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 Iron_Captain wrote:
I gave my first ever Leman Russ a hull flamer and plasma sponsons...
What the hell was I thinking?

I mean, it's not the most optimum loadout, but I could think of valid reasons to do that. And back in 5th ed, LRBT + Plasma sponsons was actually considered a reasonable, if expensive, loadout.

It's been a few years, so I'll go with my biggest regret, with pictures.

So I had been playing for maybe about 6-12 months, and I was still contemplating Witchhunters. I'd ordered a rhino online, with the intent of converting it into an exorcist. Much to my dismay, it had stuff poorly glued all over it that wasn't very easily visible from the pictures, so I set to prying stuff off of it. I was using a utility knife to pry, you know, like a stupid person. The knife slipped and instead of going into my rhino, goes into my hand instead. I went to wash it off, and then I realized that it was puckering, and so I thought to myself, "oh dear, that's never a good thing," and so I sat down on the couch, hand raised above my head, other hand carefully juggling my phone and swatting my very interested dog away, calling everyone in it to see who would mind blowing their night to take me to the hospital.

And so, the story leads to its natural conclusion. A trip to Denny's at 3am after the 6 hours I spent waiting at the ER, some pain pills, and this gem:

I think I still have nerve damage along where the slice was. It was pretty deep.

The doctor said that he was worried that it was too deep for stitches, and I think my response was something along the lines of "What the hell does that mean? No, you stitch that up!"

And that's when you realised you had to start a World Eaters army, right?

Even the smallest scalpel has a psychic reflection in the Warp – a splinter of potential that becomes stronger the more deaths the weapons causes

nareik wrote:
And that's when you realised you had to start a World Eaters army, right?

I might have briefly thought about refilling my Blood Red paint pot.

 daedalus wrote:

 Iron_Captain wrote:
I gave my first ever Leman Russ a hull flamer and plasma sponsons...
What the hell was I thinking?

I mean, it's not the most optimum loadout, but I could think of valid reasons to do that. And back in 5th ed, LRBT + Plasma sponsons was actually considered a reasonable, if expensive, loadout.

It's been a few years, so I'll go with my biggest regret, with pictures.

So I had been playing for maybe about 6-12 months, and I was still contemplating Witchhunters. I'd ordered a rhino online, with the intent of converting it into an exorcist. Much to my dismay, it had stuff poorly glued all over it that wasn't very easily visible from the pictures, so I set to prying stuff off of it. I was using a utility knife to pry, you know, like a stupid person. The knife slipped and instead of going into my rhino, goes into my hand instead. I went to wash it off, and then I realized that it was puckering, and so I thought to myself, "oh dear, that's never a good thing," and so I sat down on the couch, hand raised above my head, other hand carefully juggling my phone and swatting my very interested dog away, calling everyone in it to see who would mind blowing their night to take me to the hospital.

And so, the story leads to its natural conclusion. A trip to Denny's at 3am after the 6 hours I spent waiting at the ER, some pain pills, and this gem:

Spoiler:

I think I still have nerve damage along where the slice was. It was pretty deep.

The doctor said that he was worried that it was too deep for stitches, and I think my response was something along the lines of "What the hell does that mean? No, you stitch that up!"

I did that, except I skewered my middle finger with the hobby knife down the tip, and then as the natural reaction to stabbing yourself is to yank the tool away... well I opened up my finger from the inside.
They sent me a fresh doctor, doing his first stitching. He was shaking so much he had trouble tying the knots needed to prep the needle, which for some reason calmed me down. So when he stuck it in my finger I yelped like it hurt, which it obviously didn't as the nurses had been randomly poking in whatever they inject to make the finger numb. Scared him though and earned me a stern look from the veteran doctor... also seemed to calm the newbie down after. Funny to me, at least.

I lost interest in the project of converting the Cadians that made that whole mess happen the day after and that one probably still has flecks of dried blood on it.

 Purifier wrote:

I did that, except I skewered my middle finger with the hobby knife down the tip, and then as the natural reaction to stabbing yourself is to yank the tool away... well I opened up my finger from the inside.
They sent me a fresh doctor, doing his first stitching. He was shaking so much he had trouble tying the knots needed to prep the needle, which for some reason calmed me down. So when he stuck it in my finger I yelped like it hurt, which it obviously didn't as the nurses had been randomly poking in whatever they inject to make the finger numb. Scared him though and earned me a stern look from the veteran doctor... also seemed to calm the newbie down after. Funny to me, at least.

