Disappointment - damn you eBay!

It seemed like an opportunity to expand my 10mm collection of ancient and medieval Warmaster armies; an addition that would fill a gap and provide me with a pike army. I won and it arrived in the post at my office today - always an unusual event when the postman brings something to me at work! When you have recently started a new business it is always a novelty when the phone rings or there is something to open in the post. I digress.

Advertised on eBay a week or so back I saw a 10mm Successor army. It seemed like a good start as it was described as: 'This is a reasonably well painted 1000 point army for the Alexandrian Successors for the Warmaster ancients rule set. Figures are from Magister Millitum.'
It was hard to tell from the one photograph as it was rather poor and showed figures from above but I could see paint on the figures and bases. Even if not up to my standard I could touch them up and re-base with my standard flock and gravel finish. And soon I would be trouncing Romans with Early or later Selucids. There would be a great start to an army as someone else had asked for details about the contents got this response:
Q:
Hi What is the composition of the army?
06-Nov-11
A:
The army is a 1000 point army for warmaster from Magister Militum. Composition is a follows:
18x10 Pikemen,
1x5 pikes,
10x3 Javelins with round bucklers,
5x3 javelins with half moon shields,
2x8 spears,
5x10 archers,
6x4 shock cavalry,
2x4 cavalry, plus unbased command figures both mounted and foot to match.
All based on 20x40 bases (widest frontage) apart from the shock cavalry which are mounted on a 20mm frontage and 40mm depth. Hope this helps

Well my idea of 'reasonably painted' and that of the seller are worlds apart!!! Undercoated (here and there) with a very inadequate wash would have been a better description.  Here are four random examples (photographed very quickly) for you to see:

So the bare metal legs of the bowmen, brown wash of the pikes and white undercoat showing through in large areas of the cavalry and peltast types counts towards 'reasonably painted'. Sigh!

It may have been a simpler job if I'd bought an unpainted army and started from scratch. On the plus side there is the lonely saving grace that they were cheaper than bare metal cost - just.

More work to be added to the painting list.