De-priming WizKids prepimed minis

[72moonglum 15391]

Hopefully the longer they sit in Simple Green, the easier it will be to remove. They've been in it for more than a day now. I was going to try to do it last night, but got distracted basing a figure.

 

While I'm happy that Vallejo primer seems to stick really firmly, my go-to primer of choice, I'm a bit chagrined that to get it off of these silly plastic figures is becoming much more labor-intensive than originally planned. I really just want to see what kind of original detail is on these figures to see if removing the stuff is even worth it.  I actually like some of these WizKids figures, but I do find that with their positions and poses, lots of times they are putting too much stuff in front of their faces, making it a little hard to get to.

[CorallineAlgae 8099]

I checked on my 2 Wizkids figures that are soaking in 91% ISO again today and confirmed a couple of obvious things. The primer is harder to remove where it is thicker, like in recesses, or the cup like areas of capes. The primer is straight up thicker there. It's also quite thick on the top of the base. The other thing is that scrubbing is vital. ISO won't remove much unless you scrub the figure. I hit them with a soft toothbrush again, then pulled out a wire interdental pick with nylon bristles to get at the tricky crevices. Wish I would've tried using it last night. The thing works. They're about 80% clean and the details are easier to see now. Once I get them scrubbed clean I'll try to remove the mold lines. Those suck, but they seem fixable. 

 

Something else I want to mention, even though these Air Genasi rogues are tiny figures with thin parts, they are very sturdy. Both of them have bows with thin sculpted bowstrings and nothing has broken or bent. The one posed on one foot stands solid. 

 

Spoiler

19 hours ago, CorallineAlgae said:

I used 91% ISO alcohol and a toothbrush to get the primer off a beholder. It worked great so I decided to give it a go with the Air Genasi Female Rogues that ced1106 said had terrible mold lines. After a quick look it was apparent that he was right about how nasty the lines were on those figures. so I dropped them into the same cup of alcohol that the Beholder was cleaned up in. Same alcohol too for that matter. After a few hours I took the minis out and scrubbed them with the toothbrush while dipping the brush into the alcohol cup to keep the mini wet. The first mini was about 60% cleaned of primer after the scrubbing, but the second one was closer to around 30% cleaned of primer. Plopped the little buggers back in the alcohol cup for another soak. I'll leave them in overnight and check again tomorrow.

 

I'll snag some 99% ISO to check if that works any quicker. The used milky alcohol left over from the beholder still seems to work, but it may be loosing some of it's punch. It might work better with some fresh ISO but I'm a tightwad. 

 

 

[72moonglum 15391]

So I've used Pine Sol, then that ISO Alcohol 91%, then I've used Simple Green, and have tried to scrub it off with a toothbrush and I've had no luck.  I think I'm about ready to give up and just keep painting Partha and Reaper. I've been working this weekend on some Reaper Bones figures, and after that initial layer gets on, there doesn't seem to be much problem with paint adhering.

[AuralEntropy 1583]

Have you tried Castrol SuperClean degreaser? It comes in a purple bottle. I use it on both plastic and metal minis and it takes everything off really well, with no damage to the minis.It is very low odor and biodegradeable, so you can use it indoors. I use it in my basement at the utility sink. 24 hours is usually long enough.

 

WARNING! It WILL GIVE YOU CHEMICAL BURNS if you get it on you. I am usually lazy about the whole safety gear thing, but I used gloves for this because of the warning. Then when I had finished I accidentally touched some that got on the outside of the yogurt container I soak the minis in and got a bad burn on my fingers from a trace amount. Wear gloves.

 

I hope it works for you. I have avoided Wizkids because of the crappy primer spray and huge mold lines. If you have success I may give one a go.

Edited August 27, 2019 by AuralEntropy

[ManvsMini 16708]

I have tried the Castrol SuperClean, and while I endorse its use for paint stripping, so far I have had little success with the pre-primed WizKids minis. I've had two bugbears sitting in it for around 5 months, with periodic scrubbing to remove layers of primer. I'm still not satisfied with how much primer has been removed. Enough hasn't removed enough to even let the Superclean penetrate down to the superglue holding the arms together.

 

I think part of it is that the Vallejo surface primer isn't a straight acrylic resin as their paints are, but more polyurethane based/blend resin, which is a bit more durable if it has set properly. And since it looks like they dip and flick the figures into it instead of uniformly spraying, it's just a nightmare if you get an over-primed figure.

[72moonglum 15391]

I think I'm done trying to remove primer.  In the end I have a total of three WizKids miniatures and I've already spent too much time trying to get them to do what I want to. It's kind of a pity because there are some figures out there that are kind of fun and interesting.  Besides the annoying primer however, I've also noticed how lots of their sculpts put things at odd angles in front of their figures' faces, making them that much more awkward to paint.  Maybe one day I'll give them a try when I get really inspired, but for now I'll stick to Reaper, Partha and Stonehaven, with sprinklings of Grenadier and Heritage!

 

I wonder though if they would ever sell those figures without primer? Unprimed and unpainted?

