What do you do when you over paint a face?

[Photographer]

but are happy with the rest of the model? 

[rob_alderman]

repaint the face...

You'll have to be more specific. 

[Heldrak]

While the simplest answer is to strip the entire figure and then repaint it (if you did the body well once, you can do it again), there are commercial paint-stripping products that will let you strip a portion of a figure as needed (gels and such). You simply dab them on the area and then carefully peel away the paint. It will be a finnicky job though, as you will have to carefully clean the head of stripper before new paint will adhere. Simplest to re-do the whole figure.

If the face is a featureless blob after three coats, it sounds like you're not thinning your paints enough though...

[rob_alderman]

Yeah. Sounds (and looks a little) like you need to thin your paints a bit.

I'd perhaps suggest painting your bases as well. It will look all the more 'finished'. 

[Plynkes]

There's no need to strip the entire figure. I did the same thing the other day. Scraped the paint off the face with a cocktail stick, my fingernails and an old brush. Then repainted the face from scratch.

[Calimero]

There's no need to strip the entire figure. I did the same thing the other day. Scraped the paint off the face with a cocktail stick, my fingernails and an old brush. Then repainted the face from scratch.

And did you use some kind of "primer" on the face before re-paint?

[Plynkes]

Just an undecoat of plain old white paint, same as I always use (except when I use black).

[anevilgiraffe]

There's no need to strip the entire figure. I did the same thing the other day. Scraped the paint off the face with a cocktail stick, my fingernails and an old brush. Then repainted the face from scratch.

ditto - same happened to me... I was close to throwing the bloody thing out the window, the face was doing my nut in... got the scalpel out and picked off the paint, old toothbrush scrub and a fresh undercoat... you need to find a natural gap from painted to unpainted as you could get a line from the layers of paint... jaw line and hair line is handy for that

[Plynkes]

Yeah, that's good advice, forgot to mention that. What he said.