Stripping and Repainting a whole army.

[sanctuary13]

hey painters, sculptors, and general madmen/women!

I\'m a recent addition to the CMON community, but I\'m really digging this site.

I started painting years ago... plastic revell models since I was about 4 or 5 years old, then using testors enamels (which I\'ve grown to hate almost as much as... well, more than anything)
when I was in middle school (right around 92 or 93) I discovered an advertisement for Games Workshop in the back of a magazine (Wizard i think), so I sent away for a FREE space marine, which I then ruined with Testors. Getting another free one for my kid sister, I went out and got a few bottles of citadel paints, and never looked back. I thought I was getting pretty good around the time I graduated, having painted a 1k point Sisters of Battle army.

ANYWAYS, I did 6 years of military service in the US Coast Guard after that, rarely painting. In fact I nearly forgot all about painting minis.

After I got out and moved cross country I made a lot of great friends who play wargames like mad with awfully painted minis. You see where this is going.

So now I\'m 30 (soon anyways) and more patient than a high schooler (i hope), so I began painting again, showing my wife how I did a lot of the old paint jobs. This time however I\'ve got the internet, and discovered this CMON thing, which I\'ve probably spent more time on than I should, but my god what I\'ve learned!!!

My painting has tripled in quality (pics soon) and My wife and I decided to redo my Adeptus Sororitas.

I tossed a few into non acetone nail polish remover (metal minis with plastic bases) and it really ripped the paint off nicely, BUT the sand and flock on the bases really gummed up nasty, filling in spots on the minis, ruining a toothbrush, just nastiness.

So my question (at long last) is do you guys know any good tricks for stripping the base features like the flock/sand without ruining the actual metal mini? I tried letting them soak then blasting them with water, but the water seemed to stop the remover instantly from working.

Anyways, I\'ve gone on long enough, thanks!

 

[mickc22]

if it\'s the bases you want to re-do it\'s far easier to just rip them off and put them on new ones, in fact, that\'s the first thing I do with old minis
a bag of 25mm bases isn\'t too expensive from GW, you may even find them cheaper on-line too

 

[DarkStar]

I\'ve stripped down two entire (large) armies, space marines and eldar to name them.

I used Easy Off oven cleaner, not the fume free kind as that kind doesn\'t work. Everything came off fine including the random flock on the bases, just scrubbed with a tooth brush. Put the minis in tupperware, spray down with Easy Off then put the lid on the container and let it sit overnight then scrub off under water (wear a respirator!) with an old toothbrush and gloves.

The armies were a mix of metal and plastic, Easy Off worked fine.

 

[sanctuary13]

thanks, i did find it a lot easier to just rip off the old bases before dunking them into my solution, although the bases look pretty cool after 30+ hours in the non-acetone acetone. melted slag. gotta find some kinda use for that.

 

[ScottRadom]

Simple Green! It\'s awesome non toxic stuff, best results I\'ve ever had. Stripped probablt 400 models and will never use anything else!

Also, welcome!

 

[sanctuary13]

thanks! yes, simple green is the all purpose, all useful, never fail and horribly present chemical which every single ship i have served on has had in such abundance that to even consider buying it makes me want to curl up and die. HOWEVER, it has a strong following, and im honestly really sick of getting acetone on my hands and having to wash over and over and lotion just to keep my fingers from going raw.

simple green, oh how i loathe thee. why must you do everything so well?!