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So, I don't have much experience in purchasing stuff from e-bay. I've only ordered stuff from china. However, my intention is to buy a bunch of poorly painted Space Marine tactical squads, remove the paint and turn them into some decent army.
What are your opinions about repainting cheap old stuff and is it really worthy? Note that I have the free time to do it, because I rarely paint. I spent more time in painting minis.

I've put some stuff into my watch list, please let me know what you think:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371250545219?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321524045040?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261686132038?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

But if you have any other good recommendations or suggestions please share them.

It depends on if you actually want to spend the time on it. That first lot looks like it'd be terrible to try to clean, and I doubt you'd get everything off. Keep in mind that getting paint off takes a long time, if they used enamels it won't come off, and you still may end up with some obscured details even if it's acrylics.

If you want to undertake the project, absolutely do it, it is really up to you and whether or not you want to spend the time on it.

Thanks! I really want to invest time into it. Unfortunately there is no way to understand what can be stripped and what not :(

I've been doing this over the past year and picked up around 120 space marines for under £30. The key is to look for clearly photographed lots with minimal customisation. Often stripping custom minus will reveal a mess of glue and modelling.
Don't go too rough with bad painting either as you run the same risk.

We can help you strip appropriately.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I've been doing this over the past year and picked up around 120 space marines for under £30. The key is to look for clearly photographed lots with minimal customisation. Often stripping custom minus will reveal a mess of glue and modelling.
Don't go too rough with bad painting either as you run the same risk.

We can help you strip appropriately.

Thanks! I hope you dont mind If i send you over some offers and guide which are okay to buy.
I heard that Dettol makes miracles?

Dettol can work very well, or as I'm sure someone will be able to explain, Iso alcohol also works well. Neither will hurt plastic short term.

sonic cleaner with purple power or simple green sounds like it works wonders in getting most of the paint off.

Trying to clean plastic models with Dettol will be a nightmare. I strongly recommend that you get yourself some Biostrip 20, which is a lot more friendly on your skin, doesn't stink like Dettol, and does more with less, so although a pot is more expensive, it is cheaper in the long term.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Dettol can work very well, or as I'm sure someone will be able to explain, Iso alcohol also works well. Neither will hurt plastic short term.

Acrylic paints are soluble in ethanol - the majority of the fluid in Dettol is just alcohol.

The problem is that there is no way to know that the minis I bought are painted with enamel or acrylis. Or for Dettol it matters not?

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Often stripping custom minus will reveal a mess of glue and modelling.

This. It doesn't have to be custom minis, even. A good stripper should make short work of most paint (I like Fairy Power Spray and iso alcohol, though I hear the former's formulation has changed for the worse [for painted mini stripping]) making the main problem the amount of poly cement poured over the surface of the minis. But, as Bottle says, clear photos might help.

On enamels: I tested spray enamel as a primer once, and tried stripping it when I laid it on too thick. It is pretty tough to get off, but you can get it down to a minimal layer, all but a colour stain on the mini. Pretty much like acrylic primer. Mmmay be a slightly different matter if the enamel's been on the mini for a year or two.

 DalinCriid wrote:
The problem is that there is no way to know that the minis I bought are painted with enamel or acrylis. Or for Dettol it matters not?

Dettol probably won't do much to enamels. You'll need something with more oomph.

I can't stand the smell of dettol, though - so I don't use it. I use acetone on metals (which also breaks superglue bonds as well as stripping paint) and dot3 brake fluid on plastics (which WILL take off enamels OR acrylics and not hurt the plastics provided you know what you are doing AND USE THE PROPER PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE). )

Unlike other people though, I have access to proper disposal methods for both of these, though.

 DalinCriid wrote:
The problem is that there is no way to know that the minis I bought are painted with enamel or acrylis. Or for Dettol it matters not?

Very very few people used enamel on junk 40k lots.
If in doubt, ask the seller.

As a guy who has somewhat sworn off buying painted minis due to hours spent scrubbing - I just want to call out the comment about using and Ultrasonic cleaner. I'd never heard of doing that before, so I googled it. I honestly can't believe I've never heard of this before - I've spent hours reading about stripping miniatures. Money and time saved by buying some horror show minis and using this methods would be significant.

Good god - check this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCiqRUB3Ums

Well I think I have access to Dettol in my country. If not I'm gonna use Iso or something else that we have here.

I found some more offers and I wonder If I should buy them. Unfortunately I have no Idea why the different offers have different postage prices.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warhammer-40-000-Space-Marines-790391-Tactical-Squad-/351573887827?hash=item51db6fcb53:g:vG4AAOSw7hRWP6x-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/21x-Space-Marine-Tactical-Squad-Games-Workshop-Warhammer-40-000-40k-Dated-1999-/272023039874?hash=item3f55d62f82:g:EHgAAOSwMmBV6Gq1

 DalinCriid wrote:
Well I think I have access to Dettol in my country. If not I'm gonna use Iso or something else that we have here.

