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There's some great rescues on here. I'm really enjoying this thread.

It's another day, so another rescue of the mess childhood me created. Today, it's a rhino.



That's right, it's dolloped in Humbrol gloss enamel paint. Go me!

So, I stripped it -



And repainted it -



As it was all in pieces after the stripping, I also took the opportunity to fit lights!

Nice! I'm surprised you were able to get all that Humbrol enamel off --- I find enamel to be a real pain to clean.

Here's another rescue - again, one of the best miniatures GW ever produced --- the 2nd ed. Techmarine. Beautiful figure, gets all of the "point" across without being the size of a friggin' dreadnought.

Before:


After: (and yes...he's now serving Chaos)

Beautiful, so much character. You're doing a wonderful job with these revives!

Humbrol gloss enamel paint.

Ouch!
Tough to remove?

I use Humbrol enamels on all my models.

I've had no problems removing it with Brake fluid (look for Dot 3, but Dot 4 also works).

 Dr H wrote:
I use Humbrol enamels on all my models.

I've had no problems removing it with Brake fluid (look for Dot 3, but Dot 4 also works).

Can't tell if you're serious. Brake fluid's pretty bad for the environment (i.e. you can't just pour it down the sink/drain). But I have tried it before. Leave a plastic mini in it long enough and it'll start to melt the plastic. All the detail just gets really softened.

But I use BioStrip and it seems to work fine on enamels.

 Whittlesey40k wrote:
...Can't tell if you're serious. Brake fluid's pretty bad for the environment (i.e. you can't just pour it down the sink/drain). But I have tried it before. Leave a plastic mini in it long enough and it'll start to melt the plastic. All the detail just gets really softened.

But I use BioStrip and it seems to work fine on enamels.

Yeah, serious.
Yes, don't pour it down the sink. Dispose of responsibly.
And use gloves to protect your hands; it'll dry them out in a bad way (hygroscopic).

It depends on the type of brake fluid, hence specifying Dot 3/4. I've left plastic in that overnight with no problems (and not needed longer).
Dot 5 is the stuff you do not want to use. It's a different mixture of chemicals and will dissolve plastic.

You want the Polyethylene glycol (PEG) based fluids.

Not easier to use, but may be cheaper.
Just an option.

 Dr H wrote:

 Whittlesey40k wrote:
...Can't tell if you're serious. Brake fluid's pretty bad for the environment (i.e. you can't just pour it down the sink/drain). But I have tried it before. Leave a plastic mini in it long enough and it'll start to melt the plastic. All the detail just gets really softened.

But I use BioStrip and it seems to work fine on enamels.

Yeah, serious.
Yes, don't pour it down the sink. Dispose of responsibly.
And use gloves to protect your hands; it'll dry them out in a bad way (hygroscopic).

It depends on the type of brake fluid, hence specifying Dot 3/4. I've left plastic in that overnight with no problems (and not needed longer).
Dot 5 is the stuff you do not want to use. It's a different mixture of chemicals and will dissolve plastic.

You want the Polyethylene glycol (PEG) based fluids.

Not easier to use, but may be cheaper.
Just an option.

I completely agree with the Doc.

No need to dispose of it as such, i have a jam jar of brake fluid (dot 3) that has been on the go happily stripping plastic and metal for at least 10 years, it doesn't seem to care if its dirty, just let it soak for a couple of days depending on paint thickness. I personally have had no problems with plastic melt, but I've not tried everything or resin for that matter.

I let the models drip in a funnel back into the jar, then remove any remaining small traces with hot water and washing up liquid.

You should never pour any oil of any kind down the drain, most council tips in the UK recycle oils.

 Big H wrote:
I personally have had no problems with plastic melt, but I've not tried everything or resin for that matter.

Yeah, you do need to leave it in there for ages, probably weeks. It's only happened when I've forgotten about it. I've not used brake fluid in years now though.

 Whittlesey40k wrote:

 Big H wrote:
I personally have had no problems with plastic melt, but I've not tried everything or resin for that matter.

Yeah, you do need to leave it in there for ages, probably weeks. It's only happened when I've forgotten about it. I've not used brake fluid in years now though.

Weeks might be bad !
Works like a charm on metals tho. To be fair i'm pretty lucky in that i have a large workshop and several tractors, lorries and vans, so a jam jar of Dot 3 brake fluid is neither here nor there. YMMV

I've rescued plenty of eBay tragedies over the years but I don't tend to take pics of them first. My gran used to pick up odd miniatures at car boot sales for me and post them over back in the 90s and I got a taste for it early on.

I should hunt out some things to rescue just to join the fun here.

This is fun!
Couldn't find the picture of it before the MEANGREEN unfortunately, but trust me it was terrible.
Here's my participation:

Awesome work!

I love this thread!
Really giving inspiration to clean up all the old job lots I've brought on eBay!

Actually it turns out I have documented one of these.


Didn't get a snap of his sorry state to begin with but here's a crummy old goblin In the dip.


Here he is stripped with additional bits prior to the chop and glue job.


And here's the finished article. My "new" Goblin Boss.

I should go dig through my collection and find a real rescue case. Just for the craic.

Crackin' job on that old dude.

I have far more stuff than I properly catalogued (hence why some bits don't match the before and after pictures).

Here's some Eldar artillery.


And the rescue.


Some more scouts (note the sergeants are swapped with the squad I painted prior)

eBay:


After:


I'm not a Marine fella at heart, but the metal Scouts are just friggin' fantastic.

Love the colour scheme on those scouts. Another great save by Elbows

I love this thread, subbing for sure.
I have a few Ebay rescues myself, but nothing documented and to be fair I'm not a great painter (base colors only most of the time, with washes on some, speed is important on most models except for leaders and specialists) so I dunno if any of my models would count as "rescued" compared to what I see here.

Bummer, now I am starting to regret not taking pictures of my rescued old Leman Russ Exterminator. When I got it roughly half the fittings had been replaced with cardboard (?) and some weird soft plastic rod. The upper tracks where missing and had cardboard glued over them as "armour", as was the engine hatch.
Several hours and a lot of plasticard and bits later and it looks servicable with not a scrap of card remaining.

Hey this is a great thread! Rescues have been some of the most rewarding painting experiences I've had with the hobby so far, hope to have a lot more under my belt soon. Here are some of my rescues:

Chaplain in Terminator Armor


Chaplain in regular Power Armor


Captain Erasmus Tycho


Librarian

Gorgeous work Kaiser! Amazing how much better you can turn out a model which was "pro painted" on eBay!

Why thank you! Anyone else have rescues to share? *Bumping* for interest

While not super amazing, I have a thing for taking some poorly painted old minis and bringing them up to halfway decent looking.

@martian_jo That is an excellent save! Gah how hard was it to strip off the original paintjob? The og looks exceptionally thick....

That original librarian kaiser "Goldilocks"

LOVE this thread. I'll have to take pictures of my rescues from now on.

This thread definitely needs a bump, so here's another one of mine...

Another one painted by me as a child.


And rescued 25-ish years later!

I have a few more I think.

Before:


After:


Before:


After:


Before: (Admittedly these weren't half bad...maybe better than my version!)


After:

I plan on bulking out at least a portion of my Guard Armour units with rescues, so there's that on the inbound.

STG - you got any plans for those Chimmy sides? I can find a home for them if not.

Gotta love when you're stripping something that looked like it was dipped in a pot of Blood Red and you find that it was likely dipped in a pot of Emerald Green first.