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Hey Dakka,

I'm looking at the new 'nids and I'm really feeling an itch to pick up the new swarm box and finally build the endless swarm that pulled me to the army when i first got in the hobby. I'm mostly focused in the hobby/painting/building aspects, but I've found the main reason i moved on from my Tyranids is that I didn't like the paint them. I enjoy painting, but I didn't like to paint THEM. It was my first attempt at getting a colour scheme and I think I've just fallen out of it.

SO I want to do a new colour scheme for them so I'm not as hesitant to get them painted up and looking good. However, over the past three years I've acquired and painted a lot of tyranids.

Is it possible/feasible to strip an entire army to paint? If it is, I'd want to do it for my Dark Eldar too, but I really don't want to ruin or jeopardize the quality of all my plastic models just cause want to paint something new.

Has anyone done this before? would it just better to reprime and paint over top?

Thanks a lot Dakka, cheers
Jpog

I literally just started this! I stripped about 8000 points of nids and have just started my new scheme. It's possible but it's mind numbingly dull as it takes ages.. You will need "LA's totally awesome cleaner" which should be easier for you to get than me as it's american. I'd also recommend using an Army Painter coloured spray primer for the skin of the Tyranids so then you're only painting the carapace and small details. I used a Bleached Bone for mine.

There is a purple degreaser that works well too. Can't remember the name, but it is in the automotive section of walmart. Soak for a couple of days then clean paint off with toothbrush.

I did this with my Sisters of battle when I messed up the clear coat. Works pretty well.

 SQRT(-2) wrote:
There is a purple degreaser that works well too. Can't remember the name, but it is in the automotive section of walmart. Soak for a couple of days then clean paint off with toothbrush.

I did this with my Sisters of battle when I messed up the clear coat. Works pretty well.

It's called Super Clean.

It's pretty easy to strip the paint off and keep the detail. There's a bunch of different ways and some work better for some people than others.

LA's and Simple green have both proven safe for leaving plastic models in for great lengths of time.

I posted some of my exploits in my P&M blog a while back:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/407917.page

Buy a big jug of Simple Green at walmart, and soak them in it for 24 hrs. Then paint should come off easily with a toothbrush and toothpick. Simple Green is the least abrasive of the other products. I highly recommend it.

Pure isopropyl alcohol works pretty well too. Same basic method, soak and scub. - iso does get off that primer residue that is often wrongfully deemed staining of the plastic but doesnt do so well at thick layers. It makes a great final clean after using one of the other popular methods that gets almost all of it off. My fav combo is Fairy Power Spray (Dawn power Dissolver in USA) followed by Isopropyl alcohol.

I stripped 165 Steel Legion models and a bunch of other plastics a few months ago.

Bought a big container WITH A LID, filled it with Simple Green, dropped them all in (many plastic models too, btw), and then shut the lid and tucked the container away. Every few days, I would agitate the container by shaking it around a bit, then leave it again.

After a few months, I opened it up and everything was still as tough as nails, but almost completely bare. I then put an evening aside and rinsed the armies off thoroughly with water (inside the container), and then proceeded to attack each model with a toothbrush one-by-one. Some were so well stripped they didn't need a brushing, others still needed some vigorous brushing. In the end it took a few hours but everything was spick and span.

Put them all back in to the dry container, and put a fan on them. The next day, they were all dry and clean as whistles.

They're all now in storage, slowly but surely getting new paint jobs. Stripping armies is easy, the cleaning up is tedious but the results are great and you feel like you accomplished a lot.

Have fun, and good luck!