Stripped the paint on someone else’s nearly completed project after picking the kit cheap from a vendor at a show.
The bones appear good as it’s a quality kit, built with quality basic construction skill. I think it will just need a repaint and finishing.
Started wondering how other modelers think about refurbishments.
When do you decide to refurbish model?
What criteria?
Any special factors you like to consider?
How well do refurbished builds turn out in your experience?
Please feel free to post refurbish projects and results etc.
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Hi Wade. I’ve stripped paint off of many (dozens) a finished model during the painting or weathering phase because something didn’t turn out right. But once a kit is done, if it doesn’t look right or it doesn’t place at AMPS or Armorcon, I put it on a back shelf in the “dead models” section. I really should bin them, but I keep them to remind me what I did wrong that looked so right at the time. I have never refurbished an old model. I don’t have the time or inclination. I’d rather pull a totally unstarted, fresh kit from the stash and start from scratch then try to fix what I did wrong on a previous kit. This new kit I will build and paint better and I know it, keeping in mind all the things I did wrong on that “dead kit”. The little erroneous details that my peer judges pointed out will be remembered and not repeated. I’d rather let that “dead kit” gather dust and move on to fesh plastic, which always carries with it the prospect of gaining a perfect score and maybe making me an AMPS Master. I still have a Monogram M-21 halftrack that I built when I was 14, in perfect condition, that has a black poster paint wash on it. I look at it now and LOL, but I would never refurbish it. It tells me loud and clear where I came from. And I have way too many excellent, unstarted kits waiting for me to go back, because I know where I’m going.
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You could always use it to practice painting/weathering techniques. Much better to use a “dead kit” than damaging a new kit.
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I suck at models so my entire collection is a junkyard by the standards here. 
When I mess up a model really bad such that it is unrecoverable given my abilities, it goes straight to the recycle bin. If I kept every severe screw up, they would quickly outnumber the moderate screw ups. 
(I kept the first few monstrosities, then realized they would quickly outnumber the merely bad.)
There is one exception. I have some older, moderately sucky models with flexible tracks. One or two are very old. Some day, I want to replace the tracks on those vehicles.
In summary, I am now too old to muck around with screw ups. I need to complete models, not wrestle with monstrosities of my own creation.
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Fixed it for ya. 
That being said. The one hand-me-down that i ever picked up and finished to my delight, was a Meng T-90A that I finished not too long ago. I chronicled it here 
Hand-Me-Down T-90A from Meng - Armor/AFV / Modern - KitMaker Network
I was lucky the kit was 99% present, and I was able to use some parts from the Amusing Hobby T-90A kit.
Really proud of myself after completing someone else’s mess.
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I’m in the “no” camp - I have too many new ones to build! Back when I was doing trains I often rebuilt rolling stock, mainly stripping to repaint in my local line’s colours. But with plastic tanks there just isn’t as much need.
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Never. Any old built kits once I get bored of them may be stripped for potential spare or useful parts, then it goes into file 13. I dont have any shelf queens as once a kit is started, it gets built.
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