Dettol - the hobbyists paint stripper

Let me introduce what I think is a damn fine paint stripper for wargamers, it's called dettol and it's an all purpose disinfectant. Now I've heard a lot about simple green but I'm damned if I can find any of it, I've also heard that fairy power spray is good for stripping models. To be honest, I couldn't tell you how good either of them are, and I'm probably not going to be able to tell you about them in the future because I'm sticking with Dettol from here on in.

It's really simply to use, just drop your models (metal or plastic - don't ask me about finecast, I don't buy that stuff!) into a suitable container like a drinks beaker and then pour in enough Dettol to cover them. Give them a swirl with an old tooth brush.

I left those metal snipers I got from eBay in for about two hours and after a quick scrub with an old toothbrush and then rinse it in water. 99% of the thickly applied paint came off in a matter of a minute's scrubbing and it's ready to be primed again.

A quick word of warning, I'm not going to say that Dettol doesn't damage plastic because it does. I put some SDE Kobold warriors in to strip after my wife had tried painting them and then I completely forgot about them. A week later, I pulled them out to find that the paint had stripped and the hard plastic model was perfectly fine but the model base which was made from softer plastic had melted as you can see in the pic.

So obviously over time Dettol does damage plastic but considering they'd been in a week and they only needed to be in for an hour, personally I don't see this as a problem, just something to watch out for.

Finally, another quick word of warning, Dettol seems to make the paint like a sticky tar substance which cleans off easily with Dettol but not soap and water. So make sure you wear gloves when handling them models and do it on a surface that's easy to clean gents!

Anyway, I'm off to strip some more models now I know how to!

Mel

EDIT - From the comments. Here's a list of other blog posts that cover different paint stripping fluids ...

• Fairy Power Spray (Metal & Plastic) - Pirate Viking Painting
• More on Dettol & Removing Superglue - 13th Royal Praetorian Rifles

If you've got a good relevant post, let me know in the comments and I'll get it added guys.

Super Dungeon Explore - A game for little Miss

There's a new game in the house - Super Dungeon Explore!

I'll be honest, I didn't know much about this game when we ordered it off ebay. I wasn't actually looking for a new game to play, I just wanted the models. With Corben getting into Heroquest and 40k, our little miss Willow was feeling a little bit left out on the painting front. So I got Super Dungeon Explore for the models, although after playing the game, we're well and truly hooked.

 

The game itself is easy to learn and play even for young kids. The boxset comes with 51 hard plastic detailed models in the 'Chibi' style where the models heads are the same size as their bodies. Here's one of the hero's I've painted up so far ...

Cute isn't he! Unfortunately I'm only allowed to paint that hero and the bad guys. You see, SDE coming into the house has an unforeseen consequence, my wife has taken an interest in painting. Here's her first attempts, she was quite keen to have me point out that they're WIP lol!

Now originally the models were supposed to be for little miss but it looks like we'll have to get something else for her as these are mine and the wife's now!

Anyway, more pics as soon as I've finished painting up these dragons and kobolds.

Mel

Orkys get a big boom gun!

Hi it's Corben again

Today I want to tell you about my tank I have built. My dad gave me a basilisk tank for me to convert into an ork looted vehicle. A piece of my tank was missing, so somebody sent me a part that I needed all the way from Africa.

My dad gave me a few bits to add on to make it look funky. My dad helped me to do the tricky bits like clipping the top armour off and adding the end of the barrel.

My dad has arranged me to have a session with the manager of games workshop so he can teach me how to paint it. It is 8th birthday in 3 weeks and I am hoping to get more orks.

Corben

(Big shout out to Da Masta Cheef for sending the bottom of chimera chassis all the way from America! lol. Also, big shout out to Ed, the manager of GW stoke who's agreed to do a masterclass session on painting vehicles, it turns out that he's a bit of a vehicle painting expert!)

Pimping a Paint Station (Alt : Insomnia Nights)

I've mentioned before that my hobby time and space is pretty limited, having a small house and little ones running through it doesn't really mix well with dedicated hobby spaces. In this madness, my only area of hobby freedom is my painting station which when not deployed, waits patiently on top of a display cabinet, well out of the little ones reach.

When is did come out, I used to spend a lot of my time searching for the right paint or tool because it was so cluttered with it being my only hobby space. So a few nights ago during a bout of insomina I decided to pimp up my paint station. I present the mark 2 paint station ....

The main addition is the tool and paint holder in the center of the shelf. I'm always struggling to find the right paint, brush or tool so I used 3/4 inch plastic piping to create a row of brush and tool holders, then foam board to create a paint pot holder for my 16 most commonly used paints.

My main painting light was a clip on desk lamp which was a pain in the backside because it's gripper base was broken so it was always failing over. So I broke off the base completely and grabbed my paperclips and pin-vice. After a short while of swearing and unsticking superglued fingers, I'd managed to fix the base of the lamp to the back of the paint station. I also made a nifty hobby saw holder on the side.

