If I had to pick just one of them, I'd go with the Prestone.
30 September 2012
Results
I finally got around to actually pulling the batch of models out of the brake fluid. Left them in a lot longer than I had wanted, but for a test of how it does with plastics I think it was a good addition to the test. The results speak for themselves in the pictures. Both brands worked rather well. The metals were pretty up in the air. The shiny metal from the prestone came off like water. Lots left to pick at on most of them in general except the plastics and the one metal elf in the prestone container. The plastics aren't soft and haven't lost any detail (Not that the models were very detailed back in the 90's).
If I had to pick just one of them, I'd go with the Prestone.
If I had to pick just one of them, I'd go with the Prestone.
24 September 2012
Strippers
Don't get too excited.. It took me years to find something that would strip paint off plastic models. I tried everything. Nail polish remover gave me plastic goo. Simple Green left a lot of paint on the model. I finally had found a great paint stripper for plastic models only to have to up and move to Italy. That product was dot 3 Brake Fluid. I had models stripped clean from a 15 minute bath in the stuff. I've left plastic Eldar Guardian models in it for months with no blurring of details. It of course handled metal as well. It even got that pesky Testors paint that so many Craigslisters liked to sell me caked heavily over the models I wanted so cheaply. But then.. I move to Italy, and the same brand I had been using isn't available anymore. So today and this week I'm going to test two brands of Dot 3 Brake Fluid.
What you see above is the Prestone and STP brand DOT 3 (Make sure it's DOT 3) Brake Fluids. I dug through my spare model boxes and pulled out two identical High Elves I had painted when Warhammer was on it's fourth edition. These were some of the first models I ever painted and are heavily coated with old Citadel paints. I also dredged up two highly glossed up metal High Elf models I scored on ebay or craigslist, and two other metals coated in non glossy paint. ***If you're going to do this, make sure you have gloves and the area you are in is well ventilated.***
I have stiff bristle/wire brushes that you can score in a variety of places. You can also use an old Toothbrush. I'll give these about three hours to soak and update as I strip.
What you see above is the Prestone and STP brand DOT 3 (Make sure it's DOT 3) Brake Fluids. I dug through my spare model boxes and pulled out two identical High Elves I had painted when Warhammer was on it's fourth edition. These were some of the first models I ever painted and are heavily coated with old Citadel paints. I also dredged up two highly glossed up metal High Elf models I scored on ebay or craigslist, and two other metals coated in non glossy paint. ***If you're going to do this, make sure you have gloves and the area you are in is well ventilated.***
I have stiff bristle/wire brushes that you can score in a variety of places. You can also use an old Toothbrush. I'll give these about three hours to soak and update as I strip.
23 September 2012
Silly Weekend
Weekend is almost over and I didn't accomplish my goal. Having to work both days this weekend didn't help. I did manage some progress on the Land Raider, most progress on transforming my Blood Angel's Emperor's Champion into what might possibly be an Astarath stand-in someday. Just need my brass etched Forge World symbols for him, don't wanna risk mucking up his shoulderpad.
Additionally, again thanks to ADHD, I decided to pick a scheme for the Death Company. I was trying to stay Fluffy but the Flesh Tearers run into some contradiction in fluff. As a small Chapter that's constantly on the go they don't worry themselves with Ornamentation. At the same time, All but the Angels Sanguine has all black Death Company. The desire to be a little bit different and some excellent ideas from the web resulted in deciding how I want to paint my Death Company. In the following picture you can see four marines. The two on the left are going to be Death Company. The two on the right are regular assault marines. Aside from the highlighting, this is the way the red armor is going to be. Darker for the Death Company as a tribute to "We don't have time to completely paint your armor black". The X's will be a vivid blood red to really pop.
That's it for now. This week will probably be pretty slow with Borderlands 2 and the new WoW expansion.. We'll see.
Additionally, again thanks to ADHD, I decided to pick a scheme for the Death Company. I was trying to stay Fluffy but the Flesh Tearers run into some contradiction in fluff. As a small Chapter that's constantly on the go they don't worry themselves with Ornamentation. At the same time, All but the Angels Sanguine has all black Death Company. The desire to be a little bit different and some excellent ideas from the web resulted in deciding how I want to paint my Death Company. In the following picture you can see four marines. The two on the left are going to be Death Company. The two on the right are regular assault marines. Aside from the highlighting, this is the way the red armor is going to be. Darker for the Death Company as a tribute to "We don't have time to completely paint your armor black". The X's will be a vivid blood red to really pop.
That's it for now. This week will probably be pretty slow with Borderlands 2 and the new WoW expansion.. We'll see.
21 September 2012
If you're gonna ride, why not ride in style?!
My ADHD kicked in tonight.. can't sleep. Decided it was finally time to do something about the spare Land Raider Crusader I had laying around. I had seen the idea before and I wish I could attribute it to the guy I got the idea from, but I forget where I saw it! So.. here's a start.
Still a lot of work to do, making it my goal to have it done by this weekend!
Still a lot of work to do, making it my goal to have it done by this weekend!
Impatience is a virtue?
