"removing D&D minis from their bases" Topic

I have a bunch of D&D prepaints I want to rebase for my Hordes of the Things armies, but they are glued on pretty solid. Some of them are huge figures with 70mm bases that are too big to just mount on top of a regular HotT base. What's the best way to separate the miniatures from the bases without damaging the mini?

Pine-Sol worked in decoupling some old metal minis that had been glued together, so I'm wondering if it might dissolve the glue in this case.

Thanks in advance for any advice/suggestions.

Nearly all that I have have bases that are part of the casting. I'd suggest a powertool, belt or disk sander.

I've had good fortune with x-acto blades. Skinny miniatures like skeletons are a risk for damage but the average miniatures I've removed this way have come off with minimal fuss.

Thanks, Saber6: I was hoping to avoid using power tools.

Privateer 4 hire: What about with huge miniatures, with a whole lot of cross section, like the Fire Titan?

The plastic is pretty soft, so I clip around their feet with wire snips, and/or toenail clippers. Then I can do more precise cuts with an X-Acto knife.

I'd be happy to show you some examples of how I handled a couple of them. The Beast is right, clipping off some of the base's outer rim is pretty easy, and you can terrain over the rest.

A fire titan, eh? I have the huge fire elemental which works great with my historical armies as a summoned "god". When a 1 is rolled someone must have fired off the halon.

I tried the nailclippers on a clix mini (after removing the stats wheel) and it worked pretty well. The huge D&D minis, however have a base that's several millimeters thick.

My girlfriend suggested acetone; I will give that a try first.

Oh, I also have a couple of huge fire elementals along with some other translucent minis, all for my HotT army: Surtr and the Sons of Muspel (which sounds like the name of a rock band).

You can get a very fine saw to fit into an x-acto knife. That should be able to do the trick. For the bigger bases, just use a fully extended long-bladed box cutter (and use with extreme caution !!!!)

going the x-acto route will work but requires patience: don't try to get through a thick cross-section in just a few slices -plan on counting to 100 (slices) and you'll have the correct mindset. it doesn't really take that long…it just seems like it.

also: it helps to clamp or otherwise secure the base (so that the fig is laying on its side) and then use your free (non-knife-holding) hand to apply a gentle force to spread the cut you're making -nothing drastic, but just enough to keep the blade from getting trapped/snagged.

I have mainly done smaller stuff but Beast Rabban and others' suggestion about nail clippers/other cutters works to get the large stuff out of the way.

For the ones that are glued on, just slip the xacto knife under it a bit and lift, they usually snap right out.

If they are molded in you will need some heavy duty wire clippers, dont dull your fine model plastic sprue clippers attempting this. Then you can finely finish it with a w3edge edged xacto knife or box cutter.