The Problem!
Most of us probably have a corner in our shelves where those figures are stashed that we'd rather hide from the world – former youthful indiscretions, color schemes needing changes, failed priming, and so on… In any case, the minis are hardly usable and urgently need a fresh coat of paint!
Simply painting over them is unfortunately not always the best solution. Eventually, there comes a point where the details will be lost under a mountain of paint. Especially areas like faces, but also chainmail, for example, quickly lose their definition. Therefore, it's probably most sensible to completely remove the old paint and give the miniatures an entirely new look.
For this purpose, in this first article, we want to introduce you to AK-Interactive's Paint Stripper. We'll examine the product piece by piece and show you what you can expect from it. In the first part, we'll start by attempting to strip paint from metal miniatures.
The Product.
The small plastic bottle with item number AK-186 from the Spanish manufacturer AK-Interactive comes attractively packaged with 100 ml content. "The definitive liquid to strip the paint completely or selectively from models or figures without damaging the plastic, resin or white metal.", says the manufacturer itself. But how good is this wonder liquid in practice?
The Solution?
For the first test run, Gimli and Legolas had to serve. When these two were "painted", I was just a young boy starting out with the hobby, and internet tutorials didn't exist back then – accordingly, they looked… well, like that. Especially with the dwarf, there were unfortunately no facial features discernible (the result of paint applied too thickly).
Gimli and Legolas before their impending beauty treatment
Paint Stripper can supposedly be brushed on selectively, or you can immerse the entire figure. I decided to brush the elf figure completely and let it sit for a few minutes. After a short time, you could clearly see how the agent began to work on the paint. Legolas' black primer was already becoming clearly visible.
The decomposition process begins
After some time, I brushed the figure under lukewarm water. You can see the result of the first pass here:
Legolas after his first pass
Admittedly, I had hoped for a bit more. So I repeated the procedure a few times.
After brushing, letting it soak, and brushing off three or four times, I finally had a quite presentable result. For Gimli, I decided to directly bathe the figure in the Paint Stripper and let the agent work longer. Here, the results were quickly better, and in the end, I had two figures that looked fresh out of the blister again and were ready for a new paint job.
A thoroughly presentable result!
After stripping paint from more old metal figures in the following days and becoming more familiar with the process, here are a few more tips to conclude:
- Plan for approximately one pass per layer of paint. (usually primer + base color + eventual layer coats) If you've repainted figures multiple times, you can look forward to a trip down memory lane ;D
- Feel free to use a needle or something similar for narrow grooves and recesses. If you invest a little time with it, you can remove almost all residues completely.
Gimli and Legolas newly primed and ready for a new paint job
Conclusion:
For metal figures, Paint Stripper delivers on its promise! It reliably strips paint from your minis. While you'll still have some work to do with brushing and touching up, if you want to give your figures a second life, you can confidently go for this product.
But what about other materials? More on that in our next article about Paint Stripper!