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so i've acquired quite a few guard vehicles over the past while and they're all different colors with different levels of assembly.
if i wanted to break them down and start over as close to new as possible what would be the best way?
give them a bath in some simple green for a couple of days?
i know that this will take the paint off but im not sure if it will debond the glue.
if it does let me take the vehicles apart will it dissolve glue that is formed into mounds in certain places?
any suggestions?

thanks in advance.

It is likely to be super glue or plastic/ poly-cement?

If the models are plastic, then they are probbably glued by plastic glue. That means there is no way to turn them back into their original parts, as those parts were melted by the glue and then hardened, esentialy turning them into 1 big part.
If they are glued by super glue (this is unlikley) then it would be possible to dissasemble the models.

Probably start with getting the paint off.
There are many articles of what to use.
Zep, Simply Green, I found "Awesome" worked well for soaking the parts in.
Stiff plastic brush and have at it (rotary plastic brush helps).
I was lucky recently where I had some metal scouts and I "think" the person never bothered to prime them: it all came off perfectly.
I was using a mix of Awesome and Simply Green and scrubed using nitrile gloves (it burns the hands otherwise).
Rinse well and look at the joins.
If it was "crazy glue" the stuff for getting the paint off should have hurt it enough to peel it off.
You may have to use a sharp knife to pry and scrape the stuff off.
If it was a "proper" plastic weld then you may have to cut the join as best you can or score the join and then break it, carefully.
A friend of mine made an entire mechanized company of space marines out of poorly assembled and painted models.
He stripped them all and broke them down to their component parts.

Good luck.

I have only ever stripped 10 models. Some Kabalite warriors I didn't like the direction they were going paint-wise.

I used a purple bottle of stuff called "Super Clean". I let them sit for about 24-32 hours. All paint came off perfectly except for my original primer. The only other thing I would add is that, at first, it seemed to make the plastic of the models a bit more malleable. It just seemed softer than it should be.

Nothing did break, and the models were fine...I just had to take care. I re-primed them over the old stuff once dry and thoroughly washed. Good to go.

Hope this is the kind of answer you were looking for.

Sidenote: I have never used Simple Green for anything, so I can't speak to how that works, if at all.

 beradical wrote:
I used a purple bottle of stuff called "Super Clean". I let them sit for about 24-32 hours. All paint came off perfectly except for my original primer. The only other thing I would add is that, at first, it seemed to make the plastic of the models a bit more malleable. It just seemed softer than it should be.
Nothing did break, and the models were fine...I just had to take care. I re-primed them over the old stuff once dry and thoroughly washed. Good to go.

I have heard nothing but good about that purple "Super Clean".
Pretty sure that is what my friend used.
I used the stuff I did because it was handy and left over from my last batch of cleaning prior to finding out about SC.

As others said start with a good strip to get the paint off. If they're glued with super glue that'll loosen up some of the joints. If it's still too solid I've heard of people putting the minis in a freezer to make the glue contract away from the joint and become more brittle.

If the glue is in bog globs you'll need to scrape it off, I haven't heard of anything that will dissolve glue that won't eat the plastic as well.

If it's polystyrene cement and the things are melted together you'll need to break out the saw.

thanks all.
while things are soaking ill see if i can find an easy tutorial on making track guards.
i hate IG tracks to begin with and i'm sure that it's going to be even harder getting them back together if i take them apart.

i swear though, i can count on one hand the number of IG tanks whose treads i have seen assembled well. there are always gaps or overlap...

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
while things are soaking ill see if i can find an easy tutorial on making track guards.
i hate IG tracks to begin with and i'm sure that it's going to be even harder getting them back together if i take them apart.
i swear though, i can count on one hand the number of IG tanks whose treads i have seen assembled well. there are always gaps or overlap...

I would suggest looking up "c" channel.
I "think" 3/4" works (measure to be sure):
https://plastruct.com/shop/structural-shapes/c-24l/
Use a mini miter box saw, cut some 45's at the ends and it will look awesome.

If you feel really ambitious you can get some card and add some "banding" to the ends like the GW track guards.
Or get the actual $18 sprue:
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-CA/Imperial-Guard-Tank-Accessories
https://www.dicehead.com/products/astra-militarum-tank-accessories-special-order-diceheaddotcom