Yikes! That wouldn't instill a lot of confidence. Good thing that he at least calmed down a little bit. My doctor got annoyed because I kept telling him I could feel every poke still. He eventually got me more anesthetic and told me that it was the most he could give me. I still felt the pokes, but they at least stopped hurting. The weird thing was that about a half hour afterwords, after it finally stopped being necessary, it felt like it actually started to take effect and my entire arm got numb.

I lost interest in the project of converting the Cadians that made that whole mess happen the day after and that one probably still has flecks of dried blood on it.

Yeah, I could see that. I think that my Rhino wound up with soldering iron holes through it and became a terrain piece. You kinda lose interest after something like that.

I regret leaving my models when I moved. Should have somehow stuffed them in my bags... I could have bought new clothes. Oh well.

I regret everything I have sold or lost over the years. Far too much to list, many entire armies for a variety of games and a lifetime's collection of books and baubles.

 Frozocrone wrote:

 ApaceKittens wrote:
Frozocone this is interesting because I also use Dettol to strip paint. what did you scrub with?
the way I do it is first soak the model in Dettol for 1-2 hours then scrub with a toothbrush. then I wash in warm soapy water when all the paint is gone. then I soak in methylated spirits for an hour and wash again.
i have had no problems with this and think it's great. shame about the models.

Cheap toothbrush. I wonder whether just letting them soak would have been better.

Also used warm soapy water to rinse off the dettol. This time around I'm hoping not to use dettol.

That's the mistake, there.

DO NOT RINSE WITH WATER when using dettol. It turns the paint into a sticky gluggy mess that is impossible to shift.
(use diluted dettol to clean scrapes and injuries to your own flesh. It's meant to be used neat (straight from the bottle) when stripping paint - this also means using gloves, as it will take skin off and give you a chemical burn if spilled on exposed skin.)

Don't use dettol at all. Use isopropyl alcohol instead (90% of dettol is this, anyway. The rest is antibacterial stuff you won't need, and scent/color).
Then rinse in more of the stuff.

Or use another plastic-safe paint stripper that CAN be rinsed with water.

Dunno if you can get it outside of the US, but Simple Green works amazingly for me. Biodegradable too.

I cleaned up my ebay mordians with WarOne's tutorial: https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/WarOne's_Simple_Green_Stripping_Method

Man, I miss that guy.

Lot of regrets over the years of stuff I didn't get, or stuff that I didn't save when I had it. But then maybe it's not a bad thing, as my biggest regret of all is not getting to really play a lot and make use of the stuff I have. So while I think of what has been lost a lot, ultimately, I probably would not have been getting much out of it anyway :/

 chromedog wrote:

 Frozocrone wrote:

 ApaceKittens wrote:
Frozocone this is interesting because I also use Dettol to strip paint. what did you scrub with?
the way I do it is first soak the model in Dettol for 1-2 hours then scrub with a toothbrush. then I wash in warm soapy water when all the paint is gone. then I soak in methylated spirits for an hour and wash again.
i have had no problems with this and think it's great. shame about the models.

Cheap toothbrush. I wonder whether just letting them soak would have been better.

Also used warm soapy water to rinse off the dettol. This time around I'm hoping not to use dettol.

That's the mistake, there.

DO NOT RINSE WITH WATER when using dettol. It turns the paint into a sticky gluggy mess that is impossible to shift.
(use diluted dettol to clean scrapes and injuries to your own flesh. It's meant to be used neat (straight from the bottle) when stripping paint - this also means using gloves, as it will take skin off and give you a chemical burn if spilled on exposed skin.)

Don't use dettol at all. Use isopropyl alcohol instead (90% of dettol is this, anyway. The rest is antibacterial stuff you won't need, and scent/color).
Then rinse in more of the stuff.

Or use another plastic-safe paint stripper that CAN be rinsed with water.

care to clear up a debate I've been having with my dad, I've got some Isopropyl alchol I'm thinking of using to do some stripping and mentioned I'll need to get some gloves, he insists that "you don't need glvoes it's rubbing alchol thats meant to go on skin anyway" whose right?

