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Hello Dakka,

I recently bought a Forgeworld Tantalus off someone who didn't need it anymore. The offer was nice, and I thought I'd go for it coz it was only undercoated white. Upon receiving it, it looked good. Upon closer inspection, I noticed several rather annoying mishaps, namely that parts just weren't glued together particularly well.

Side note: how is this so difficult? Unless FW is much worse at casting than GW, such mistakes really can be avoided... I've built a fair few GW models, and never really had a problem with them fitting together - and if there was one some pressure would solve the problem easily. In my opinion they're very high-quality models, at least compared to some Revell kits I've built in the past.

Anyway, I was wondering whether anyone knew of
1. a good way to take apart a FW model, it seems to have been glued together with something dark/reddish that is very cementy. Some sort of superglue. If not possible, I can greenstuff it, won't be the end of the world. and
2. a good way to strip paint off FW/GW resin models? I'm mainland Europe so a lot of US products aren't available here :( The paint is flaking off in some areas but I'd like the white gone as I prefer darker tones for my DE.

Thanks in advance!

From my understanding, resin can warp pretty badly. You'd be best off using green stuff and shaving/filing down. Shouldn't be too tough.

as above really, greenstuff, filing, sanding and a lot of patience should do the job. Picture 4 would suggest they have already tried filling it a little, looks like something along the lines of poly filler....works great on plastic, not so well with resin.

I have bought a FW tantalus and the kit is pretty badly made like the picture, especially the brass deck being too small to fit the resin haul. Part of the haul joints you have to sand to fit snuggly.

The best way to strip the paint is to scrub with a tooth brush after spraying/splash/pour isopropyl alcohol 91% proof; DO NOT soak, not even for 30 minutes, as it will make the FW resin rubbery after extended soaking and cause cracks to let the previous trapped air bubbles out.

Have someone or self dump the rubbing alcohol over model into a wide pan, then you scrub, rinse in water; make sure you wear heavy duty gloves to protect your skin from the alcohol.

The first thing to do is to get the model apart. Super glue is brittle, especially when frozen, so you should be able to snap the glue joints without much trouble. Then once you have full control over how it's assembled you can go back and see which of those gaps are from poor assembly and which are from casting flaws. You might need to straighten some warped parts in boiling water, trim an oversized piece, or use scrap plastic/green stuff to add a little extra. Then, once you've fixed the pieces you can assemble it yourself and green stuff any small gaps that remain.

Doesn't cooling/freezing the model also affect the resin and make it more snappy?

Don't use isopropyl alcohol. Biostrip 20 will work better. I've heard you can't leave resin in it for too long, but it will do far less harm than the isopropyl.

Or you can use acetone free nail polish remover leave it to soak for about 5 mins ten scrub with a toothbrush