Paint stripping

I've acquired a few pots of eBay figures sitting in their paint stripping Dettol. Over the years these pots have been opened and added to many times...but never emptied. I knew there was a wealth of old mini's in them, I just could never find time to clean them all. Well, when a jar got knocked on its side and leaked, it was time to remind myself of what I had squirreled away all those years ago.

A dirty, sticky, god awful job that had been put off too long.

I wasn't too worried about the lead sitting in the solution, however a thick paint gunge had built up at the bottom. A lot of the figures were covered in this thick goo. I had thought that five plus years sitting in Dettol would have them all coming out like new pennies. This was of course not the case and a lot of scrubbing was needed.

Casting my mind back all those years ago, I think I tried to make the Dettol go further by watering it down. This obviously effected the power of the solution. After working into the dark of evening, brushing away, I thought it best to start again the next day.

Daylight revealed that the darkness had hidden the results, the figures were still pretty manky. It was a terrible, messy job which saw the end of a pair of jeans and a number of old toothbrushes.

After this set back I left the idea of the Dettol and reached for the brush cleaner. This solution repaired the gummed up toothbrushes and also started to make a visual difference on the figures too 

The brush cleaner proved a better choice and shiny lead figures started to appear.

At last I was starting to see results. I have ordered some nail varnish remover too, which I have heard good things about.

Some very old Citadel figures come back to life.

One of my favourite figures of all time, this Dark elf guard emerged from his enamel tomb.

Scrubbed with Dettol in the dark...

Scrubbed with brush cleaner in the light of day. It really does help to actually see what you're doing...

I look forward to trying out the nail varnish remover.