As an aside, what have y'all found as the best way to seperate glued models? And any good advice on paint stripping, as this eBay lot was badly painted, and is now badly painted and chipped...
Since the ID is already out of the way..
My preferred method is Simple Green (I used to recommend pine oil cleaner, but Simple Green works faster and stinks less). Soak the mini for an hour or six in a glass jar, then scrub it gently with a stiff-bristled toothbrush. You might need a couple of passes to get all the paint, but it does a heck of a job. Rinse gently with soap under warm water when you're done. If the paint sticks in recesses or panel lines, grab a wooden toothpick and run it across the offending area.
Each jarful of SG lasts for about 2-3 batches of minis, once it turns darker browny-green it's time to change out.
The
fastest way is to use acetone nail polish remover, but that will
destroy plastic minis, and it's quite toxic. Wear gloves, get ventilation, and do not use it on things you haven't ID'd. It's also the only reasonable way to pull off some enamel paints without damaging or destroying older lead stuff (even stiff plastic bristles can take off some detail). Just dip the mini and scrub with a cotton ball, it'll pull the paint off pretty much instantly. It can stain some models. I've mostly had that problem with Ralladium (Ral Partha/IWM's pewter blend).
As far as glue, you can freeze super glue off. The shrinking metal cracks the glue joints and often pops limbs and such off. That said, I find that almost everything comes apart in the stripping process anyway. I've seen some CA glue debonders on the market, but the last two I've tried both damaged plastic test minis (crazing the surface and some plastic softening) and I have no intention of risking anything old or valuable with them.
I use a small sculpting tool to pick away the remaining glue once I'm done with the stripping: you'll find it pretty easy to see, since it yellows with time and often has some paint trapped underneath. It should pick off with little effort - superglue is strong when "pulled", but shatters easily and doesn't resist shearing/side-to-side forces very well.
A properly pinned and epoxied joint, or one made in styrene with plastic glue? That's hacksaw time, there's no easy way to go after it.
Top pic is some of the minis I snagged in a recent haul.
Bottom is some of the same minis after cleaning.
Note that the dark green
O-Bakemono were painted with some kind of tenacious enamel; they had to get the acetone. Everything else was a Simple Green job. This batch took me two six-hour sessions to clean. With a little pick-work they'd be perfect but I was lazy :P
