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Hy everyone,
So I was going through my Lord of the Rings minis and last year I picked up a big lot of stuff and some of the models were Moria goblins. The previous owner sprayed these with a black primer...but it's gloss black which I don't know what to do with?

Should I just strip them? Or will the gloss paint be more difficult to get off? I'm also slightly concerned about stripping because I haven't ever been able to get 100% of the paint off..maybe 90% but still have stuff in the small crevices and details. This isn't normally a huge deal with my 40k and fantasy stuff but the LOTR stuff is so much smaller so a little concerned about loosing the details.
think I could still paint over it fine or will the paint not stick very well?

If the details aren't obscured then I would suggest you just paint over it. I doubt you will have much problem with paint adhering. The biggest annoyance I've found with painting gloss is that all the reflections can make it hard to see what you're doing sometimes. You can hit it with a thin coat of matte varnish, or matte medium if you want to remove the sheen. Then it'll just be like any other black undercoat.

You can strip them, but you'll probably need a more agressive stripper than simple green.

Are they metal or plastic minis (as this does effect which agents you can use safely on them)?

If metal, acetone will strip the stuff back to bare metal just leaving it to soak for a couple of days and giving it a light scrub now and then). (Wear gloves and eye protection)

If plastic, I use brake fluid (DOT3). The minis may have a stain left from the paint (but otherwise the paint will go) with a soak and a scrub. (once again, gloves and eye protection).

Apart from that, I have zero experience on LOTR minis from post 2000 (just the pre-GW licenced stuff in the 90s from mithril miniatures).

If the detail isn't being obscured by the gloss black you could just lightly hit it with a lacquer based aerosol primer like Tamiya's surfacer, it should stick to the gloss black and in turn acrylic paint will stick to it. You don't need a heavy coat of the lacquer primer, just enough to roughen up the surface.

Though in my experience people who make the mistake of priming something gloss black simultaneously make the mistake of applying it way too thick. In that case not much you can do but strip it unless you don't care about losing a bit of detail.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Though in my experience people who make the mistake of priming something gloss black simultaneously make the mistake of applying it way too thick. In that case not much you can do but strip it unless you don't care about losing a bit of detail.

And you can bet they didn't remove the mould lines.

Don't need to remove mould lines if you put the primer on thick enough.

Checkmate atheists

kb_lock wrote:
Don't need to remove mould lines if you put the primer on thick enough.

Checkmate atheists

LOL

I've been doing it wrong all these years. Dangnabit, I coulda saved so much time with them mould lines, bro. From now on, I'm using that bucket of ten year old, dried-out solid green deck stain to do my minis!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If the detail isn't being obscured by the gloss black you could just lightly hit it with a lacquer based aerosol primer like Tamiya's surfacer, it should stick to the gloss black and in turn acrylic paint will stick to it. You don't need a heavy coat of the lacquer primer, just enough to roughen up the surface.

Though in my experience people who make the mistake of priming something gloss black simultaneously make the mistake of applying it way too thick. In that case not much you can do but strip it unless you don't care about losing a bit of detail.

Actually took a closer look at some of the minis (all plastics by the way)..I got about 40 goblins in the lot (for like 20 bucks which was a smoking deal and most were bare plastics) but about 10 of them are gloss black but actually appears to be sprayed over an old paint job on about 2 minis so I'm assuming it's all the gloss black ones.

Ive used purple power or whatever it's called which I'm assuming is similar to simple green and works okay as I said in the first post.

Does any type of brake fluid work? Never tried that before... usually I soak about 1 week then scrub then if need be again.

Dot3, but test it on one first

kb_lock wrote:
Dot3, but test it on one first

Perfect I'll give it a shot! I got a $20 gift card for Canadian Tire so I'll zip over and buy some and some new fishing lures!

Just make sure to dispose of it properly, it is quite caustic and shouldn't go down drains or be dumped in garbage, etc.

I would try Dettol before DoT3, tbh. A little less caustic, though very foul smelling. Wear gloves, and use either outside!

 chiefbigredman wrote:

Does any type of brake fluid work?

No, any type does not work. They have big numbers on them for a reason (because different systems use a different rated fluid) - but it makes it easier for gamers to pick the right one.

I'd use dot3. Dot4 can be iffy with some plastics and dot5 will probably eat styrene (it permanently softened some resin I had).

On metals, no real danger. Plastics, very definitely differences.