So anywho, I was watching Tom Mason's miniature archive where he goes through all of the sculpts he's done over the years and I stumbled upon his work he did for HeroClix. I never played HC or Mech Warrior, but I did play Mage Knight before I got into Warhammer. Beneath that shitty paint job, most of these figures are actually really good sculpts. Some examples:
The before shot.
...and after. Like holy shit there's faces and teeth on these. Some more I stripped:
Okay so how did I do this?
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As far as I know, all WizKids models are vinyl sculpts with vinyl paint. This means some of the paint is fused to the model, no matter how much you scrub, scrape, or strip.
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I used acetone. Honestly amazed they still let people buy this shit from any hardware store. You want to put the models into a glass or metal container with a sealable lid. Pour in the acetone to cover each model in the container.
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Let it sit for about 30 minutes to an hour. You'll want to stir or shake the brew to make sure every part of the models are exposed to the acetone. After an hour, you run the risk of dissolving the mini completely. Use caution.
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Pull a mini out of the acetone and wipe it off with a towel. You want to get as much paint off as you can, then put it in water and dish soap.
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Start scrubbing. I used old toothbrushes and a wire brush to get the paint off. A hobby knife was used to pick globs of paint out of crevices. The Elf up there holding a sack and a sword in the other hand? Originally there wasn't a gap between her left arm and her torso. I had to scrap it out, there was so much paint in there.
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You might need to put a model back in once you've cleaned off quite a bit. Be wary of how long a second acetone bath goes on.
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Once the model is clear of sludge and muck, rinse it off in the dishwater, then give it a quick bath and scrub in isopropyl alcohol (70% is good enough)
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Now you have an unpainted model you can use in other games or you can redo the original 'clix piece. I'm planning on using mine for a beastmen army and for a Rangers of Shadow Deep campaign.
The nice thing about this is how dead these games are now so you can often find the minis in bulk for dirt cheap. They work at 28mm scale. Also I'm dozing off so I'll post later
I like that centaur a lot. Shame the paint is so difficult to take off. I suppose its good for durability as a kids toy, but having to risk melting the model to strip the paint is rough. Please post some photos as they get painted up! I'd love to see how they turn out!
I'm also stripping acrylic paint from old 40k models using some other cleaners and it's so much easier because you can just leave stuff for days the paint just slides off lol. The main issue with these is the acetone, which requires gloves and a mask to filter fumes.
So far, I've only melted part of one model and it's an easy fix (the fur on a tiger). Gonna be fun to paint these up, though.