I can speak a bit to this. Alcohol acts as an astringent and disinfectant. When I was a teenager, it was commonly used with witch hazel to help dry out and prevent pizza face.

I've never used it on models, but for prolonged use on your hands, it'll probably dry them out and make them more prone to cracking/chapping. It won't cause you any long term harm, but some long gloves might not be a terrible idea, particularly if you have sensitive skin. All things considered though, it's probably not too much worse than a lot of heavy cleaning with bleach-water.

Oh, but if you have any cuts on your hand, you'll know pretty quickly.

If ever in doubt about any chemical, google it with "MSDS" and you'll get more information about how safe it is than you'll have ever wanted.

 daedalus wrote:
I can speak a bit to this. Alcohol acts as an astringent and disinfectant. When I was a teenager, it was commonly used with witch hazel to help dry out and prevent pizza face.

I've never used it on models, but for prolonged use on your hands, it'll probably dry them out and make them more prone to cracking/chapping. It won't cause you any long term harm, but some long gloves might not be a terrible idea, particularly if you have sensitive skin. All things considered though, it's probably not too much worse than a lot of heavy cleaning with bleach-water.

Oh, but if you have any cuts on your hand, you'll know pretty quickly.

If ever in doubt about any chemical, google it with "MSDS" and you'll get more information about how safe it is than you'll have ever wanted.

gotcha gloves it is.. give my dad a good "I told you so" too.

 daedalus wrote:
Dunno if you can get it outside of the US, but Simple Green works amazingly for me. Biodegradable too.

No Simple Green in EU I think, but there is an equivalent called Glanzer, at least in the western part.

It's quite safe and work amazingly on plastic and metal alltogether. I'm fond of this thing.

I've stripped a few models and use brake fluid (any kind). Seems to work fine after a 24hr soak and gentle scrubing with a toothbrush. IT can sometime weaken the glue however and cause models to fall off their base, but I've noticed no damage to the models themselves.

Bought a nightshroud bomber late 7th, didn't play it in 7th, now it's an expensive paperweight kek

IronSlug wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
Dunno if you can get it outside of the US, but Simple Green works amazingly for me. Biodegradable too.

No Simple Green in EU I think, but there is an equivalent called Glanzer, at least in the western part.

It's quite safe and work amazingly on plastic and metal alltogether. I'm fond of this thing.

Where do you find it? I need a paint stripper on hand, and I can't seem to find one.

BrianDavion wrote:


care to clear up a debate I've been having with my dad, I've got some Isopropyl alchol I'm thinking of using to do some stripping and mentioned I'll need to get some gloves, he insists that "you don't need glvoes it's rubbing alchol thats meant to go on skin anyway" whose right?

Isopropyl alcohol when used for short duration exposure on skin (it's alcohol, it evaporates, cooling the skin) is fine. You just need to moisturise afterwards, as it also takes skin oils with it when it evaporates, drying it out - your skin needs those oils to keep it flexible).

That isn't the same as immersing your hands in the stuff (which WILL strip the oils from your skin, dry it out and leave it prone to cracking, which will then sting like the bejabbers if you get alcohol or dettol on them afterwards ... ) which you usually inadvertently do when stripping them (stuff will end up on your hands, because you will be handling them - especially if using a brush to encourage stubborn paint to leave). Sure, you don't NEED gloves, but it's still a good idea to make PPE something you just DO. A couple of minutes immersion in neat dettol and skin WILL peel of your fingers. How easy is it to have neat dettol on your skin for that long when stripping minis? Quite easy. You lose track of time when trying to get paint out of the crevices. Now, most of that skin-removal is due to the eucalyptus oil compounds in it as well as the alcohol (it's also an allergen and you can develop sensitivity to it).

Gloves avoid this situation. Eye protection is also a good idea. You don't want ANY paint stripping solvent in your eyes (especially if it still contains paint residue). Sure, you can flush dettol out of your eyes with water if you act quickly, but you WILL have to use lubricating drops in it for a few hours afterwards, too (I get "dry eye", I have to do this anyway, lest my eyelids scrape my corneas away. Dettol in the eyes is about as pleasant.). But hey, it's your skin.

 chromedog wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:


care to clear up a debate I've been having with my dad, I've got some Isopropyl alchol I'm thinking of using to do some stripping and mentioned I'll need to get some gloves, he insists that "you don't need glvoes it's rubbing alchol thats meant to go on skin anyway" whose right?

