Once I knew they'd been assembled with super glue and I could take them apart, I went looking for ways to strip the paint off them. I'm not a fan of having to do this, but with a project like this, it's not likely that I'm going to find these guys new on the sprue.
I decided on soaking them in Isopropyl Alcohol and then scrubbing them with a toothbrush. Since I didn't know what I was working with, I decided to do one as a test model first.
With one small exception. I got horribly sick from the fumes.
It says to use this stuff in a well venitlated area and I did exactly that, but it still wasn't enough to prevent me from feeling the effects from the fumes.
Despite working in front of an open window with a fan behind me blowing all the "bad" air out, I won't be doing the next models until Spring or Summer when I can work outside. This has been miserable.
I cleaned the model by allowing him to sit in the alcohol for 20 min at time.
When the time was up, I gave him a good scrub with a toothbrush. It took three passes to get to this point. The first pass got most of the paint off. The second one got the stubborn stuff off and after the third pass, I opted to use a toothpick to get the few tiny areas that remained.
From there I went back with my X-Acto blade and removed some mold lines and cleaned up a few more areas on him.
He's an old model that's been beat up, but I think he's got potential. I have enough guys to make a standard squad including a Heavy Flamer and Sergeant with a Power Sword.
The next step
Wait until Summer when I can try this again outside.
Additional links:
• Further Reading: Take a look at other Painting posts