Removing paint from miniatures

[Sinned]

Why didn't you just basecoat them, and the paint them?

Because I don't paint my minis.

Being a retro freak; I want the minis to look as if they are 'new'.

I haven't painted any of my HQ minis. Unfortunately I had to paint my ogres as they had suffered 'damage' from the bad paint job from the previous owner.

Since I wanted them to look 'vintage' I bought the colors the ogres used to have and painted them in this color. To be honest: they look like new, mainly thanks to the great quality of citadel paint.

I do the same with metal minis: I pick one color and paint them that way (metal vintage chaos warriors are painted grey for instance).

Why don't I paint my models with detail and in all these great colors?
-time
-costs
-as said: I'm a retro freak and want the game 'pure'.

Yeah, I'm strange

[Blackthorn]

While I was waiting for the Dettol to arrive from the UK, I bought some Simple Green at the local hardware store and gave it a try. I found that it worked very well and removed from 95 to 100% of the paint from the painted HeroQuest miniatures I recently acquired. Metallic paints took a bit longer and one Wizard figure who was covered in what looked like gray primer still has a grayish hue, but the painted miniatures from the Barbarian and Elf Quest Packs came out looking nearly new, which was my main goal.

After trying the Dettol, I'll definitely stick with the Simple Green which is a lot less harsh and can be rinsed with water. The fumes from the Dettol are very potent and I don't find it to be any more effective at removing paint.

Another advantage of the Simple Green is that it's an effective and biodegradable household cleaner. I diluted what was left over and used it to clean the kitchen, earning back some wife points that I lost while spending several hours scrubbing paint off of little plastic figures.

[Goblin-King]

...earning back some wife points that I lost while spending several hours scrubbing paint off of little plastic figures.

They JUST... DON'T... understand!

[Sjeng]

I used to have SO many wife points. Now we have a baby, and she's doing the hard baby work, i'm in serious negative points... No painting for a while

[Infje]

Not sure if this is the right forum to post this, so feel free to move it.

I have a bunch of badly painted miniatures from Ebay and I want to remove the paint. Now I've been Googling and found some decent tutorials but they all refer to cleaning products that are not available in the Netherlands or countries nearby. That's why I'm posting this here. Would some of you care to share how your remove paint from your miniatures and what products you use? Maybe I can find find the products you guys use.

Also, if you remove the paint, what will be left of the plastic miniatures? Logically I don't want any damage done to my plastic miniatures but I take it they don't return to their factory color by default?

Last but not least, if I have to do a new coating to the get the default color back, does anyone know what the default color is for the Warhammer Quest miniatures?

Thanks in advance.

[Sjeng]

merged your topic with this one. (try the search function next time)

In the Netherlands, buy a flacon of Dettol. See the first post here. Check that the bottle says: chloroxylenol.

[Infje]

Stupid me. Sorry about that, I did do a search but only for stripping. It wasn't untill I posted that I changed the title :S

And a big thank you of course. I'll give you an IOU voucher whenever you purchase something from me. Got a cheap advanced HQ set for you

[Infje]

Why didn't you just basecoat them, and the paint them?

Because I don't paint my minis.

Being a retro freak; I want the minis to look as if they are 'new'.

I haven't painted any of my HQ minis. Unfortunately I had to paint my ogres as they had suffered 'damage' from the bad paint job from the previous owner.

Since I wanted them to look 'vintage' I bought the colors the ogres used to have and painted them in this color. To be honest: they look like new, mainly thanks to the great quality of citadel paint.

I do the same with metal minis: I pick one color and paint them that way (metal vintage chaos warriors are painted grey for instance).

Why don't I paint my models with detail and in all these great colors?
-time
-costs
-as said: I'm a retro freak and want the game 'pure'.

Yeah, I'm strange

Amen brother.

[Infje]

I just did this. I'm high as a .... from the Dettol.

[knightkrawler]

Ooooh, gotta try this. Now off to botching some paint jobs...