This week I spent a bit of time taking paint off old Full Thrust miniatures. Last Saturday I purchased some Fairy Power washing up spray. This stuff is pretty effective at removing paint from both metal and plastic miniatures. I found the best way of removing the paint was to place the mini's in a tub (I used an old butter tub) and spray the foam all over them liberally. I then left the tub for 12 hours, returning to shake it from time to time. After that, I picked the mini's out, rinsed them off and then scrubbed them with a cheap hard bristle toothbrush. I left the build up of gunk in the bottom of the tub and just dropped the next lot of minis in before spraying again.
Rinsing the mini's first was important, as the first batch I worked on I did not rinse and ended up with very dry skin on my hands. Like, 'I've dipped my hands in PVA and it needs peeled off' style of dryness.
The only paint left on the minis at the end of this process was the paint that had been applied over areas that had been super glued. But that superglue it removable by a modelling knife.
So yeah, a effective method of paint removal that won't kill you with fumes or need specialist disposal.
Anyway, onto this weeks painting. I did manage to apply highlights to the FoW models I have been working on for weeks, and a primer to a FT mini I wanted to mess with. This weekend has mainly been taken up by the EVE Online Fanfest feed. Next weekend will involve a visit to Carronade over in Falkirk.
So that's it for this Saturday. I will point out that I have come to the point of over highlighting on my 15mm stuff, as from tabletop distances it looks good - not so great close up though! Next up will be matt varnish and then decals.
The highlights look good in the photo's. I've found it's easy to lose perspective painting models. You can spend such a long time perfecting the look at a very close distance, and then only ever view them from a playing distance! Cheers, Paul :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul. As I've been working my way through painting my stuff I've started to realise that trying to get things perfect at the distance I am painting at doesn't necessarily mean it looks good on the table. Highlights that seem totally over the top when I am painting work really well at 'normal' distances. Just one of the abstractions we need to get our heads around I suppose.
DeleteThey look good so far. I've used Dettol to good effect as a stripper before and works quite well. When that runs (might be a while) I';ll have to give the fairy power spray a go.
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon. It was a pretty quick and efficient method of paint removal. I would add though that these mini's were never varnished. Although it it's an acrylic varnish I don't think it would matter.
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