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Hi guys,
I was wondering what's the best way to take part off of a painted and glued model, in order to change an arm for example. I'm speaking about cataphractii here, that I bought second hand and they were glued before, probably by plastic glue. I didn't glue them myself so I'm unsure of how the arm and body connect and would like to avoid spoiling my paint job.
Thanks !

If it's plastic glued, then you're probably going to need to cut through the joins. Brute method would be to use a Stanley knife. Refined method would be to use a hobby saw.

There is no way to detach a plastic glued mini’s arm without some damage to the paint job.

Plastic glue uses solvent that partially melts the plastic so the pieces fuse together. It won’t snap off whole like a plastic part might off an old metal mini.

Hobby saw will remove a fraction of the material from the join area but will be a clean cut and will likely damage the paint less unless you scrape some other part of the mini going back and forth with it.

A sharp knife blade will cut through the material fine but will be harder to control and will probably bend it out of shape a bit and will likely require a bit more tidying after.

Well, thanks guys
Finally, I just tried to pull the arm slowly, to get an eye, to see how it would react and...it just detached itself lol
Very badly glued by the previous owner but perfect for me ! No scratches, nothing broke, a perfect move

Hammer.. disassembles in no time flat..

rarely usable afterwards however.. but I stand by my answer in general