some modelling questions.

[Illustrange]

1. With what materials do you remove paint from painted miniatures, or more specifically, primed metal miniatures ? preferably material that can be found around the house (or even the girlfriends makeup bag, I seem to recall nail remover works ?)

2. Ive always been used to tabbed miniatures and slotta-bases, however now I am assembling my miniatures to prepare for finally getting back to painting, I realised there are a few problems with my usual stick-m-together tactics.
first concerns prefabricated bases, they dont have a slot that can be filled with the tab, how do you get them properly on there, one idea I had would be carefully take off the tab, however that leads me to the second problem, freebooter miniatures (and some others too.) dont come with tabs at all, but often small plugs that fit exactly in the base they are coming with, the problem is that these are ALWAYS square bases and I base everything and all I have on premium round ones (I always preferred round bases over square ones.), the plugs dont fit in the slot, but thats a problem that cant be solved with some cutting and filing, however, I did this with freebooters nurse and the room left under her feet is so small that the miniature isnt very solid on its feet, she collapsed like the tower of pizza :( while I allready have a way of fixing this (make my own bases with grey stuff then before dryed stick the miniature in it so there is a hole for the plug present when it dries up.) it got me puzzling, I sometimes see propainters and diorama makers have miniatures posed on very small areas, on custom (nonslotta) bases, how do you get them stable ?? (the models I was used to when I regularily painted and modelled were all of the naturally stable kind, big feet etc. even without glue they often would stay straight up when slided inside of the slotta bases, all these beautiful new ones, dont share these feet sizes.)

[Bexley]

1. Nail polish remover (likewise, the acetone it is made out of), lacquer thinner, Simple Green (though it turns the pewter black if you soak it for too long) Klean-Strip brush cleaner. Brake fluid too, but some primers seem resistant to it.

2. Use a pin vise (a small rod with a Dremel-like collet and chuck on the end) and a very small drill bit to drill a hole into the figure's feet (or foot) and then glue a brass pin into the hole. Drill out the base, and insert figure. GW (among other companies) make pin vises and bits. I like the Gale Force Nine one myself, but I don't know how easy that would be for you to get a hold of. For the ones with a small plug that fits into a base, you can buy a bit the same diameter as the plug, and then drill out a hole in the base you want to put the figure on.

[goblyn13]

1) other household goods you can use are Simple Green it actually does wonders stripping paint and it doesn't smell as harsh as acetone. Not sure if its available in the Netherlands though :(

As for the second part:

This should help a bit: http://www.brushthralls.com/modelling/pinning.html

this is a detailed description of Pinning along with pictures and diagrams.

[Illustrange]

about no.2
how *safe* is such a pin vise drill thing ? while after a lot of practic it got better I really have two left hands when it comes to tools, and in the past (and now allready even tough I have only started cleaning miniatures since 2 days.) I often cut myself when cleaning the miniatures, would you say the drilling technique is safer or less safe than working with knives to clean and convert miniatures.

I rarely admit to this (as it is embarassing.) but the mayor reason for a previous miniature hiatus for me was when I was trying to convert eldar into exodites, I tryed to cut something and the knive ended up in my thumb, straight to the bone, still having a scar to remind me of that...
so I rather stay away from anything that would be more dangerous than that.. Im pretty dependant on my hands after all

[matty1001]

I think pin rills are as safe as you want them to be. The speed is entirely controlled by hand, and most of the time the drill bits are so small (all mine are under 1mm, 0.4mm are the most common I use) that very slow turns are needed just to make sure they don't break.

Sure, i'v sometimes pinned through the model by accident and cut my thumb or finger, buts it's never anything worth worrying about. Wipe away the tiny bit of blood and I am good to go.

So you really shouldn't have any worries about using a pin drill.

[diehard]

Just to clarify, while acetone and brake fluid are acceptable paint removers, any type of degreaser (of which Simple Green, Purple Power and a number of others are examples of) will work and is less hazardous to your person and the environment. Pour some in an old jar and let your minis soak overnight. Then have a go at them with an old toothbrush and the paint will pretty much slough right off.

As to pinning, the pin vise is merely a holder for a drill bit. There a number of good tutorials (including the brushthralls one) out there but basically you're drilling a hole by turning the bit by hand (avoid any desire to do this with a Dremmel or Powerdrill until you have a bit ao practice.) Take your craft knife or file and carefully make a small dent where you wanr your hole as a pilot. Then slowly turn the pin vise till you have a small hole. Fairly safe. And if you want to start cutting up models pick up a jewlers saw or if your feeling economical I've always got along fine with the saw blade for the exacto. Pinning is worth the time invested, I pin just about everything. Your models are sturdier (great if you game with them) and I've found it makes assembling a lot easier.