Selective Stripping

So I have started work on the Avatar. However I haven't been as succesful with my airbrushing as I normally manage. This model is cursed by the way. I am fully sure that I will lose it in every game on the first turn. My first fail is documented here. So I undercoated the shield and I somehow completely swamped the inner area of it without noticing. I of course then left it to dry so now I have a problem. So as the model is metal I decided to strip it. I hadn't really managed a good even coat of white as you can see in the picture but I was eager to see if I could control the process enough to use it elsewhere on the main body of the Avatar as I had also had some problems there.

So I took out a handy bottle of nail varnish remover. Girlfriends are handy for somethings... and applied it to the shield only in the places that I wanted stripped. This Ebelin stuff is the best I have found for this type of work. I didn't get a good photograph of the bottle but under the lid you might be able to make out a cup. Depressing this cup causes the liquid to come up and fill it. This is perfect as you can then dip your brushes in as you would for a paint pot. Don't let your girlfriend see you doing this however as you will be in trouble. At least this time I managed that. This stuff is safe to use with your normal brushes. I still advise using an old one though. One of the great things to see is how much paint comes off the brush when you dip it for the first time. Anyway I brushed this over the painted area I wanted stripped a number of times, letting it soak in deep. It will evaporate rather quickly but thats okay as it will still be present in the lower layers.

So once you have this on in a few coats you can begin to lift the paint off. In my case it had already lifted off pretty well in places. The white came off easy but I guess that was due to the hairspray layer under it (which clogs detail like hell). With a tooth pick I was able to easily clean all the red/brown paint layer off and to have the centre of the shield looks as good as new again within a few moments. Now I just need to try this on the Avatar himself. Fingers crossed.