Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Warhammer 40K: Tyranid Termagants Part 5 - Paint Stripping


Over the last two weeks after finishing the first batch of Termies, I decided to redo the Termagants as I was not happy with the quality done in an attempt to recreate Hive Fleet Tiamat.

There were quite a few methods available online via YouTube and also suggestions in various forums.

I finally decided to work with a recommendation from a local wargaming forum (War Gamers Malaysia) and from a new shop that opened in the neighborhood (Wira Games Hobbies) to use Dettol. I almost went with brake fluids if not for the fact that brake fluids are much more hazardous than Dettol (and cheaper).

Some rules to remember if you are stripping with Dettol.
1. Work in a ventilated area unless you and the people around you can stand the Dettol fumes. (I was not bothered by it. My wife was)
2. Wear gloves. The paint is sort of "melted" and will stick on your hands. I had the unfortunate experience of wire brushing my hand for a while.
3. Most importantly, DO NOT WASH WITH WATER until you are done stripping them entirely. It takes a few hours soak to get the paint loose enough for you to brush it off. However, everything will be undone if you rinse it under the tap. A very important lesson learned here.

I had the unfortunate experience of not learning any of the above prior to working with it (well, number two was obvious actually) and had some "fun" fixing things up.

Surprisingly, Dettol does prove itself to be quite a good stripping solution without harming the minis beneath it. The mixture I used was 100% Dettol. The best part is that you can recycle the solution for use again at a later time.

Once most of the paint is removed, you can prime the miniature right away. My Termagants went through several rounds of Dettol in an attempt to remove everything, including my primer. As it turns out, it does very little at this point. Once you have the primer layer remaining, you can reapply the primer right away.
After the first 2-3 rounds of stripping
Termagants after reapplying the primer.
 Next Step:
- Painting

2 comments:

FourEyedMonster said...

Ahhh the memories ... whitish wrinkly hands because I was too lazy to wear gloves ... and the smell of dettol on me for days on end. ^_^

DWolve said...

If not for the paint traces getting stuck on my hand, I'd probably leave the gloves off too XD