FAQ: Removing Paint - Paint Stripping

[Capt. Liam Shaw]

Simple green has worked great for me in the past with metal mini's, but i have some ebay plastic marines that were dowsed in white primer so thick you couldn't make out any of the details at all, they've been soaking for a week and still the paint is thick as all can be. tried a rough tooth brush too!!! i've got a jar of brake fluid, have to give that a try....

[The Angelus Sanctus]

The issue of paint removal has been covered well in the PC&A FAQ. Please feel free to refer yourself to that. Using the boards search function will also come up with a wealth of threads in regards to this topic matter. ;)

[Mau]

Guys I came to shoult for help in the the name of the Gloden Thorne, somehow I flushed the damned godlike toillet on my minis.

 

If some one can that a look at my last post and give me some hints or information I´ll be very glad and pleased.

 

My B&C blog.

 

Thanks ppl... Learning is a painfull task.

[teh_perfesser]

Pinesol destroys plastic minis. Never use Pinesol on plastic. Never.

Fastest paint remover is Easy-Off oven cleaner (yellow can, must be yellow can). Spray, wait 2 hours, rinse with tons of water and tooth brush off the paint--the more caked on the paint is, the better is comes off. If you want to soak your minis for a couple days, brake fluid or Simple Green apparently work wonders. I have not compared the methods as I started with Easy-Off and I didn't need to try the others.

Yellow paint is the worst paint for coverage. Yellow models should be done with yellow ink over a white base coat.

BUT if you want to use yellow paint with a 1:1 dilution , here's what will happen:

- Your first coat will 'puddle' and be 'splotchy'

- The second coat will be the same

- For the third coat see above

- The fourth coat should start looking like you are making progress

- By about the ninth or tenth coat, you should be done (or at least close)

Red (which is better than yellow for coverage) takes me about five to eight coats for good coverage when diluted. You might also want to try a glaze medium instead of water; it should suspend the pigments better and reduce some of your problems.

Priming Tips. All you need to know about priming is in these two diagrams (well, and whatever is written on the can... that pretty important too).

First, when priming start the spray well clear of the model. Spraying from left to right, with the can about a foot or foot and a half away from your minis, start the spray a foot or so to the left of the first model and quickly spray across releasing the spray only after passing the last model by a foot or so.

Second point, you must keep the can parrallel to your models. Get your models in a line a straight as possible (and you should try to keep all models in a priming line about the same size--don't mix vehicles with marines). Then when you start spraying, keep consistantly parrellel to the model line, don't dip off the line. The secret is to not make your line of minis too long and to move from the shoulder with a locked wrist .

Repeat with consistant speed. The number of coats needed will depend on the distance you are away from the minis, the humidity outside, the brand of primer etc, so there is no hard and fast rule here. Consistancy is key. And keep the coats very, very thin--you can always do more coats. I do one 'coat' from the front (which consists of several fast spray passes), leave primer to dry for 2 minutes, then do the same on the back, top and bottom (sides as well depending on whether or not the front and back sprays covered sides) giving two minutes of drying per coat. Two coats should do it, three or four at most. Primer will completely dry within an hour (but usually within 10 minutes).

[Mau]

Thanks a lot for the explanation. I was really lost about what happened, you enlightned me a lot about it.

 

By instinct I remade the primer just as you shown. Looks nice now, I hope that the damage caused to the plastic can be no great problem to the painting now.

 

I hope to post good news this night. The hardest part now is decide what technics to use on basecoat. I saw many articles about basecoting with unwatered paint, watered paint, inks, watered inks.

 

Any hints or sugestions. This what Im trying to do:

 

http://uk.games-workshop.com/spacemarines/imperialfists/images/impfists.jpg

 

Really basic ones ... but for a starter I think is good enoght

[teh_perfesser]

Really basic ones ... but for a starter I think is good enoght

Imperial Fists might seem basic, but they aren't easy at all. That's why you don't see a lot of them :)

 

Here's an excellent tutorial on Imperial Fists. This one uses inks and dipping, so the result isn't like the picture you have--it ends up pretty dark. This is a tutorial using thinned yellow paint. He doesn't say how many coats he used to get that yellow though.

 

I've also heard the the 'Eavy Metal team uses yellow spray paint for Imperial Fists...

 

Anyhow, start with one model. Call it your 'test model'. Paint it up however you want and see what works. Do everything from the base coat to the hightlights and shading. Why do a test?

1. You'll get some practice

2. You'll see if you have your colors correct. Is you'll yellow to dark? Is your red to light? Does it all work together?

3. You'll be able to check your techniques. Are you brushes the right size? Are you mixing your paint right? Are you assembling too much before painting?

 

Remember or write down what you did and put the model to the side and grab another. Repeat with this new test model, making changes to get closer to what you want. Once you are happy with your test model, start the rest of your models using the techniques and recipes used on that final test model (the test model will be a good guide). Take your failed test models, strip them down (carefully!) and paint them up too.

 

By the time you get around to painting the vehicles, you should have the skills down for them to be no problem at all.

 

So start slow. If it takes two or three weeks to finally get one model you like, that's fine. It'll get faster as you get better. Make progress, keep at it. Once you are done the battle force box, you'll be pretty good at it.

[Narthecium]

For good paint removal suggestion, check the link in my signature for information on Simple Green.