I decided that I wanted to do a test run, and give a go at the Flesh Tearer emblem cause I'm horribly impatient and it's a long wait till I get the actual shoulderpads. Definitely need some practice with it, but I got two marines down. At least a start!
In hindsight, the bases didn't match so I added some flock to the second one which I'll green up later.
In hindsight, the bases didn't match so I added some flock to the second one which I'll green up later.
A New Beginning (Queue Star Wars theme music)
So after almost a year of being in Italy I've finally decided to give up some of my vast free time to my beloved hobby again. My new friend over in the Navy (Who to my surprise is a Chaplain) has inspired me to start a blog and even further inspired me to start a successor chapter to the Blood Angels. The Blood Angels have been my army of choice ever since the 2nd Edition boxed set came out adorned with amazing artwork of the blood red heroes of the Emperor. I currently have several thousand points worth of the father chapter both painted and unpainted and several editions worth of models.
It was an easy decision for me to go with the Flesh Tearers. I've never liked the sit back and wait type armies and my current Blood Angels theme is very in your face with jump packs on everything. The Flesh Tearers have always embraced this style of play and even the fluff behind them supports this kind of play. Another huge factor in the decision behind the army is that there is current fluff for the Chapter beyond a small wiki or a mention in the codex. Rules for the Chapter Master are given in the current codex and there's shoulderpads to be had!
The first thing I had to do was decide how I wanted to build my army. Fortunately for me, my procrastination and general laziness when it comes to painting meant that I actually already have everything I could want for this army. I had already assembled several assault squads, dreadnoughts, vehicles and various tidbits. Most had only seen a dull red primer that I picked up from the folks over at Army Painter (Great product btw). Some hadn't seen any paint. The only things I needed to get were shoulderpads. I don't have any great desire to freehand paint the Flesh Tearer symbol. Luckily, after some browsing, I managed to order the following: 40 Flesh Tearer shoulderpads from Games Workshop, 7 Flesh Tearer Terminator shoulderpads from Chapterhouse Studios, resin vehicle impressions from Chapterhouse Studios, Brass Etch Flesh Tearer icons from Forge World, and a Blood Angels transfer sheet from Forge World. I also managed to snag Chapter Master Gabriel Seth and a Sevrin Loth plus Honor Guard and a set of Chain Axes from Forge World. Now I just have to wait.
In the meantime... time to convert some of my assault marines. I happen to have about 30 Khorne Berserkers that won't ever see the light of day. They were happy to give up their sawtoothed bits for the low cost of a few gashes to my fingers. "Blood for the Blood God!" eh?
After some first aid...
I've always wanted to hollow out my barrels, and I just happened to find my pin vice drill. The Resin base needs some filler at the bottom, but it's homemade. Of course his left shoulderpad (Right if you're looking at it) is missing because I'm awaiting the aforementioned Flesh Tearer shoulderpads. I managed to get ten of them done and now.. I wait.
In the meantime, here's a link to my photobucket gallery with the Eldar that I'm also working on at this time.
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/raifin/WH40k/
It was an easy decision for me to go with the Flesh Tearers. I've never liked the sit back and wait type armies and my current Blood Angels theme is very in your face with jump packs on everything. The Flesh Tearers have always embraced this style of play and even the fluff behind them supports this kind of play. Another huge factor in the decision behind the army is that there is current fluff for the Chapter beyond a small wiki or a mention in the codex. Rules for the Chapter Master are given in the current codex and there's shoulderpads to be had!
The first thing I had to do was decide how I wanted to build my army. Fortunately for me, my procrastination and general laziness when it comes to painting meant that I actually already have everything I could want for this army. I had already assembled several assault squads, dreadnoughts, vehicles and various tidbits. Most had only seen a dull red primer that I picked up from the folks over at Army Painter (Great product btw). Some hadn't seen any paint. The only things I needed to get were shoulderpads. I don't have any great desire to freehand paint the Flesh Tearer symbol. Luckily, after some browsing, I managed to order the following: 40 Flesh Tearer shoulderpads from Games Workshop, 7 Flesh Tearer Terminator shoulderpads from Chapterhouse Studios, resin vehicle impressions from Chapterhouse Studios, Brass Etch Flesh Tearer icons from Forge World, and a Blood Angels transfer sheet from Forge World. I also managed to snag Chapter Master Gabriel Seth and a Sevrin Loth plus Honor Guard and a set of Chain Axes from Forge World. Now I just have to wait.
In the meantime... time to convert some of my assault marines. I happen to have about 30 Khorne Berserkers that won't ever see the light of day. They were happy to give up their sawtoothed bits for the low cost of a few gashes to my fingers. "Blood for the Blood God!" eh?
After some first aid...
I've always wanted to hollow out my barrels, and I just happened to find my pin vice drill. The Resin base needs some filler at the bottom, but it's homemade. Of course his left shoulderpad (Right if you're looking at it) is missing because I'm awaiting the aforementioned Flesh Tearer shoulderpads. I managed to get ten of them done and now.. I wait.
In the meantime, here's a link to my photobucket gallery with the Eldar that I'm also working on at this time.
http://s3.photobucket.com/albums/y83/raifin/WH40k/
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