I found a new favorite stripper!

Right, get your minds out of the gutter, you lot! ;P
I mean the substance you use to remove paint from old miniatures...
Gunbird recommended I try Mr. Muscle kitchen cleaner, and I am very happy he did. Previously I've stripped my minis with "old school" methods: Thinner for metals and brake fluid for plastics, which to be honest are a total pain in the anterior region. Neither are pleasant substances to touch, smell, inhale or be around for extended periods of time. Especially brake fluid, which essentially requires hazmat gear. Bleh.
Mr. Muscle is meant for household use, so is a lot more benign, both chemically and financially (a flask of it costing a bit under €2 and, like brake fluid, can be used lots of times before it loses its stripping potency). Plus it does the job just as well, if not better than it's nasty predecessors.

Here's the proof:

Monday evening these miniatures were fully painted, some of them in (multiple) thick sprayed on layers. Now they are quite clean, except where the paint had been sealed in by superglue. Very satisfactory results!
And best of all, no nasty headache-inducing smells, no hazmat gear beyond some latex gloves as a standard precaution. They may even be unneccesary, but why break the habit?

Between this and our plans to try out This Is Not A Test, I've got Necromunda on the brain again. I have to finish painting the two Terminators I started first, and then I can get to work on the Eschers. Step one is basing and cleaning them (I spotted a few leftover moldlines when stripping them) and deciding on a colourscheme.
And maybe even build some terrain? If the enthusiasm holds out that is, I'm still dealing with the lack of focus and drive that started a few weeks ago. The nice thing a bout Necromunda terrain is that it can double as any post-apocalyptic industrial terrain.

What are my plans and ideas in this regard? A lot of the Necromunda terrain people build is heavily based on the cardboard terrain, and as a result is often quite on the neat and orderly side, to my mind. I want a lot more derelict, lived-in feel. Necro-terrain often seems just to clean and unmangled for something that is essentially a man-made cave system buried in the basement of a mindbogglingly huge skyscraper. There are some absolutely stunning sets of terrain out there though, that very much get the derelict style very, very  right.
I also want to try and incorporate some of the odd flora and fauna that is part of the Necromunda mythos. So I'll be reading all the Necromunda stories and books I can for inspiration. Also, I'd like to take some inspiration from things like the Borderlands PC games and Mad Max. That scrapheap/jury-rigged aesthetic should fit Necromunda just fine.
 I'm also playing a bit of Tomb Raider (the 2013 reboot) lately, and I like the way it uses verticality as well as ledges and gaps to give you interesting routes and get a lot of play out of their maps. I hope to incorporate this into my terrain as well. Plus the way ancient ruins and modern (semi-)derelict building and shanties are mashed together is just so, so right for 'Munda...

See you next time!