Repainting Miniatures question?

[ThomasBJJ]

I've got several old, difficult to replace miniatures that have horrible paint jobs.

My question is... how do I get the old paint off? Can I fill a big jar with standard paint thinner and let the mini sit submerged in it for a week? Will something like nail polish remover help?

Now, some of these figures were primed before painting, some were not (painted straight onto the metal -gasp!). Some have standard Reaper paint, some have some old Ral Parth paint, & still others have some glossy testor's paint on them.

Any ideas?

 

[Glyfair]

I've heard of several methods that work. My personal favorite is soaking them in a Pine-Sol/water solution. Soaking an hour sometimes is all that's needed, although I usually give it a day or more (depending on when I can get back to it). This worked great for a figure I had that had resisted acid & sandblasting.

Other techniques that are supposed to work well:

1) Oven Cleaner: Make sure to wear gloves and do it outside in a well ventilated area.

2) Brake Fluid: Supposedly works very well, and much faster then Pine-Sol

Pine-Sol has the advantage of working well on plastic miniatures. I wouldn't try the Brake Fluid on them & certainly not the oven cleaner.

Glyfair

 

[ThomasBJJ]

well, I've got Pine-sol right here, so I will give that a try first. How long on average does it take?

 

[Glyfair]

Sorry, you replied before I could edit my post with the info I realized I was missing. An hour or two could work. Usually I leave it a day or two (although I've left it for weeks at a time - just never got back to it).

David A. Blizzard

 

[Maerdwyn]

Yup, Pine-Sol and and old toothbrush do the trick for me - soak overnight and then get any stubborn spots with the toothbrush.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

and that will remove the primer as well? cool!

I threw a half dozen in an old tupperware container just now. I have it sealed shut, does that matter?

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Yup, Pine-Sol and and old toothbrush do the trick for me - soak overnight and then get any stubborn spots with the toothbrush.

A Dremel with a nice stiff brush works nice too, and is less frustrating than the toothbrush.

Pine Sol should work just fine, let them soak as long as you feel like it (assuming metal miniatures). I usually let them soak, scrub them, let them dry off, then scrub them again--- you can get a little more off once the paint is dry and flaky.


Wulf

 

[Thorntangle]

I threw a half dozen in an old tupperware container just now. I have it sealed shut, does that matter?

Consider that piece of tupperware special duty now.

 

[ThomasBJJ]

Update

The Pine Sol is working great. There's a few spots I couldn't scrub off with the toothbrush just yet, but I'll let it sit overnight to think about wether it wants to really put up a fight or not.

One scare though... I spent the better part of an hour standing over the sink with the tooth brush scrubbing and re-dipping the minis in the pine sol (after they sat for about 2 hours). Not using gloves or anything else. I looked at my hand and it had shriveled up like a 105 year old lady's hand. I was afraid that when it dried out that my skin was going to crack and fall off. Fortunately not, once I washed up and dried my hands off, they fairly quickly returned to normal.

Now I'm excited about painting some of these awesome minis that I painted when I was 13 years old and hadn't a clue about mini painting.

Top of the list:

Grenadier Black Dragon (IMO the BEST dragon fig ever made!)

Dr Strange from the Marvel Superheroes TSR RPG, gonna paint him as a D&D mage though.

Also, note... never use black primer on a small detailed mini, makes it nearly impossible to see the details when painting. The pine sol too the black primer right off though.

 

[Dr Lucky]

Brake fluid works really well, as will any other type of hydrolic fluid. Of course, the brake fluid will bleach color from just about anything it touches, so be careful.