Soak far, part two

After the initial trials everything seems to have come off the bases just fine. Even the stuff on the Peter Pig plastic bases, which I can probably recycle, unlike the mdf ones that turned to mush. Some figures had ankle failure, but they've recovered with a bit of superglue.


The rebasing has gone pretty well. I haven't had too many shortfalls/spares on the figure front, except I knew that I'd have a couple of battalions of British left over. The Sikh regiments aren't a problem as they'll be repainted as Ever Victorious Army, and the spare Imps needs to be repainted as a single unit.

The next order of business then is to strip the paint off the spares. A brief tour of the internet revealed several suggestions. Phil recommended Dettol, but we didn't have any in the house. One favourite on the GW fan forum was Coke and I had a few cans lying around. To go with the rum we brought back from Cuba, you understand.


So I decided to pop the figures in a jar...


...and pour on some coke. Coke's fizzy, don't ya know?


Eventually it settled down, so I put a lid on the jar and left the figures to it. You can see them in the murky depths, hopefully getting all bright and clean.

Post Script: The overnight situation isn't brilliant. Little evidence of the paint coming loose, so I'll leave them in for another day. It's not urgent I start work on them anyway. It might be, of course, that using Ronseal varnish on them is protecting the paint quite effectively.

Comments

  1. As a grown up wargamer surely you have some Nitromors in a very cobwebby tin at the back of your shed? I wouldn't soak figures in it straightawy, mind. Brush it on and leave for a bit first as a test and then try soaking one particularly unloved, gnarled hobgoblin of a figure. It worked on my son's Thomas figures from many years ago but they were quite robust pieces.

    I think they've changed the formula of Coke now so that it no longer melts teeth overnight.

    Cheers

    Andrew

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    Replies
    1. No tins of Nitromor or anything like that in my Shed, I can assure you! Just good old wargaming things like toy soldiers and model buildings.

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  2. Varnish tends to be tough to get through. In in US we have a general purpose cleaning spray called Simple Green - it works well, but requires a long soak (many days) and some elbow grease on the back end. My current favorite is 90% rubbing alcohol. It's quick and super effective. Give it a go on a few minis.

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    Replies
    1. There are a few household cleaners in the UK that would do the job, but in this case I had some cans of Coke and thought I'd give it a try. Coke is very cheap.

      I'll see how this goes with a few days soaking. Normally repainting isn't something I do (ditto rebasing) so this is pretty much a one off exercise.

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