Finally, a clipper holder on the other side ...

Now it's literally put down, plug in and paint. I'm already noticing how much easier it is to work on and no doubt I'll keep adding to it and refining it, so keep your eyes out for a future post on the mark 3 version!

I'm interested to know if any of you guys have any space saving / storage tips for the hoarder hobbyist, let me know in the comments guys!

Mel

VL Vets ready for painting

I have a confession to make, I put the first five Victoria Lamb Rangers together way too quickly. I suppose it was because they were a present and I was excited to put together my first multipart metal models. I put them together and primed them that quickly that I really dropped the ball with them. I didn't think about the unit composition, I didn't clean up the mold lines, I didn't fill any of the gaps with green stuff. Hell, I even forgot to put gravel on their bases!

So, once my over eagerness had had a serious kick in the arse, I sat down and reworked them. First off, I filled in the gaps and blended the capes into the straps on the torsos as well as cleaning up what slight mold lines there were and added gravel to their bases.

Next came a composite change, first off I swapped the arms on one trooper for a different set. I needed the ones he originally had for a special weapon conversions. The other change was that I swapped out another troopers rifle for a rocket so he could act as the support guy for the squad's heavy weapon. It took a fair bit of clipping and filing to completely remove the lasgun type weapon, so much so that I had to resculpt the thumb on his right hand.

Another minor change across the five guys I did initially was that I broke off their waist pouches, canteens and scabbards, then replaced them with GW IG pouchs and grenades. The reason for this was that after I completed the first five, I realised that other than the bases, there was nothing really that tied them into my current guard models. So, with the next five I decided to make sure there were plenty of visual links to my current guard models.

Being veterans, there's plenty of unit options to include upgrades and therefore tie them into my current guard force. For the three special weapons guys, I went for a flamer, a meltagun and a grenade launcher. Ideally, I'd have gone for three plasma guns as Mike hates plasma but unfortunately, my weapon selection was down to what bits I had and not what bits I desired!

All three specials involved removing the lasgun type weapon, so lots of clipping and filling. I couldn't remove the weapon stocks, so I had to line up the arms and weapons to look like the special weapons came with shoulder stocks. Even though the GW IG weapons look a little large, I don't think it's excessive.

Next was the rocket launcher guy, I used catachen plastic arms for this guy. The muscles on them were far too large, so I filled them down. They're still quite big but with the addition of the rough bearded face, it gives the impression that he's probably the only guy in the squad who could carry the damn rocket launcher.

Finally, the squad sgt, this guy I really wanted to tie into the 41st millennium. So I went for the augmented power sword arm and plasma pistol arm for the high tech look. I did consider removing the shoulder pads but I decided that they actually helped tie the unit in with the rest of my force. Finally, I used a GW command head, specifically for the aquila on the cap.

So here they are, all ready for priming ..... again. Let me know your thoughts in the comments guys.

Mel

Victoria Lamb miniatures

With my invigorated passion for 40K, there comes new models!

My buddy Mike recently bought me a squad of ten guardsmen models for my army. He said they were a gift but there's a little bit of me that thinks he's emotionally blackmailing me to keep my hobby mojo going. Well, if that's the case, it's bloody working! I love these guys!

It's a squad of ten Border World Rangers from Victoria Lamb miniatures. The models are brilliant but they're posing a real challenge for me. It's the first time I've working with multipart metal models, so there's been lots of gluing arms and heads to fingers rather than torso's etc! Now, I'd like to make it clear that this is a fault with my modeling ability and not the models, which are truly excellent.

I really can't fault the detail on these guys, the molds themselves are so clean, I didn't realise they had mold lines until I'd primed the first five. They're perfectly scaled with GW plastic cadians, they're the same height, just a little slimmer, but that's perfectly acceptable as they've got bare arms and aren't sporting flak armour. Each ten man ranger pack comes with 10 legs, torsos, heads (all unique), cloaks, one piece arms and lasgun type weapons along with a good selection of pouches and bayonet scabbards.

The one thing that I am finding difficult is that the standard ten man ranger pack only comes with lasgun type weapon arms. Victoria Lamb miniatures do various other special/heavy/sgt arms for the ranger models that are quite good and could easily be called various IG weapons, it's just that I don't have any of them. I will in the future but right now, this has led me down the path of converting them. Here's my first go at swapping out  the metal weapon for a grenade launcher, let me know your thoughts guys!

All I've got to do now is two more special weapons guys and the squad sgt, so the bits hunt begins! Hopefully, I'll them them converted up pretty soon, I'll blog them when I do and then it'll be time to get them painted and added to 1st platoon. In the meantime, you can checkout the ranger and other future world ranges at Victoria Lamb miniatures, and if you buy any, let her know I sent you, who knows, she might send me some bits for free (cheeky yes but there's no harm in trying guys!).

Col