I've complained about the dreaded rot before, but when the rot sets in on Joe Dever originals, it's a declaration of war.
Some time ago I bought a nice unit of Ral Partha tree shepherds from Joe's estate and they were showing the odd sign of rot when they arrived. All ten figures were affected, some worse than others. I suspect that these and possibly the rest of the collection have been languishing in a n airtight and possibly wooden container which will have been a major contributing factor to the problem.
You can make out the rot in the armpit and on the beard. Interestingly all figures were exhibiting signs in the same areas.
I carved out the worst of the affected metal and then applied an alchemical mixture of mineral oil and white turpentine. This was then sealed in with a coat of black enamel.
You can see how much crumbling lead I removed from the armpit of this unfortunate ent.
The picture above shows the patients after surgery, and awaiting cosmetic reconstruction with green stuff.
Hopefully this will at least slow the process of disintegration down. Happily I've got another 10 ents that are so far unaffected and awaiting the paintbrush.
