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Hi

I've bought some second hand models which aren't painted the way I like. To repiant them do I undercoat them again or use paint stripper? (I am new to this)

Strip first for best end results. Search these forums thoroughly for methods of removing paint from models. I've used Simple Green and Dettol to good effect.

It depends, if they have been reasonably well painted, with thin coats and decent priming, and don't have a huge amount of detail (eg Space Marines) you could possibly get away with painting straight over the top, or priming over the paint.

Best practice, or if the paint is too thick for the above, would be to strip them back to surface and start from scratch. This may also give you a chance to correct any small assembly errors or fill gaps etc as well.

Good paint strippers include Dettol or Fairy power spray in the UK. Simply immerse your models in those for several hours, then scrub with a toothbrush afterwards, and rinse with soapy water to finish. Works very nicely.

I've done both, I have just repainted models as they still had lots of detail and I have used dettol to strip some ebay models, they certainly needed stripping. Only thing is the dettol tends to stink your room out even after cleaning. Best thing is get them painted asap once dipped in dettol.

Stripping is always better but if your like me and lazy, then i just paint over, then again I only tend to buy decent second hand stuff.