[breegull 1005]

4 hours ago, 72moonglum said:

I think I'm done trying to remove primer.  In the end I have a total of three WizKids miniatures and I've already spent too much time trying to get them to do what I want to. It's kind of a pity because there are some figures out there that are kind of fun and interesting.  Besides the annoying primer however, I've also noticed how lots of their sculpts put things at odd angles in front of their figures' faces, making them that much more awkward to paint.  Maybe one day I'll give them a try when I get really inspired, but for now I'll stick to Reaper, Partha and Stonehaven, with sprinklings of Grenadier and Heritage!

 

I wonder though if they would ever sell those figures without primer? Unprimed and unpainted?

 

I very much doubt they'd ever sell a second line of unprimed minis. They already have soooo many SKUs for retailers to stock, it would be a nightmare if they started doubling up.

 

For the most part I've stopped trying to strip the primer off these. I continue to buy them, but the level of detail that's underneath the primer is rarely worth all the effort. (Unless the mini is so overprimed it just will not accept paint.)

[Durham 39]

On 7/10/2019 at 6:15 PM, 72moonglum said:

 

Anything else you'd suggest? I just threw them back into the Pinesol and I'll try again in a few days again.

Isopropyl alcohol, aka rubbing alcohol,  is in most drug stores and supermarkets. Try that

[72moonglum 15391]

1 hour ago, Durham said:

Isopropyl alcohol, aka rubbing alcohol,  is in most drug stores and supermarkets. Try that

Been there, done that.  did Pinesol first, Isopropyl alcohol afterwards, and then Simple Green. Silly primer does not want to budge. I’ve had them sitting still in the Simple Green since last I tried, might give it one more rub of the toothbrush before I totally give up.

[AuralEntropy 1583]

Howdy folks,

A small update on stripping Wizkids minis. I finally picked up two beholders and was planning to just paint them as is, but the mould lines got the better of me. I started scraping them off and noticed the primer was really thick while doing this and deiced, what the heck, let's see what I can get off the mini. So into my chem bath they went. The pics are from about 48 hrs in Castrol Super Clean with scrubbing/checking about every 12 hours. I think ~85-90% of the primer is gone. There is no sign of the glue they used releasing though. (The primer has a bit of a yellow tint to it in the pictures for reference.)

 

 

I've noticed that the detail on the spikes seems to be better than what I could see when it was primed. (Sorry, forgot to take a before picture). The gums, tongue and other details have deeper grooves than they first appeared. I'm not sure how much of the primer I will get out of the deepest grooves, but plan to give it another day or two. I switched from the toothbrush I was using to a stiffer brush from my sculpting set. This seems to help a little.

 

This is the stuff I am using. Castrol Super Clean. Biodegradable and almost no smell. Bit very corrosive to skin. You MUST wear gloves when handling it or the container it is in. Any amount will give you a chem burn.

 

I'm not sure if my results are just lucky compared to others who have tried Super Clean, they changed their primer mix, or who knows what.

Just hope others have some success, because damn, they really cake on the primer.

 

Edited October 7, 2019 by AuralEntropy

[Bold 239]

I’ve successfully removed primer from WizKids miniatureswith LA’s Totally Awesome cleaner, which you can find in your local dollar store. Let it soak for a day or three, occasionally scrubbing with an old toothbrush.

 

I discovered LA’s Totally Awesome cleaner on a roundup of different products tested to see which was best at stripping old minis, and it came out on top: better than Simple Green, Isopropyl Alcohol, etc. 

[Mullet 9]

I am in the midst of the wizkids primer stripping process. I tried LA's and Krud Kutter Graffiti. The LA's softened the primer up but did not dissolve anything. I let it soak for a week. I scrubbed with a hard bristle tooth brush every other day. Most of it came off but only through labored scrubbing. I read up about Krud Kutter and gave it a whirl. It was much better. 2 hours and a noticeable improvement.

It has been 24 hours of soaking now. I have brushed and brushed and most of the minis are 95% free of primer. The joint gaps are really noticeable now. I think this is the reason for all the primer.

I started to get nausea from the fumes. Please do this with gloves on and in a well ventilated area as the warning label recommends.

I am worried that the remaining primer is soft and will flake off after I paint. Some of the nooks on the bone golem are not easy to access to brush off. 

All and all, I don't know if I will do this in the future. I will just by reaper.

 

Edited January 31, 2020 by Mullet

[Corsair 29096]

If the fumes bother you I would switch to a pine based cleaner or Simple Green. Also, those will not harm plastics even after several days soaking.

[ManvsMini 16708]

I'm currently running a test for stripping Wizkids pre-primed between Simple Green, Super Clean, and LA's Totally Awesome. I'll report my official findings once my testing period is complete. I'm not sure anything is going to get them 100% clean without a lot of elbow grease and scrubbing. So far not even my ultrasonic cleaner has been successful in removing everything from previous trials with Super Clean.

[Egg of Coot 3320]

I haven't tried it with Wizkids figs, but I have yet to find anything that Easy-Off Oven Cleaner will not strip off.  YMMV.

 

The Egg