, where there are many dusty boxes and cabinets. Slowly, one by one, I am carefully going through them all.

I moved to my current address about a decade ago. For various reasons, the packing was done in a hurry. I'd asked for some help packing my stuff up and moving it. Help was arranged, but this 'help' was done by non-wargamers. Consequently, a large number of items weren't properly labelled and in some cases, just shoved into boxes and then dumped in my cellar. There was much grumbling by myself at the time, but I had other issues to worry about with my move.

Now a decade later, I'm attempting to sort things out as I'm likely to be moving again sometime in the near future. This is the opportunity for me to properly organise and label everything. My partner Emma tells me it is the perfect time to downsize my collections - the HORROR! I know she's right... there is a lot of this I will never use.

Most of the collection was intact. Over the years, I have ferreted away several cases of models to drier climes. What was left of the miniatures I unearthed (literally in some cases) is unsorted, damaged, or just plain broken. So, I'm doing my best to salvage what I can and ensure in future I store them properly. 

Here for example are several old Brettonian mounted archers. With a little repaint and the addition of a new tail, these will be as good as new. 

Another find was some old Foundry Norman crossbowmen. These must have become separated from the main batch when I moved, These are half-finished and in need of some TLC.

I haven't touched on the amount of old 40K, Necromunda and fantasy models I have. Most of the Brettonians found a home in my Hundred Years War armies, including some 40-odd plastic Brettonian single-pose bowmen. There's a lot to go through, some of it might be useful for Xenos Rampant, but most of it is really surplus to requirements and too small for the modern 40K game (not that I play it). It is funny that even now, there are some armies I have an attachment to.

Several of the original boxes and cardboard containers have deteriorated and now need to be replaced. The cellar is not the best environment for storing anything made of paper. Who knew? 

I also found some 15mm Egyptians (which are in good condition as they were in a tackle box) and some Imperial Romans (which were in the open and need a clean!).

The entire process has been very cathartic and slow, as I sort things out - properly this time. I was hoping to show some of my progress on repairs in this blog. Time is, as ever, my enemy so I will leave this to future blogs.