[Mau]

Sorry about the question ... but as I live in BR I have no clue about what is Simple Green ... Can u tell me whats that ?

 

Thanks =)

[Mau]

Teh ... really thanks again, I really was interested on the yellow spray idea. Maybe thats the key for a nice work with yellow paintings, everyone that I asked told me to forget about the IFs and go to another easier chapter for my first box.

 

Two problems with that ... Im taking that as a hobby once there is not many ppl around in Brazil that plays WH 40K or any other mini games. So I dont wanna end up with an army that I dont like the fluff (I loved the term) and I can´t even end up with tons of minis ... So I said to hell to all the IF cons and stitch with them.

 

But They spray is really a great idea, but now one question ... over the prime or prime the mini with the yellow spray then ink with yellow ?

[Narthecium]

simple green is a cleanser. ^_^

[teh_perfesser]

But They spray is really a great idea, but now one question ... over the prime or prime the mini with the yellow spray then ink with yellow ?

Forgot where I found the spray paint information or I would have included it in my last post. Turns out the information was here.

 

So it's prime, spray, wash for shadows, then paint yellow over top. That makes for painting yellow over a yellow base which is sure to work pretty well.

[Mau]

Thanks to all the help guys ... I finished my first mini. =)

 

Tomorrow I will update my Blog ... but if someone what to see I already set the images on my gallery.

[teh_perfesser]

You made this yellow???

That's a pretty darn nice yellow for sure. Looks very even.

The highlights are a little rough (better than mine), but it looks like you made a good choice with the colour. The sample you have a few posts back use much lighter highlights, but I think I like your colour better.

As for the red... a little too bright maybe? Looks like you used Blood Red. Blood Red is a bit more to the orange side of red (where as, say Mechrite Red is more to the purple side of red). You might want to try a darker red or you might want to keep it like that. I don't know. I like it bright, but I could see a little darker red providing a bit more contrast.

All in all, that's a really nice looking first model. Puts a lot of us to shame.

[Mau]

Blog updated.... here

 

Now I need some more hints ... but I will made separate posts... and move my project for the ON WORKING session !!!!

 

MARINES !!! ADVANCE !!!!

[littlewood123]

i recently decided i wanted to strip my battle for macragge marines and paint them in a new DIY chapter but with all the choice of strippers i didn't know what to use i thought about nail polish remover but if i got the wrong type and melted the mini's i'd be rather angry :D. so i tried just plain old hot water and scrubbed, scrubbed, scrubbed but nothing budged so i did some experiments with some old fantasy models i tried a nail varnish remover and lets just say the model looks like a blob more than a mini, i then tried turpantine to no effect what so evre then i tried methilated spirits which to great suprise worked greatly just leave it in for 30mins give a could scrubb with a tooth brush abck in for another 30mins scrubb and then rinse with hot water and thats it one nice clean marine and it works with both metal and plastic (not tried on any of the FW resign) so thats it if this helps anyone that's great.

[rat of vengence]

I have heard metho works well, as does Simple Green.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. What colour scheme are you going for?

 

RoV

[averykess]

The absolute best is Chameleon

 

I don't work for them, just an awesome product.

[ddsa86]

I recently wanted to strip my nids from the same set for my son and I used Simply Green. It worked very well and I suggest that you let the minis soak up to 48 hours or so. I then used an old toothbrush and scrubbed the paint off with some hot water and dish soap. Most of the paint cam right off. I stress "most" came off with a little bit of the primer still in some of the small spaces. It didn't matter much and I couldn't tell once I reprimed them black. I have tried many different products but Simply Green seems to work best. It is cheap and can found at your local Walmart (I found it in the auto section) or Home Depot for a big container.

 

JT

[Momento Mori]

ooooh, Paint stripping... :lol:

 

I need to strip some of my undercoated models, I had a case of the 'fuzzy coat brigade' with some primer I used recently, much to my dismay *grrr*

[Alys Dwr]

Being in the UK and not having ready access to simple green this is good to know. I think the best thing is that it only took you an hour? Much better than 2 days IMO.

 

Al

[Mr.Wolf]

I work at an auto shop so brake fluid is always on hand. I've done nail polish remover as well. As long as you only leave the model in for a few hours (maybe test with some junk to find the right amount of time), the pain will com right off with a toothbrush with no ill effects.

[Imperialis_Dominatus]

ooooh, Paint stripping... :blink:

 

Yeah. For when *low techno music* your models are too sexy for their paint, their paint...

[Momento Mori]

ooooh, Paint stripping... :)

 

Yeah. For when *low techno music* your models are too sexy for their paint, their paint...

 

*falls off chair laughing* :lol:

 

Does anyone know if the 'Simple Green' stuff affects the bases? some of my guys are glued on pretty well....

[Kicker]

For Plastic models, PLEASE use Fairy Power Spray, no damage to the model, but the paint comes right off!

[Grand Master Neo]

another great option that i heard from off a friend who was doing a chemistry degree is to use dettol

 

the brown works amazingly well to strip paint (you can just put yr model in and take it off with a paintbrush) and the clear stuff is an amazing thinner and helps the paint stick better (something to do with the chemical make-up or something)

 

*this post did say domestos but as the government and highways agency keep telling us "tiredness can kill"*