Saturday 12 January 2013

Two years in paintstripper!

I bought some Neomics fantasy football goblins in, I think, mid-2010. I basecoated them with paint-on white primer, but overdid it somewhat. This goblin shows where I scraped away some of the excess paint on the model's undersides, and also demonstrates many areas of excess build-up. Looking at this picture now, I'm amazed I didn't strip this one.

Some of the miniatures had too much paint on them to simply scrape off, so I put five of them in a bath of Dettol, and left them.

For over two years.

The longer I left them, the less enthused I was about opening that Pandora's tub. Today- for some reason- I decided it was time...

External examination reveals an opaque liquid with dense sediments.

I removed the lid, and wafted the air cautiously (as I was taught in high school science)- still smells like Dettol. I ran a hot tap into it to clear the Dettol out, which revealed a sludge of miniatures, paint, and softened Slottabases.


I scrubbed with an old toothbrush, which removed the worst of the sludge, but after a while it was just spreading the goo around. It has this wonderful tacky, stringy quality to it.

These are rubbery and soft now

After several minutes of scrubbing
Luckily, I had a small amount of mineral turpentine around, and that helped clean off most of the rest. I'm going to leave them to dry, then do the turps thing again to clear off any residual muck. Then I'll be back at square one! Maybe I should strip that figure above...
After mineral turps
Don't know what it's done to my hands, let alone the local drainage system...

14 comments:

  1. Wow! Two years! Glad to see the minis are still good though.

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  2. Dettols really good. Usually only takes a day to strip a mini. Warm soapy water and a bit of scrubbing with an old toothbrush does the job nicely.

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  3. These Gobbos owe you big time on the battlefield!

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  4. 2 years! Strange how the bases have gone like rubber.
    Cheers
    paul

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  5. Thanks for the comments; I have no idea when I'll get around to painting the gobbos!

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  6. Ah, picture two reminds me of the kitchen sink during my flatting days!

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    Replies
    1. Oh yes, except the antiseptic smells better.

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  7. I had a couple of the original lead Warhammer 40k terminators in a bath of PineSol (a pine oil wood floor cleaner) for years and years as well. Sure enough, they came out good as new. The epoxy holding the arms on however...

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  8. Now thats what I call patience!

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