FAQ: Removing Paint - Paint Stripping

[Hells Guardian]

Hello everyone, I recently attempted Osiam's guide to stripping using Brake Fluid on both a plastic and metal model and here are my before and after pictures

 

http://i516.photobucket.com/albums/u328/DraconianBlade/DSC01392Medium.jpg

 

http://i516.photobucket.com/albums/u328/DraconianBlade/DSC01396Medium.jpg

 

I found brake fluid worked amazingly well i left it for 2 days and then the paint just rubbed off it also weakens glue which means you can unassemble your models aswell, however you have to be careful when unassmbling plastic as the plastic gets rather soft but the plasit hardens back up soon after soaking.

[Crayoneater]

Brake fluid. No kidding. Paint basically falls off. It won't melt plastic and is reusable almost forever. Readily available in most gas stations all over the world.

 

Brake Fluid

Rubber Gloves

Soft Toothbrush

Glass Jar and Lid

 

Get the cheap less caustic break fluid, should only be a couple dollars in any country for a small 500ml bottle. Keep the soak to a maximum of two hours for plastic models. Watch your eyes when you scrub, make sure you scrub away from your face.

[Stargazer]

I've found the Mr Muscle very useful all I do is leave it overnight, then all that i need to do is a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush and then using a modelling knife to get rid of any paint that's left in the nooks and crannies

[Cypher441]

I've found that Mr Muscle and Fairy Power Spray and oven cleaners in general work well enough for plastics (paint thinner for metals, job done. Mind you, it stinks.)

 

But one problem I have with the MM and FPS to strip plastic, is that if the model is varnished, forget it, it isn't coming off.

And for some reason the stuff isn't removing spray-on basecoats, I have no idea why not since I used to be able to get it to come off fine.

 

Anyone got any good tips/tricks for these situations? I have an old collection of varnished models I want to strip down.

[Guyver3x]

Hello all. While I am new to the forums, I am not new to painting. I have just got back into it recently, and realised how awful I was at painting. My plastic models I now use as practice, can't be bothered to strip them. The metal ones however were a concern. So I dug around in the shed and found an old can of paint stripper gel. I can't remember the exact name of it (I will post some pics later), but it worked a treat. The paint literally melted off, every layer, including primer. An old toothbrush and every bit of paint was gone. Though DO NOT wash the minis in hot water, as the gel starts to bubble and melt rather disconcertingly, and the fumes are a bit ripe, but it washes away with cold water just fine. I have a model of Tycho I need to strip down after buying off of ebay, and when I do (probably this weekend), I will put up some before and after pics.

[Karitas]

I've tried dettol myself, and wile i got a large amount of paint off a plastic mini, there was the same problme listed above with "sticky residue"

 

further soaking didnt fix it, but now i've read this i might just have to have a crack tiht the fairy :P

[! : ?]

Hi ! this being my first post on the board i'm a bit shaky as to which forum to actually post it on, but i'm sure you'll all let me know if this is the wrong one!??

 

I've recently aquired a few of the old greyknights from a friend of mine.. he did not paint them himself but his younger brother (aged 10) had a go at them,, they're a mix of colours, primarily metallic purple and metallic green with a lot of yellow mixed into them,, all have been primed with black or white,, some of the paint is acryllics and others oil based.. being really interested in going to work converting these guys for my dh army i really want that ole' paint of,,, i've tried soaking them in mineral turpentine for two weeks (don't forget to remove the bases as they turn into a odd form of gum) and then went at them with one of my childrens toothbrush (don't use your own!), but to no avail.. I've then soaked them in acetone for a day and brushed them again(with my other childs toothbrush!) this helped alot but still there's alot of paint on them that just wont come off,, especially the white prime used is still rock solid,, i've know smeared them with a fat dose of "brown" soap, but i guess that wont help either... any bright ideas on how to remove old paint would be greatly appreciated (waterbased/oils//on metal/plastic minies)

 

cheers!

 

! : ?

[winterdyne]

Cellulose thinners.

[Master Commander Ajax]

Hi, there and welcome. There are a few threads on this site for removing paint. Heres the link for one that I was just reading.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...stripping+paint

 

hope that helps.

 

-Ajax

[! : ?]

wonderful news ,, ,, i knew that there had to be a section here covering my problem, but i just couldn't find it,,, thanx for the link !

 

! : ?

[capt. loken]

I have used simple green, which does a excellent job removing paint. Email me if you need me to explain how it works.

 

hdaycare2003@yahoo.com

[Octavulg]

What's to explain? Pour into container, add figures to container, wait, scrub figures...

[Hexenes]

I'll have to second Capt. Loken. Simple Green works great and is safe for plastic minis (won't melt 'em!) You can get Simple Green @ Home Depot stores in the U.S. on the aisle with the other household cleaners. Plus it's "eco-friendly", so there is no harsh chemical smell or fumes. Just soak your boys for about 24-48 hours and scrub 'em with a stiff nylon brush. (I learned the hard way that metal brushes will scratch the hell out of plastic models, obscure details, and make your new coat of paint quite rough.)

[LuNCHBiZZLe]

if you just need to strip your old GK then go with something harsha nd cheap and take a brass brush to them after there done soakin I use purple power from wal-mart about 4-5 bucks a gallon its a heavy duty degresser.

[Slick Jimmy]

Simple green for the win.I have stripped entire armies in the stuff with very few problems.

[Steve Irwin]

Well, if you live in the UK, then here is my advice! (We can't get 'Simple Green' over here but the below should suffice).

