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Hey guys, I'm in the process of doing an eBay rescue on some old Tau figures. I currently have a metal Krootox on my workbench which I believe has been (poorly) assembled with two-part epoxy. How would I go about removing it?

Freezer.

You can also look at soaking it in a light lubricant like PEG.

Most the time though, I just put it in the freezer for a few hours or over night at most. In the morning, parts are usually nicely separated.

Hmm, okay. It just spent overnight in the freezer already, might just have to keep at it then. Also what's the safest way to bend GW metal back into place? This poor guy has seen better days and one of his legs (which is quite thick) has bent inwards.

FrozenSoul80 wrote:Also what's the safest way to bend GW metal back into place?

Your fingers?

The vast majority of things which have been bent (either shipping or on purpose by someone attempting to repose something) can be bent back with gentle force from the human hand. Exceptionally thin parts can snap off with not much bending back and forth - with those, you may want to apply a little heat (salt baths are a common choice, though I normally just use a desk lamp on an adjustable neck with a 40 watt light bulb. Doesn't take much heat at all to make tin alloys more malleable.

Exact technique and methods will vary - you sort of get a feel for when you might be going too far. Also, keep in mind because of the way that tin alloys cast up - the more you bend it, the more bendy it becomes (up to the point that it breaks off). Tin forms rather large metal crystals when it translates from molten metal to solid - when you bend it you are breaking these crystals (if you listen really close you can actually hear it happen). The crystals provide a significant amount of strength to the miniature - however once all the crystals in a given cross section are broken...it ends up being like trying to put a broken tea cup back together using hair spray.

True^^

A lot of people use a soaking hot salty water to soften up a materiel. Although if the figure is already bent it makes sense that it wouldnt' take much softening to bend.

If you are okay with taking it down to bare metal, acetone should obliterate all paint and adhesive from your models.

Zuul wrote:If you are okay with taking it down to bare metal, acetone should obliterate all paint and adhesive from your models.

You sure? I've often used acetone to clean uncured epoxy, but I was under the impression cured epoxy was pretty impervious to acetone. I think there are very few solvents that will work on cured epoxy, that's one of the reasons it's used in many situations where resilience is required.

I haven't tried freezing it to remove it, that'd be pretty cool if it works well, I knew epoxies go brittle under cold but thought most of them had a lower brittle transition temperature than could be obtained by a freezer.

Not for miniatures, but sometimes on the race car if something is epoxied and we want to remove it we heat it up and it goes soft and you can usually get it off, but in the case of miniatures I don't know what would give way first, the epoxy or the metal.

I use a lot of epoxy at work, and when we screw up and have to take it off I find the best thing is heat. A heat gun with a small nozzle is awesome, or a soldering iron if that's not possible. Never tried an oven but it might be worth a shot, just check the melting point of white metal first.
The heat will soften the stuff and you should be able to pry/peel it off with a knife and some needle-nose pliers.