Classichammer

I was fortunate enough to encounter a dark elf bolt thrower and 5 black guard second hand at my local store recently. They were even primed but not painted.

So I bought them and started painting them. Which is where my troubles begin. I found mold lines, then flash, then more flash. The bolt thrower is now in several pieces because so much glue was used for the initial assembly that parts weren't fully touching each other and so didn't have enough glue elsewhere so I broke it up to reassemble.

So now I have primed models where many of the raised edges have had the paint removed in the process of getting rid of the junk. This looks better than it is since there are still more things to trim, especially on the bolt thrower.

Does anyone know how much less durable the paint will be if I just paint over it and keep going? Or should I stop, strip all the paint off and start from the beginning so they can stay looking nice once I'm finished?

Since it's pewter I would just pop off the bases and soak them in acetone. Just the annoyance of line removal through paint would infuriate me. Plus, wouldn't you need to reprime the bare metal areas to keep the paint from rubbing off?

What Tony said, except my recommended product is Biostrip 20. (I'm not sure where in the world you are - the manufacturer doesn't have a US distributor at the moment, although they are looking...)

Yep, bath in nail polish is the way to go in my opinion on this one.