Bad hair day for the Vikings

Hairy

After playing a game of The Crescent & The Cross I was thinking about resuscitating my 25mm Vikings for Saga or even Dux Bellorum. This was an army that was literally packed away some 20 years ago and never opened since.

Anyway, on opening the boxes and picking out the polystyrene chippings used to pack them, I discovered that some of the figures had become considerably 'hairier' owing to a nasty instance of lead rot. Some looked like iron filings attracted to a magnet while others had crumbled to dust. Happily, the vast majority are in perfect condition.

Crumbly

As the figures were recruited from a large variety of different manufacturers I don't know which ones rotted, and as the ranges are so old it's water under Stamford Bridge in any event.

AFAICR all these figures would have been undercoated with a polyurethane varnish stained with Humbrol enamel matt black, painted in Humbrol matt enamels and then given a sealing coat of varnish.

That was my standard approach for 25mm figures in those days and I've never seen this problem with any other armies.