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Hello,

I was hoping someone could help me. I came in to a large amount of miniatures recently and I'm in the process of selling them on Ebay (see my other threads on identification of such). Now when I spoke to the someone in GW he said I'd get noticabebly more money if I stripped the models. Is this the case? If so, is it really as ahrd as it seems, or am I just useless? I can't get the paint out of the nooks and crannies and there's paint EVERYWHERE. I am the least art minded person you could possibly meet.

I'm using neat Dettol and a toothbrush. An help would be greatly appreciated.

Ashley

well, I mean gimme them and I will strip them

But on a serious note, if they are metal, brake fluid works well, leave them in, forget them for a day or 2, then go to town with a tooth brush.
for plastic simple green or purple power works well. But when it comes to paint in the nooks, soak, scrub, rinse, repeat 2 - 3 times. Stripping is good, but it's hard to get rid of all of the paint, depending on how its been painted. A tooth pick might be helpfull as well.

I like denatured alcohol or something similar. Put the models in a container and fill the container with the alcohol. Put outside overnight. Run the models under water and brush. Should not take much to clean them up. I did this with plastic miniatures from a board game and it worked well. May need to put some of the models back to soak for a bit longer, some took a day to get done.

Test this out first before committing the whole lot to it.

So, first off, you can't buy simple green or purple power in the UK, but Dettol is pretty damn good.

A couple of pointers:

Make sure the minis are COMPLETELY submerged, otherwise the paint will not lift, and the dettol will go sticky on the minis surface.
Do not rinse them in water if you are using dettol, as it will go gungy. Have a second bowl of 'clean' dettol for rinsing as you strip, and only when done dump them into a bowl of warm VERY soapy water to get rid of the residue.
Consider investing in a set of stiffer brushes for the scrubbng, I got a set of stiff bristled plastic and soft bristled steel brushes for about $5 from my local hardware store.
You may never get all of the paint from the crevices, but you will need to go in there with a pin or tooth pick to scrape away at the nooks and crannies after you're done scrubbing.
Lastly, make sure you soak them for a decent length of time, and also consider a second soak once the bulk of the paint is removed.

Remember for this that Dettol is completely re-useable, and does not denature when used for stripping. You can filter out the crap from round 1 stripping by straining it through a cloth, and then dump the minins back into it.

And one last point, some primers, especially enamels, will always be hard to lift. If there is a thin residue left, you may just have to tolerate that, but it rarely affects the repainting.

Hope this helps.

I use Simple Green. Works great. Works for metal and plastic and its biodegradable.

Put it in a tub. Let the minis soak for a couple days and then scrub them with a stiff plastic bristled brush. I scrub them under warm water to alleviate some of the mess.

Pure ispropyl alcohol works a treat.

Dettol works (the original brown hospital smelling one)

Fairy Power Spray works really well.

In any case always wear rubber gloves while doing this as anything that will strip the paint will irritate your skin, some really badly.
Youl want an old tooth brush to scrub a bit, and a tub, with a lid (made of something the stripper being used wont melt through. ~ I use an ice cream tub full of isoproyl alcohol and its been fine for over a year)
Do it outside cus most of them stink!

+1 to Fairy Power Spray. I use it all the time for stripping stuff down. It's even easier if you have access to an electric toothbrush or a sonicating bath to speed the process up