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Like many of us I raid Ebay for minis and as you know it can be very hit and miss. However, I won't give up on anything I buy;If I can fix it ,it stays out of the bin!

The biggest problem I encounter is excess glue.
Most of it I can deal with, using a scalpel. The problems arise when it has flown over detail, which is much harder to fix. I'm not the greatest sculptor otherwise I would cover the damaged parts in green stuff, my last attempt at a robe cover-up looked more like a blanket(heavy winter winter style) So I was thinking about a drill?

In one of my previous jobs I did use a drill powered by an air compressor, mainly for repairing damage on resin giftware, and I've been wondering if it would do the same job on plastic minis??

So is a drill worth the expense for doing this kind of thing, say for example; an arm where the glue has poured down from the join and stuck the arm to the body?

I'd say you'd be better off sticking with a scalpel.. a drill is just going to butcher any details before you've even realised.. especially a powered drill.

I wouldn't go anywhere near my minis with my Dremel, it's way too powerful.

Yeah...nooooooope. I have seen some hobby channels using a tiny version of a dremel....but the two I own are for serious work and would remove the figure faster than I'd notice.

PS: For what it's worth, my ultrasonic cleaner filled with Super Clean turns excess glue into flakes that pop off. Epoxy is still nearly impossible to remove though.

I've actually tried this. The friction just melts* the plastic.

* - Strictly speaking, it heats it beyond its glass transition point, not actually its melting point. The important thing is that it makes it go all soft and rubbery and ruins the model.

Not worth it for that type of work, at all.

I do use my dremel for 'drilling' (more like carving out) magnet holes in resin bases. It's nice to be able to do a whole squad of bases in a few minutes.

It's also good for major surgery on a conversion. I'm not talking mold lines or glue. I'm talking 'take the doors off this Rhino so I can slap some orky looking ones on it" surgery. Come to think of it, that might just work because it's an Orky conversion, so if I have some gaps and irregularities, it's all in character.

Even with that, you have to be very careful with a Dremel, and hopefully have a variable speed one that you keep on a LOW speed.

Butch

I use the metal modelling tools from citadel. The ones that look like dentist scrapers. On metal I tend to soak in acetone first as it softens the glue. On plastic I’m just really careful- metal on plastic causes horrible marks when you slip.

Thanks for all the replies,Guys! I hadn't thought of an ultrasonic cleaner,from experience I do know that some paintstripping products can loosen up glue. Regards the drill It did feel like a little bit Overkill and some of you reminded me that it generates a lot of heat;I should have remembered this considering how many times I stuck the damn thing in my fingers........

I use a Dremel to clean miniatures.

Recently picked up a lot of Grey Knights. The metal Terminators all had excess super glue coming out of joints near the arms.

These models were more than 10 years old. Glue had accumulated at the bottom of the joints in an irregular fashion. It was soft enough to push into with an XActo knife but hard to cut away.

The way I cleaned it was with a leather press bit, which is a smooth, metal nub. It cleared away the mess pretty quickly, kept the Dremel at its lowest setting while working with minis. On a couple of them, the glue pressed into the model and I had to go back with a file to pick it off.

I use a TackLife 135W 'Dremel' off Amazon for £30. Mainly for the grinder attachment to create brass spears, but I've also used the sanding discs to take down parts of plastic minis. Before I get interjections - no it doesn't melt the model, or clog the sanding discs if you're gentle. I set it to the low speed, use the provided discs and gently touch them to the surface - works perfect. That said, it is not a gentle tool. In this capacity, I'm using it to sand down parts wholesale that I don't want. The grit would not be fine enough the take away just overspilled glue, or to sand detail smooth/remove mold lines.

But. leading on from techsoldaten's comment, it's just a result of the tool I'm using. A finer paper, or a different tool may yield better results. Just be aware that it isn't a subtle instrument unless you wield it very gently. I'll also throw out a suggestion for jeweller's needle files - very handy.