Quick paint stripping update

I don't think this'll be the most exciting post in the world, but it'll be short (so that's worth something (I hope)). At the start of this week I pulled a bunch of old metal models out of a week long soak in acetone and discovered the ancient paint job wouldn't budge. I ended up tossing the lot in Biostrip-20 (these guys should just get over it and start sponsoring this blog ;) ). That is the environmentally friendly (but don't let that fool you) and extremely efficient goop that safely strips paint of metal and plastic miniatures. This was the result of the acetone (warning re-used picture):

I don't know what paint was used on these models (I know some have very old (Coat d'Arms tub) GW paints). As you can see acetone did not make an impression on them.

Stormcast, Ministorum Priest and old lead or how to keep busy doing many things at once

Almost two weeks have come and gone without posting. Time flies when you're having fun. I've actually been kept rather busy with work by day and happily smearing paint on unsuspecting miniatures by night. I just regularly forget to take pictures. Well let's have a quick run-through of some of my projects right now.

Now this guy looks grim enough to fit in the distopia that is the grim darkness of Warhammer 40K.

Orctober has begun, and I already have a head start...

The season of 'named' painting months: Orctober, Nidvember and Deadcember has begun. Usually I get around to observing these by the time the months end, but this time I have a head start as I've already started working on my old Orruks in September. This Monday I finished the second chariot from my restoration project.

Don't know why, but I'm a big fan of this Orruks expression.

Khorgos Khul, mighty lord of Khorne

Sometimes I need a quick break from one project to start a new one. At other times (better times?) I use the need to take a break to quickly pick up a project I left (years) earlier. In this case I left the ink on my siege towers to dry. picked up Khorgos Khul and bravely tried to follow Duncan's example of how to paint him. I'm not Duncan, but I'm still pretty pleased with how he turned out.

He's mighty, he's a lord and he has a gigantic skull rune on his back, he must be a mighty lord of Khorne!

I think the models in the Age of Sigmar starter set (and most models that have been produced in the past few years) are awesome. But painting them is turning out to be harder then I expected. Maybe it is all the detail that is there waiting to be screwed up by me, but it is giving me trouble. Still I will not be ashamed if I put this guy on the tabletop. I'm especially happy with the evil eyes on Grizzlemaw (the Flesh Hound). The old paint white first, yellow second rule still applies there.

I Duncan'ed the hell out of that yellow stripe on his back (well I tried to).

I started painting this model the week after the Age of Sigmar Starter Set came out. I was just trying some new things with my airbrush and discovered just how much paint you can accidentally apply to a miniature. I also learned that you should not try to fix too much airbrushed paint by 'wetblend airbrushing' another color on it. To spare you (or myself the telling of) a lot of embarrassing mistakes it was a mess drowned in paint.

Hide the keys to the blood bank! A Mighty Lord of Khorne approaches!

Khorgos spent the last few years on 'to do trays' in project boxes and for a while discarded on my workbench ready to be thrown into the trashcan. That was until I decided to test a new paint stripper and write a blog about stripping paint from miniatures. If you look at the last picture of that post, you can see Khorgos's cloak on the same tissue as the Tree Lord. I had to reassemble to model, discovered his 'kinky handcuffs' have gone missing and had to pin and reattach his axe. I also had to green stuff a rather big gap on the right shoulder (his right) of the cloak.

Now to paint the rest of his friends....

The base is a story in and of itself. I was planning to make lava bases for my Khorne host, but it turned out te be a bad idea. Lava is orange/white and the base of my Khorgorath did not give a proper contrast to the model. As I had already pre-textured all the bases for my Khorne characters I had to do something with it. I decided to go for a filthy shallow stream. This give me an excuse to paint it green which makes for amazing contrast with the red armor. I added some Vallejo water paste to  the textured and painted stream for even more watery effectiveness.

All in all, I'm rather happy with the result and glad I did not bin this champion. Now back to the siege towers....

Stripping paint from plastic warhammer miniatures

Getting rid of a (bad) paint job on a Warhammer miniature is a universal wish. With metal miniatures it is easy. You toss them in a pot of aceton (or in the bad old days in paint thinner) let them soak for a day (or a week), grab a (hopefully old) toothbrush and start scrubbing. Dump model back in the aceton and repeat as needed. Stripping paint of metal is easy and I'm not going to waste more words on it. In this post I'm more interested in stripping paint of plastic models. As the wait for my order of a large tub (bathtub full) of Vallejo Sepia wash is slightly longer then expected I got a chance to try a new method of stripping paint of my plastic models.
(update with extra scrub at the end of the post)

Who will rid me of this turbulent paint job!