Isopropyl alcohol when used for short duration exposure on skin (it's alcohol, it evaporates, cooling the skin) is fine. You just need to moisturise afterwards, as it also takes skin oils with it when it evaporates, drying it out - your skin needs those oils to keep it flexible).

That isn't the same as immersing your hands in the stuff (which WILL strip the oils from your skin, dry it out and leave it prone to cracking, which will then sting like the bejabbers if you get alcohol or dettol on them afterwards ... ) which you usually inadvertently do when stripping them (stuff will end up on your hands, because you will be handling them - especially if using a brush to encourage stubborn paint to leave). Sure, you don't NEED gloves, but it's still a good idea to make PPE something you just DO. A couple of minutes immersion in neat dettol and skin WILL peel of your fingers. How easy is it to have neat dettol on your skin for that long when stripping minis? Quite easy. You lose track of time when trying to get paint out of the crevices. Now, most of that skin-removal is due to the eucalyptus oil compounds in it as well as the alcohol (it's also an allergen and you can develop sensitivity to it).

Gloves avoid this situation. Eye protection is also a good idea. You don't want ANY paint stripping solvent in your eyes (especially if it still contains paint residue). Sure, you can flush dettol out of your eyes with water if you act quickly, but you WILL have to use lubricating drops in it for a few hours afterwards, too (I get "dry eye", I have to do this anyway, lest my eyelids scrape my corneas away. Dettol in the eyes is about as pleasant.). But hey, it's your skin.

You can use rubbing alcohol to strip paint? I didn't know that.

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

IronSlug wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
Dunno if you can get it outside of the US, but Simple Green works amazingly for me. Biodegradable too.

No Simple Green in EU I think, but there is an equivalent called Glanzer, at least in the western part.

It's quite safe and work amazingly on plastic and metal alltogether. I'm fond of this thing.

Where do you find it? I need a paint stripper on hand, and I can't seem to find one.

I've find it in the first supermarket I tried with cleansing products. You're french right ? It was in a Lecl*rc if that is of any help

For metal it's quite quick, a night in the liquid is suffiscient, for plastic, sometimes I let it several days. I've got some old GW Orc archers who spent a month in it without any damage.

I regret:

-Selling off my all Steel Legion army... Hot dang those were cool models.
-Selling off my large army of metal Grey Knights that had tons of Forgeworld stuff for the vehicles.
-Selling off my Death Guard army that was all models from Rogue Trader to 3rd edition, with heavily converted vehicles.
-Selling off my Imperial Fist army that I had spent hundreds on bits for to make it just the way I wanted it.
-Selling off my Eldar army... hah, there seems to be a trend.
-Finally, not having finished painting an army in years.

IronSlug wrote:

 CthuluIsSpy wrote:

IronSlug wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
Dunno if you can get it outside of the US, but Simple Green works amazingly for me. Biodegradable too.

No Simple Green in EU I think, but there is an equivalent called Glanzer, at least in the western part.

It's quite safe and work amazingly on plastic and metal alltogether. I'm fond of this thing.

Where do you find it? I need a paint stripper on hand, and I can't seem to find one.

I've find it in the first supermarket I tried with cleansing products. You're french right ? It was in a Lecl*rc if that is of any help

For metal it's quite quick, a night in the liquid is suffiscient, for plastic, sometimes I let it several days. I've got some old GW Orc archers who spent a month in it without any damage.

I'll look in the cleaning section then. There's a leclerc in my town I can go to.

My regret is starting lizardmen. Don't get me wrong, I love my lizards, but had I known they were going to hit WHFB with a sledgehammer and turn it into another loose formation squad based game like 40k 10 years later, I probably wouldn't have bothered. I got into WHFB because of the rank-and-file mechanic and how it was based off of medieval warfare but with fantasy elements. When that disappeared that killed the point of that army.

My other regret is not filling out my metal immortal squad. Now I have 6 of them and I don't know where to get the other 4 to make a full squad.

Another regret is not getting a metal deceiver. Those are absurdly rare and expensive now.

I tried to make a Daemon Prince out of a Talos. It's a complete mess and parts always snap off it.

Buying a crate of Ork stuff when I was in poor health, the whole project took on way too much and it's in limbo.