I found some more offers and I wonder If I should buy them. Unfortunately I have no Idea why the different offers have different postage prices.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Warhammer-40-000-Space-Marines-790391-Tactical-Squad-/351573887827?hash=item51db6fcb53:g:vG4AAOSw7hRWP6x-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/21x-Space-Marine-Tactical-Squad-Games-Workshop-Warhammer-40-000-40k-Dated-1999-/272023039874?hash=item3f55d62f82:g:EHgAAOSwMmBV6Gq1

Iso works on stripping paints, I've used it before. My go to is a LA Totally Awesome I can get for $1 here in the states, that works very good, for as cheap as it is. So if you can find deals and don't mind stripping figures, I would go with it.

As for the difference in price for shipping, I've noticed that some sellers have higher shipping then others for the same item. I've never sold anything on ebay so not sure how it works, and what they charge in fees, but I think some charge higher prices in shipping to get some extra money out of a seller. For that second listing you posted, I wouldn't waste my money, if you are going to be paying double what you purchase the item at in shipping, especially for some plastic that doesn't weight but a pound or two at most.

lol, now I see that the second seller wants 21 pounds for postage. So basically I should watch for something that is no more than 4-5 pounds postage. right?

That sounds like they put in a random number to avoid mailing abroad. Message them.

I think they're too expensive, to be honest. They look to be a PITA to clean up and tactical marines are everywhere. Is there a UK equivalent to Craigslist?

I bought 6 of these 5 packs last year from some clearance bin, and you can have as many of them have them for GBP 4 for each 5-pack + shipping if you want (so GBP 24 for 30 tacticals + shipping at whatever the post office charges; I think this is close to what I paid for it after tax and such) --



They are brand-new; one model from one pack has been taken off the sprue, but never painted. Note that they are snapfits, and have Dark Angels and Tacitcal shoulder pads!

svep84 wrote:
As a guy who has somewhat sworn off buying painted minis due to hours spent scrubbing - I just want to call out the comment about using and Ultrasonic cleaner. I'd never heard of doing that before, so I googled it. I honestly can't believe I've never heard of this before - I've spent hours reading about stripping miniatures. Money and time saved by buying some horror show minis and using this methods would be significant.

Good god - check this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCiqRUB3Ums

I've got an Ultrasonic cleaner, albeit one of the smaller jewellery cleaning ones, and it didn't do too much for my minis.
By far the best method I've found is soaking in a vat of Dettol. Paint almost falls off.

I've got a wee, cheap sonic cleaner meself, so I know what you mean; but I know one guy who had success by dunking the jar of stripper + minis into his sonic cleaner. I'll have to hunt out the pics...

I can verify that ultrasonic cleaner + stripping agent works wonders.

Iv done the new on spur thing and the striping of older stuff.

Iv come to realize that the time wasted striping them and all the unknowns of primer and glue is not worth the 40-50% savings you could possibly get.

Some things can be worth it and OOP you just have no choice.

But ymmv

Yeah I'll echo Desu - if you've got tons of time and no money for models to paint, paint models in the borrow thread.

I've dealt with second hands, repair jobs, recasts, everything - I'm sticking to fresh plastic now, it is just a nicer experience, and worth paying more (not GW prices, but still more)

Do I get out the pics of my rescue turdmarines, KB?

They're a valid lesson in why this is an idea of mixed merit.

Oh absolutely, if you want a few hundred marines with very little money, turd marines are the way to go.

"If you've got tons of time and no money" was my point, if either of those are untrue, bare plastic uber alles

Thanks for the feedback guys. So far I cant find good deal on ebay for unpainted minis. Whatever I buy now it wont be any cheaper than a box new SMs.

Bulk lots are usually a good thing to look at, it seems quite common for someone to buy an army or box set, build a few models, undercoat a couple, paint one, then realise they don't enjoy it.

Where are you looking? (which ebay)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Man you made me start looking and I am so tempted to buy;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/252173832821

 DalinCriid wrote:
The problem is that there is no way to know that the minis I bought are painted with enamel or acrylis. Or for Dettol it matters not?

Fifty mentioned Biostrip. You should be able to get that since you are in Europe. It's really good at removing acrylic and enamel, and super-glue, varnish, primer etc... and it doesn't hurt plastic. I don't recommend Dettol, it smells bad, and Biostrip works better. Here is a side by side example of before and after minis from the same set. I have bought hundreds of these guys badly painted, and they all scrub up like new. The only new part in this picture is the base, otherwise these guys were painted the exact same.

I've also been using Biostrip. Though my marines look a bit chalky after. It doesn't affect the prime, but I do suspect leaving them in long term would be a bad idea.