Repairing two MM90 Chaos Dwarfs

A long time ago I bought a small lot of miniatures of Ebay based purely on one very blurry picture. But from this picture I could make out that there were two MM90 Chaos Dwarfs in the lot. I ended up paying not too much but also not too little.

When the miniatures arrived the blurry picture was self explanatory, the minis were all in perfect order except for the two MM90 Chaos Dwarfs. They were mangled, someone had intentionally been hacking away at them with a sharp object (disgruntled ex girlfriend, jealous younger brother). What could have driven someone to intentionally destroy two of these classic miniatures we will never know. It’s like pouring a 1947 Chavel Blanc down the toilet (I had to google expensive wines for this metaphor, since as a Dwarf I only drink beer!).

The seller reimbursed me 10 euros after opening a dispute and it wasn’t long before I found good condition replacements for these miniatures so I didn’t give it much thought. Until I recently decided to start painting my duplicate MM90 Chaos Dwarfs. One of the two damaged MM90’s I needed because I only have one replacement, and I want to keep a clean metal one of each MM90 CD. So I decided to start repairing them. But let us first examine the damage.

We will start with MM90 5C (Underbite), as you can see his helmet, his beard and parts of his armour are completely destroyed.

This is what he supposed to look like.

Next up MM90 5D (Spike), his right hand is wasted, his axe is snapped, his left hand has some smaller damage and the back and the front of his helmet is trashed.

 

On to the repairs. I started by cutting away parts of the damaged areas because I need to create enough room to add a layer of putty. Second was pinning the axe. Then I resculpted the left hand of Spike. I restored the armour outline and once the putty is dry I will sharpen it a up bit by filing the edges. Last job is to recreate to tiny rivets, for which I haven’t found to a way to do it yet, I probably need to make a tool for this.

Second step was growing a new beard for Underbite. Again I first cut away chunks of the damaged old beard and then started with the hairy part.

I had to let the work harden, because the risk of distorting the fresh putty while trying to sculpt other parts is quite big.

.

After hardening of both the models I filed the gauntlet of Spike a bit and added the rivets, I did this freehand which wasn't easy, they are tiny! Then continued to fix the helmet, both back and front. I also had to fix a small damage and add a rivet to the left gauntlet.

Now it was Underbites turn, his helmet was really messed up so I started by cutting away large parts of the damaged metal. Then I sculpted the jaw back on. I will have to file it to make it look a bit straighter, but it has to harden for that first.

Now everything has hardened, I added the final rivets to Spike and finished the helmet of Underbite. Here is the final result. I also added a piece of beard that lies on Spike’s right arm and the ring that holds the tuft of hair(?) on Underbite’s helmet. I have painted them in white so the total picture becomes more apparent, additionally while painting I found some more blemishes which I fixed, a cut on the inside of Underbite’s left arm and a cut in Spike’s rear armour.