How to Strip Metal Models | Call to Arms Vlog Prep Day 1

Day One: Stripping

Getting ready for Call to Arms, and it starts with stripping.

The Method

There’s a lot of ways to strip models, but for metal (and only metal) models, the best way is 100% acetone. Throw it in a metal cup, throw all the models in, and wait.

Acetone smells terrible and you definitely don’t want to get it on your skin.

Prep Work

I popped all these guys off their bases because I’m pretty sure this would melt plastic. By roughing them up a little bit, it gives a spot for the acetone to get up underneath the paint in case it was sealed.

Everybody’s in there. Make a lid with a rubber band and some plastic that’s not going to melt. Check on it later.

The Tournament Challenge

Tricky situation: we can’t just paint this normally. We have to keep it playable to get practice games in while painting over the next two weeks. I want as much table time before the tournament as possible.

I need to practice with a chess clock too—physically moving models around. Nothing compares to real table time. War Table online or Tabletop Simulator doesn’t cut it.

Hopefully I can get everything based, primed, and back to playable condition today.

Stripping Results

After a couple hours, gloves on, cardboard box, very hard bristled brush. Fish the first guy out and put him directly on the cardboard for pressure.

Just peeling this paint right off. Makes a pretty big mess.

The Process

1. Pull everybody out and brush them down
2. Filter out the acetone with a cone filter (catches tiny bits too)
3. Throw everybody back in
4. Do it one more time
5. Wash off with water

The filter lets you keep reusing the acetone. It’ll change color but works fine.

Taking Stock

After stripping, these guys are ready for priming. But then I realized I had some new in box, so I’m building those instead. Got mold lines to clean, reassembly needed, some still need stripping now that I’m really looking at them.

Got to strip those guys, get everything based (I’m out of my basing material), then prime. I’m going to make my own basing material—that’ll be the next video.

Day One Complete

Really I’m cleaning up all this stuff, recovering from pulling everything out. It’s all in piles from sorting through it. Getting this back to a functioning work area.

That’s day one of getting ready for Call to Arms tournament prep.

Transcript

Okay, day one of getting ready for call to arms and it starts with stripping. All right, there’s a lot of ways you can strip models, but for me, I found the best way to strip metal and only metal models is to just get 100% acetone. Throw it in a metal cup and throw all these in the cup and wait. Acetone smells terrible and you definitely don’t want to get it on your skin. Pop.

And I popped all these guys off of their bases. Because I’m pretty sure Whoa, I’m getting a little crazy here. Let me slow it down. Uh because I’m pretty sure this would melt like that. It would melt their plastic.

And also by roughing them up a little bit, it’s going to give a spot for that as to get up underneath the paint in case this was sealed. So everybody’s in there. I’m going to just make a lid with a rubber band and some plastic that’s not going to melt. Uh, and I’ll be back to check on it later. >> Tricky situation because we can’t just kind of paint this normally.

We have to keep this so that we can play it to get practice games in while we’re painting it for the next two weeks because we want to get as much table time in before the tournament as possible. So, I’m hopefully I can get everything based and primed and back to a playable condition today so that way I can keep getting games in because I want to get a lot of table time and I can play a war table online or tabletop simulator, but nothing really compares to getting like real actual table time in and I need to also practice a chess clock. So, I want to be able to practice like physically moving the models around. I’m going to show you guys how the first couple of minis come out of this. It’s been sitting in here for a couple of hours now and I’ve got gloves on and this cardboard box and a very hard bristled brush.

So, I’m fishing the first guy out of here. I’m just going to put him down directly on the cardboard so I can get some more pressure onto him. And I’m just peeling this paint right off. Uh, this makes a pretty big mess, which you’ll see by the end of it. But just pretty straightforward, just brushing this guy down.

Um, I’m going to pull everybody out and do it once and then filter out the acetone with a cone filter and then throw everybody back in, do it one more time, and then that’s the point where I’ll wash them off with water. And see, this is how nasty it gets. I’m just going to use an empty glass bottle. And this this coffee was disgusting, by the way. Uh, but just using a funnel filter.

And this just catches all the tiny bits, too, so I can easily more easier. I know I’m pretty sloppy, but I’ve got this cardboard box to catch it. And this way I can keep reusing the acetone, too. It’s going to change color, but just getting these bits out, I’ll be able to keep using it. And I’m just making sure I don’t have any bits in there.

Hey guys, uh quick update. After stripping, uh these guys right here, these guys are all ready for priming now. Um, after after I shipped these, I realized that I had some new in box. So, I’m just going to build these guys that are new in box. I got to build that thing that’s new in box.

Reassembled these. I got all the mold lines cleaned off. These still had mold lines. Got to get the mold lines off him. Uh, I made sure that these didn’t have any mold lines.

And I’ll probably leave them alone. Uh, by actually I’m going to strip these cuz I now that I’m really looking at them, it’s all pretty bad. So, uh, I got to strip those guys. So, I got to strip all those guys, get everything primed. Actually, I got to get everything based before I prime it, which uh I’ve been loving this stuff, but I’m out of it.

And I’m going to make my own, and that’ll be the next video. I got to get a couple of ingredients for that. Uh, but really I’m I’m cleaning up all this stuff behind me, recovering from pulling everything out, and it’s all just in piles from me sorting through it. And going to get this back to a functioning work area. And so that’s day one of the getting ready for Call to Arms tournament prep