Collectable Crud, What To Do?

MPJ

MPJ

New member
Recently bought myself some of the new D&D Miniature Game minis and was wondering how I could repaint them. Does stripping work on that soft mushy type plastic? Is it easier just to paint over what\'s there with or without primer?

I know the sculpts and the quality of the minis really doesn\'t make it worth it, but then I could be wrong, some might look good cleaned up?
 
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fieldarchy

New member
mmm I\'ve seen some that people attempted to repaint, you aren\'t going to get great results. The plastic just is too soft and doesn\'t seem to hold up to detail work well.

Usually what I\'ve seen is people just paint right over top of the plastic, no stripping needed.

Good luck with those horrid mold lines though!
 
Talion

Talion

New member
I\'ve stripped and painted up a few of the Star Wars ones.

I found Acetone to be best for them, dependant on strength determines how long to leave them in for.

It\'s well worth trying to get the paint off of them as there is a suprising amount of detail underneath the crap paintjob.
 
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peteh

Member
I\'ve had mixed results with stripping Heroclix minis.

This was the result of a lengthy Dettol (Pinesol) bath:
JohnnyAlphaWIP1-1-small.jpg


And this was using a brief soak in nail varnish remover (acetone):
rogueWIP1-1-small.jpg


Both cases had a good going over with a tooth brush and a needle to pick out of the deeper areas.

Both of these painted up okay - Stronty and Rogue, but the best result I\'ve had is on the Hulk.

The main problem I\'ve had with them though is getting a smooth surface from the soft plastic, especially after trying to tidy them up.

And Meg\'s 100% right about the mold lines - they\'re bloody awful a lot of the time.
 
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Shadzar

Guest
mold lines....

with DDM the paint is not really painted on for most, but applied to the mold, i think.

so stripping really does nothing, as the pigment becomes part of the vinyl.

painting them would be best done to just make them look a little difrerent. no real depth in any repainted plastic mini i have ever seen comes to mind to say that it was better than a bare metal mini.

the plastic makeup and not being able to remove the exisitng paint it a big problem.

they are fun to repaint, as some are just so bad! (Fey Hydra)

take a spare and try removing paint from it using your best stuff. use a spare in case it melts you won\'t really lose anything. if it does melt, jsut paint it greem or yellow and call it an ooze/slime/ or jelly.
 
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HighLordUlrik

New member
Simple Green Solution its found in spray bottles but if you pour some in a cup and soak it a little and use a old tooth brush just brush it off and bam as for the mold lines I cant help you there
 
MPJ

MPJ

New member
Originally posted by Wren
Temperance has a bunch of D&D repaints in his gallery. He\'s done some pretty nice stuff with figures many people wouldn\'t give a second look to. In this post he mentions using acetone to remove the paint, but doesn\'t get into a lot of details. He\'s also got some tips on removing mould lines from the D&D minis.

I\'m pretty sure I\'ve heard people talk about painting straight over them, so that\'s probably worth experimenting with?
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for the link to Temperance\'s gallery. He has done great things with D&D minis. :drunk:
 
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Temperance

New member
Well, I have to admit that some of the figures were given to me in unpainted form by WotC to paint -- that helps with some of the quality.

Stripping with Acetone is extremely dangerous -- sometimes it works and I don\'t damage the figure, but other times damage is done and it looks like thin razorblade-like cuts cover the figure. Brief acetone scrubbing with a soft cloth may work better than soaking.

One very important warning -- I\'ve had real problems with clear coats, especially Krylon -- it ends up extremely tacky, even months after. So far I haven\'t had any problems with Testors dullcoat, but I can\'t be sure.

I need to now preface this with a disclaimer, I think -- this is my own personal experience with repainting these, and I can\'t be held responsible for damage to any miniatures. (This past January I accepted a job at Wizards as the designer for the D&D Miniatures line.)
 
Talion

Talion

New member
@ Temperance

Obviously you have a special relationship with WOTC, but are they in the position to offer un-painted versions of theie mini\'s. I\'ve stripped and painted a few of their Star-Wars line and would love to paint more.

Prehaps I should e-mail them
 
Wren

Wren

Member
Originally posted by Temperance
(This past January I accepted a job at Wizards as the designer for the D&D Miniatures line.)
Click to expand...

That\'s really cool, congrats! :beer:
 
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Shadzar

Guest
Originally posted by Talion
@ Temperance

Obviously you have a special relationship with WOTC, but are they in the position to offer un-painted versions of theie mini\'s. I\'ve stripped and painted a few of their Star-Wars line and would love to paint more.

Prehaps I should e-mail them
Click to expand...

I always had a feeling that Mr. Lee was using non-prepainted minis. I doubt anyone at WotC would really have the time right now to ask about unpainted minis, but I bet that you already got the idea to the right person. many forums for DDM have been already talking about the quality of the paint ont he miniatures, and they even have their own forum for painting them. http://forums.glemax.com and click the minis logo to find it then enter the painting subforum.

by far though i would say Peter\'s are the best i have seen, and it is probably in part of having them unpainted to begin with as well as blatant skill.

i too would be interested in some core unpainted minis for D&D. there are plenty of commons to have a paint set with the staple PC classes. whether they want to get into making paints or something they could offer an official D&D 4E GSL paint brush with PC type minis (tiefling, dragonborn, drawf, gn...nevemind that one, elf, eladrin, half-elf, halfling, etc). lol
 
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Temperance

New member
Most of the official trophies that I painted for them started from unpainted versions; probably half of the plastic WotC figures in my galleries. Those were supplied to me by WotC for prizes in tournaments, so it\'s a bit of a special case. This is the only case that I\'m aware of unpainted versions being given out.
 
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Shadzar

Guest
Originally posted by Temperance
Most of the official trophies that I painted for them started from unpainted versions; probably half of the plastic WotC figures in my galleries. Those were supplied to me by WotC for prizes in tournaments, so it\'s a bit of a special case. This is the only case that I\'m aware of unpainted versions being given out.
Click to expand...

what about the elusive Beholder named Snowball? was it painted or just dyed plastic?
 
Talion

Talion

New member
I e-mailed WOTC about unpainted minis.

Official Response:

\"Hello. I\'m glad to see you enjoy painting our minis! Unfortunately, we only sell products to merchants, in bulk. We do not resale individual minis. I apologize for the inconvenience. \"

Bummer, I stopped buying them because hte paint was to much or a pain to get off.
 
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Temperance

New member
By the way, one figure that I had to first strip was Icingdeath, which I stripped by lightly wiping the figure with acetone soaked cotton balls. I certainly didn\'t remove all the paint, but a lot of it. More examples of figures that I had to strip before repainting:

Noble Salamander (I consider my replaced spear a failure.)
One of the scarrows (either this or this; one was unpainted and one was painted)
Both Thralls of Blackrazor
Both Strahd vampires (here and here)
Large Blue Dragon
Mounted Paladin
Mounted Drow Patrol -- which I really wish had a face...
War Troll
Dragonne
Chimera -- Which includes a conversion to make fly
Ettin
Marut
Stone Giant
One of my favorites, Ogre Ravager
Tarasin Jedi
Bothan Jedi

Each one of these were done by repainting ones that were already painted in China. I guess what I\'m saying is that these figures are still paintable even if they\'ve already had the production paint applied.

Stripping worked best when wiping with acetone-soaked flat cotton rounds (which I nabbed from my girlfriend; she uses them for removing makeup and fingernail polish). The important thing is not to scrub them, as that could end up damaging the figure.
 
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