Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Strip tip

I just upgraded my stripping kit after picking up a couple of tips on da toob from squidgybridge here. Linky

What I picked up is not to use water near dettol. Normally I tap rinse the figures, but its a sticky mess. Scrubbing with dettol only however, does the business without the stickiness. The moment you add water, the paint gungymunge seizes and starts to stick again. Aha!
To use this trick I had to grab mah bukkit from the hardware shop.



Up til now I have been soaking my lead in glass jars, but the bukkit made so much sense. Less likely to have the bottom crack off (it happened to me) - big enough to strip a whole dragon and lets me reuse the dettol.
I am going to try muslin straining it later.


Copplestone goodness fresh from the bukkit

So armed with a stiff toothbrush I attacked what turned out to be a couple of jars mainly filled with Mark Copplestone sculpts- some future wars bikers and Grenadier barbarians (now available from Em4 and Mirliton respectively).
Thats 2 jars down, eight to go... However this is not a feeling of dread- the water free bukkit technique is effortless and far, far less sticky. Plus I know what goodies lie within those jars...

Citadel militia and mercenaries, Grenadier hirelings, the orky brothers grimm, a warband of skaven, hobgoblins and Grenadier dwarves, chaos marauders and chaos dwarves... And uh, at least seven other jars of....uh...
Okay.
I forget exactly whats been soaking in there. Could be anything. I have a nasty habit of buying stuff and discovering a double in the stripping jar the next week.

Great work squidgybridge. Lead heads salute you!

I add to this that a second soak in hot water with some Jif (cif) kitchen cleaner removes any stickiness, the smell and is alkali so safe for lead.




4 comments:

  1. No water eh? That's my hobby lesson for today. I've been running them under a hot tap right out of the Dettol, and yes, they gunk up at times. Nice tip!

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  2. I switched from Nitromors to Dettol earlier in the year and my first cleansing session resulted in a gunk-fuelled nightmare. Fortunately I'd a friend who'd already been turned on to the method and he was able to put me straight. Like vampires, keep 'em away from running water!

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  3. I have a bunch of metal minis that were originally painted in enamels. Any reccomendations as to what to use to strip those? I've been using turpetine, but it requires many passes before they're stripped enough for repainting (and even then, the paint never is never fully gone).

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  4. Dettol, leave it overnight, then a soft copper wire brush to polish up. No probs!
    Turps does not work, nor paint stripper- and graffiti removal liquid fails too.
    Determined thugs should pack humbrols for hard wearing tagging.

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