Do you ALWAYS strip?

axiom

Member
I buy many models. By and large, these arrive unpainted, stripped or with dire paint jobs that need stripping. Every so often, I'll pick up a figure which is actually pretty nicely painted. I have one at the moment - this Space Eunuch.



Now, he's not in the right colour scheme or painting style for what I need, but it does seem a shame to strip a nice paint job off him.

Does anyone else ever have this dilemma? Do you strip everything, or do you keep figures painted by someone else in your collection?
 

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phreedh

Member
I would love to base that up and use it as painted, then again I sometimes buy painted models for the paintjob. I'm not much of an artiste though, I'm proud of what I paint but I don't feel I have to do the job myself.

Let me know if you want to get rid of the model and can't come to an agreement with SuperBeasto. It's a beauty!
 

Aiteal

Member
I bought a dragon ogre a few years back that has a nice paintjob, the only thing I can see myself doing to it is basing it. Since finding that elusive tail/foot combo I have another bibby dragon ogre to paint up when I get time.
RA8mqf4.jpg
 
These boys wont get stripped, though i'll repaint some of their accessories to make them a bit more interesting. Someone put a bit of effort into their skin tones etc and they aren't far off my own greenskin style :grin:



THIS guy i'm not touching because he looks like he stepped out of an old WD magazine and I love every inch of it, including the comically oversized banner. He had a brother in another auction that I missed out on when my train went through reception deadzone and I got sniped...

 

Scalene

Member
If the paint is not too thick then I would just overpaint. Occasionally I leave some as is, particularly small details. Sometimes the original paint job serves as an inspiration, prompting me to use colours I wouldn't normally. I have a handful of models that a friend painted. As they are well done and his painting style is very similar to mine, I have left untouched.
 

Subedai

Member
I've never stripped a figure so far, I'll either do a full paint over or add some additional shading and highlighting if I am still happy with the base of the original paint job. The first is a comparison of two of my own orcs, the second two before/after goblins which I bought painted.

wfb3_orc_arrer_boyz_makeover_01.jpg

wfb3_goblin_makeover_01.jpg
 

Blue in VT

Moderator
I pretty much never buy a figure for its paint job...as painting is my favorite part of the process....but If I acquired one that looked good enough I would certainly keep it. In the case of the Eunuch I would suggest playing around with inks over his white "armor" :lol: and changing the colors that way...the skin tone and weapon look great already.

Cheers,

Blue
 
i like painting. there's maybe 2 or 3 miniatures i've bought and not painted because i liked the scheme that was there and it was better than i can do. but painting is my favourite bit of the hobby!
 

symphonicpoet

Moderator
It's an odd dilema. I buy figures because I like painting them. I've rarely bought figures that I didn't think I could improve on and never yet bought figures I didn't think I could at least equal. (There's lots of figures out there better than what I can paint, but I'm not ready to pay enough to buy them.) Once in a while I've left partial paint and just touched up to make things match my own style. Generally I strip things. I would be loathe to strip a friend's well painted figure, but I've rarely traded painted figures with friends, and then only "awful 80s" paint. (Mostly in the 80s.) Those I strip. I'm not saying it will never happen, but thus far it hasn't. I'm willing to strip virtually any figure I own under the right circumstances. (The latest generation is always the least susceptible.) I've got a few figures I've felt bad stripping, because I know someone put some work in them, but I'd feel dishonest displaying them, and I've felt I could do at least as well, so into the Pine-Sol they've gone.

That said . . . I've kept some conversion work done by others. I feel bad about that, as I worry folks will think it's my own. (And the overwhelming majority of my conversions are indeed my own work, and I believe everything currently wearing my paint.) But I've got a few conversions scattered in the paint bin I'm tempted to paint and field as is with large footnotes stating clearly that the conversion work isn't mine.
 

axiom

Member
I didn't actually buy the Eunuch because of the paint job...he just happened to be quite nice. Sadly he's got a very different style to the way I want to paint him.

Thanks for all the thoughts on the matter - been very interesting!
 
As mentioned, I'd be happy to save the paint job and provide you with an unpainted version.
He'd fit in nicely with the other painted miniatures I bought from the same seller. ;)
 

Padre

Member
I never strip. I just paint over the paint that's already on the figures. TBH, I am not sure I know how to strip! I am painting enamels over (usually) acrylics, but the paint hasn't fallen off yet.
 
Always strip. Unless you are buying a fig deliberately for a paintjob, which I can't imagine as it would have to be golden daemon quality, and I only own figs I game with, no cabinet lurkers in this collection.
If you don't strip your figs and repaint what do you say if you gets compliment? Thanks, some guy I've never met painted them? Or do you lie and take credit? F that. Buy painted, strip, repaint. Especially when you have talent, like you. :)
 

Padre

Member
Padre":1lc407zk said:
I never strip. I just paint over the paint that's already on the figures. TBH, I am not sure I know how to strip! I am painting enamels over (usually) acrylics, but the paint hasn't fallen off yet.

I have now stripped. I used Dettol, soaking for a day. Worked well. The subject was not my own figures, but some second hand ones that were painted with acrylic. One, I think, had some sort of enamel spray on it, which turned into an impossible to remove mess. I just painted over that!
 

Asslessman

Member
I usually strip automatically but your eunuch is just at the limit where I'd reconsider... Like Blue, I like Painting so I will want to give it my own touch, hell I even strip some painted models of mine (and sometime take ages to repaint them). Unless he's really incompatible with what you had in mind, keep him this way unless you can swap him to send the shame away.
 
i don't always strip. it really depends on the paint already on the model. if the colours aren't too thick and make for an appropriate undercoat i will just paint over them. i've kept one orc that i bought that was so well painted and based that i wanted it in my army as it was, and once or twice the miniature was basically ok but needed some touching up to fit into their squad.
 

A Badger

Member
Like the OP I have sometimes inadvertantly bought stuff in job lots that I thought was too good to strip (including one miniature that was in one the mid 2000's GW catalogues!). I've tended to put miniatures I didn't really want for my own collection back on ebay - sometimes I've used the basic neat paint job; added a wash, a highlight and a decal or two and made a reasonable return on a few minutes of 'sprucing up'.

When I look at the biscuit tin I use to strip miniatures in, I often wonder how many hundreds of hours of painters' work ended up in the multi-coloured sludge sunk to the bottom of it.
 

snyggejygge

Member
Some times I paint over the old job if the paint is thin enough, & sometimes if the old paintjob is good enough I just touch it up a bit to fit with my other models, however so far I´ve never bought a painted model which I haven´t done something to to make it mine.
 
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