Take it all off
Well, I've got an idea of the paint scheme that I want to use on my new DeathWing army, but almost all of my Terminator models are already painted. I used to simply paint over old paintjobs, but that can easily lose some of the detail of the figure and can sometimes cause tinting issues, as the new paint may look different over different background colors. Therefore, I decided to strip the paint off of them and start fresh.

We who are about to strip, salute you.

I've stripped models before. Castrol Super Clean (an engine degreaser) is a very useful product for this, as it will remove the paint, but will leave the plastic of the miniatures unharmed in the process. The problem with it, however, is that it is toxic and has noxious fumes (probably also toxic.) This makes it a bit more difficult to work with and dispose of properly. Plus I'm pretty sure you shouldn't get it on you and any spills can be pretty nasty.

Enter Simple Green. A bio-degradable cleaner that is every bit as gentle on the plastic miniatures and as tough on the paint. It's not harmful (though I wouldn't drink it) and easy to dispose of. For that matter, as it's a cleaner, if you spill it, just wipe it up and it will have cleaned whatever you spilled it on! :) It is available in most stores in the household cleaners area (near Spic and Span and Pine Sol) and very handy to use. It still has fumes, but they aren't bad and smell a bit like licorish. I'd still recommend a ventilated area, though.

Careful! Don't Spill it, you might clean something!

I took a small, lidded container that would fit a group of my Terminators and put them inside it. I then filled it up so that it completely covered all of them and gave it a few gentle shakes. Then I put it on the counter and left it. Every so often, I'd give the container a few shakes or a swirl.

After 24 hours, I could see some difference in the paint, but I knew it would take longer. After about 48 hours, I pulled them out to find that it had eaten off the first layer of paint, and was now chewing on the primer. One of the models was metal instead of plastic, and this one had large bare areas. I think that was due to a poor priming job on my part, though. I put them back in the Simple Green and let them stew a little longer.

After 2 days in the Simple Green. It's hard to tell from the
picture, but the ones with the Green Aquila on the chest are black (previously silver)
and the ones with White are still a deep blue.

After about 40 hours, I pulled them out and took another look. The paint was looking a little thinner and chipped in a few places. I took out a toothbrush (not my current one, of course) and got to brushing. The paint came off pretty well on my old models, but the ones I got from Steve were a lot harder to take care of. I'm not sure what he used to prime the models, but it was pretty serious. I scrubbed at them for a while, then put them back in some fresh Simple Green to stew longer.

A couple of the Terminators after some scrubbing.

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