Another-nother lesson in never throwing anything away

In the dark, dark house, there was a dark, dark staircase. Down the dark, dark staircase, there was a dark, dark cellar. And in the dark, dark cellar, some space marines were in a plastic container covered in goo.

I’ve been holding onto these marines for a long time, and they had been somewhat unsuccessfully stripped and repainted before. The last attempt was the usual Dettol method, and even though I avoided water at all costs everything quickly devolved into black gunk (if you know you know, I still have flashbacks). So I chucked them in a nearby container and left them. I didn’t want to chuck them, as they were pricey back then, even more so now!

For a while I’d been thinking about buying an Ultrasonic Cleaner, and after surfing the internet desperate for that new army project, I remembered my gunky marines and decided to save some money. Amazon delivered it the next day, and I bought the cheapest one with a decent sized capacity and then I grabbed a bottle of Methylated Spirits from a discount shop.

Before:

After:

I was shocked at how effective this really was, and how quick it was to do. One 90 second cycle and all that horrible gunk was gone.

Before:

After:

A morning’s work and I was through the whole tub. Towards the end I was having to use a toothbrush a little as the spirits were so gunked up with stripped paint they had lost a little potency.

That’s roughly £320 of Warhammer kits stripped back to bare plastic. Many of my figures are still mounted on 25mm bases which gives some indication of how long I’ve had them.

Never throw anything away!