Minature Advice

[Nero24200]

Heya all

Got a few older minis made from metal that I was looking to try to strip and repaint, any idea what the best way to go about this might be?

[Ranis]

Soak them in fingernail polish?

[Were-Sandwich]

Make sure you don't chew thme or try and eat them or anything. Old miniatures tend to have a lot of lead in them.

[Inhuman Bot]

Brake fluid CAN ( note can not does for sure) work

[Alebeard_Thunderax]

I would honestly not recommend stripping, or even trying to strip them. My experience with miniatures, both metal and plastic, is that the paints they use require some of the most volatile and noxious chemical concoctions to even think about removing them. We're not talking about taking off acrylics or oils, most miniatures use enamels and the like. I would say, put down a nice solid base coat, and work from there. The best way to do it, is to take a color that will be prominent in the figure anyway, and use that. For example, flesh tones (in human pink or orkish green) for characters, and metalic colors for vehicles.

[Studoku]

I find that anything that is able to remove the paint is able to deform the miniture. It's much easier to spray it black and paint over it.

[Swordguy]

Simple Green. It's an automotive solvent found in the housewares section of Meijers and the automotive section of walmart.

It strips paint wonderfully (leave the mini in for about a day). There's NO deformation on metal or plastic of any sort (and I've tried several of each - I stripped 300 BattleMechs with the stuff), and only a very mild darkening of radium minis.

[idioscosmos]

Heya all

Got a few older minis made from metal that I was looking to try to strip and repaint, any idea what the best way to go about this might be?

Castrol Super Clean. Or the generic "purple stuff" they have at Wally World/Menards/whatever. Doesn't hurt plastics or metals or green stuff, or...anything but your skin.

Use rubber gloves and cut it at least 50/50 with water. Its even biodegradable so it's safe to flush/wash down the sink/whatever. Once again don't get on your skin unless its VERY dilute (and preferrably not then. Check the auto-parts department of your local whatever store - they have stripping brushes - think a toothbrush on steriods. Put your Super Clean/Water mix in a tupperware bowl with the minis, soak overnight (or so), put on your rubber gloves and clean (think brusha-brusha here) over the sink. Shouldn't take long. Rinse and if there's any paint left prime over it or stick 'em back in the goo.