Taking on commissions when I wasn't well, for the same reason plus letting clients down.

I regret beating my friend's Always Strikes First high elves and dragon in early 7th edition with my beasts of chaos.

Little did I know he had just taken a string of losses to an orc player so his Warhammer esteem was at rock bottom.

Thinking if he couldn't beat orcs, perhaps he could at least beat beastmen (who really didn't have any hard counters to ASF blocks or flying terror causers).

Unfortunately he threw his dragon into a mass of chaos ogres, trolls and chariots which barely defeated it. I think he was attempting an unsupported terror bomb, and in fairness it nearly worked.

Simultaneously a group of nurgle minotaurs managed to hold a charge from his knights, which he was hoping to roll the flank with (a terrible idea anyway as beasts of chaos were a very fluid army, which didn't easily present flanks).

Poor strategy and bad luck combined to make him realise toy soldiers is a daft game anyway. He instead ploughed his hobby time into computer games after this point.

I regret buying up a bunch of Chaos Marines in anticipation of 6th edition 40K, hoping that the game would be good and my favourite army would get some love. Got they were just fething gak. That codex was a travesty.

I regret buying up a bunch of Grey Knights in anticipation of 8th edition, only to find out that Space Marines aren't good enough anymore and everything is being upscaled to primaris marines.

Well, Primaris Marines have totally killed my love of everything marine, I'm not touching another marine or chaos army until the entire line is complete with new models. Thanks GW.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
I regret buying up a bunch of Chaos Marines in anticipation of 6th edition 40K, hoping that the game would be good and my favourite army would get some love. Got they were just fething gak. That codex was a travesty.

I regret buying up a bunch of Grey Knights in anticipation of 8th edition, only to find out that Space Marines aren't good enough anymore and everything is being upscaled to primaris marines.

Well, Primaris Marines have totally killed my love of everything marine, I'm not touching another marine or chaos army until the entire line is complete with new models. Thanks GW.

actually Primarisd Marines are a god send for a classic marine army. it means you can know that standard mariens will NOT get a ton of new toys and thus can plan your army around the index reasonably comfortably

This is a fantastic thread!

I regret not storing my 80's/early 90's models carefully.

I regret so much marine hopping: wolves to vanilla to wolves to chaos marines to blood angels to vanilla to ultramarines.

Just pick one and go, man!

I've got quite a lot of miniatures that have been converted and then subsequently "unconverted".

My younger self regrets starting a Space Wolves army, because they're the one Chapter that really need feathered/blended highlights to look good. the others - Ultramarines, Blood Angels and Dark Angels - all look fine without a highlight on the power armour or a simple edge highlight, but not Space Wolves grey, IMO.

Buying a new Death Guard army when I saw the Vectorium rules in Traitor Legions, and then finding out it's all hot garbage fire six months later.

I put a lot of time and effort into that army, as it was for my 40th birthday week at Warhammer World.

I didn't win a single game. It just felt like I'd brought a knife to a gun fight. The only game I felt that I could have won, my opponent seized on me and that was it.

Seriously - whoever wrote the DG part of the index needs to be taken out back and deleted

Wasting my time with a jerk.

He was at first interested in 40K and bought an Eldar army second-hand. I introduced him to the hobby and we played a couple of games. But it turned out that he gave a crap about the whole wargaming hobby. Normally there is an improvement after the first intro games as the newcomers pick up the rules. In this case however every fricken game that followed was an introductory game because he forgot nearly everything ruleswise.
He is a computer gamer and I thought simple tactics wouldn´t be too hard for him to grasp. I was so wrong! On one occasion he deployed a guardian squad without a heavy weapon platform out in the open directly opposite my Chaos Predator (Destructor). After he did this awful placement I questioned him, if he was satisfied with his positioning allowing him to rethink his decision. He answered that everything was fine and you can imagine what happened next...
We played 2nd with house rules (alternate unit activations) and Chaos won the roll for first unit activation. The Predator opened up fire and the guardian squad was turned into red mist.
He also had difficulties designing a sensible list and therefore I decided to write both lists in the future battle which turned out to be a nearly mirror match (CSM vs. CSM). This battle at least was a little bit more exciting but I was still forced to explain everything.
And now comes antoher disturbing fact: He reveled in his idiocy. After this final experience I made a resolution:

I will not suffer any jerks anymore.