Dettol Antiseptic (the brown stuff) is great, leave the model soaking for 24 hours, then wash the Dettol off with Fairy Power Spray and a toothbrush, and the model comes out as good as new; and I am referring to plastic models by the way.

As for metal, just use paint stripper that you would normally use on wood, it’s a clear paste, and it pulls the paint off literally in seconds (again scrubbing with a toothbrush) careful not to get any on your hands though, as it may burn the more sensative type. This works wonders on metal models!!

!!DO NOT use on your plastic models though, as they will melt within 5 minutes of application!!

I highly recommend these two paint strippers for plastic and metal respectively, I use them often when needing to get crappy layers of paint off a valuable model!

As for the other brands, never heard of success in stripping paint, but it’s up to you.

Steve

[Adam_R]

I personally find soaking plastic minis for 8 hours in a 1 to 4 Dettol and water dillution and then 2-3 hour in pure White Spirit / Turepentine does the best job.

 

Beware, leaving plastic minis in White Spirit for over 6+ hours will weaken them.

 

The main problem with the Dettol treatment is that i find there is a strange painty paste like substance that is very hard to remove.

 

Some suggest boling water and soap. I find it useless and use the Terps instead. As Steve mentions Fairy Power Spray could be an alternative to white spirit if it scares you.

 

PS:

I once melted a plastic mini in 2 hours with a 1-1 dillution of Pure Acetone (Nail polish remover) and Turpentine. I literally couldnt believe how corrosive it was. Melted it! 2-3 Hours!

[Vindictus]

I do the following:

 

Get a disposable zip-loc style "tupperware" container or similar. Add models. Spray liberally with Easy-Off Oven cleaner. Seal container. The next day, put on some rubber gloves, grab your paint-stripping toothbrush and go to town. Usually, just the act of picking up the models will start sloughing the paint off.

 

Works so easily and well.

[Brother Mord]

Simple Green

Simple Green

Simple Green

 

Doesnt hurt the minis no matter how long you leave it in.

 

Takes paint off metal minis in a day

 

Plastic minis it takes a few days of soaking and some scrubbing with an old toothbrush. Sometimes the primer wont come off but it just saves you the time of repriming the mini.

 

Simple green is your friend

[Roisin]

When using Simple Green is there a need to remove the bases or can you just chunk the whole mini in?

[Kable]

If you don't have access to simple green (that's me...) try using brake fluid. Ive used it on all of my marines and it gets the paint off easy especially with the help of a tooth brush. It doesn't melt the models either as I've heard some people suggest. No complaints from me! Just try not to spill it on any other painted surface, the stuff eats through paint which is why i use a small bucket/container to strip my mini's in.

[DarKHaZZ13]

for the last time

 

us = simple green

 

EU and UK = fairy power spray

 

leave in soultion for a few days

scrub

done

 

 

end

this thread needs to be closed

[Peck]

Introduction

 

So as I've mentioned before, I used to paint Warhammer 40,000, specifically Space Marines and a handful of Tau back when I was in my early teens from 2001 till sometime in 2003. I recently picked up the hobby again, buying a squad of Tactical Marines and a Dreadnought and setting about building my own chapter. Now as we are all undoubtably aware, Warhammer stuff is not cheap. Infact, it's ridiculously expensive -- certainly even more so than I recall back in the early Naughties.

 

Logically, then, I've been thinking of a way to recycle some of my old models; naturally in my search for a method of paint stripping that didn't eat into the models themselves, I heard of Simple Green. This organic cleaner apparently impossible to find outside of the U.S. and, judging by how people talk about it, made from the tears of The Emperor himself. Funny thing was, conceded that I'd never find any of it, I went back to school (I'm an art student) and saw a bottle of the stuff sitting on the bench of our etching workshop. Tracing back where we'd gotten it from, I went to Bunning's and sure enough, there was a whole selection of it. but then I also saw this stuff:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Spray_Bottle.jpg

 

Oomph

 

Oomph Lime Fresh Powerful Degreaser was there also, for half the price. Now, before I go any further into the subject of thriftiness, I understand the inherent irony that I'm willing to pay a highly-inflated price for, effectively, useless flash-moulded plastic models and yet get skittish paying ten dollars (Australian) for a bottle of something that's actually a useful cleaning agent. But when making my choice I reasoned that I might as well run an experiment with this Oomph stuff and post my results, just in case anybody else out there was looking for a fairly cheap, easy way to strip their miniatures. If it didn't work then, Hell, I could even use it to clean things!

 

Reading from the bottle, it says:

 

"Use Oomph on any surface in and around your home to professionally clean where that extra 'Oomph' is needed. Not suitable for all painted surfaces, test in an inconspicuous area before using."

 

To me, this said, "strips paint and doesn't melt plasitc!" It's even green, too. One thing to note, though, that I only just noticed; the label also says down the bottom that it's Australian Made and Owned, so I extend my apologies to anyone not in Australia in that this stuff probably isn't available in many places outside here or probably New Zealand.

 

Soaking

 

First up I went through my old models and picked out those that were the most likely salvagable.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Bits_Box.jpg

 

Of that lot, the first candidate for this experiment is this not-quite-finished Dark Angel.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Model_1.jpg

 

Now, for the record, this model would have been paintied in 2003, six years ago. It has a layer or two of Chaos Black spray undercoat, several thin layers of Dark Angels Green and a wash of the old black ink, with assorted details picked out. It also has a layer of sand on the base, affixed with PVA glue. The next step up for this experiment, I suppose, would be to try it on a more heavily-coated paintjob that's been sealed with varnish.

 

I filled an old baby food jar with the goo and dunked the Marine in.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Jar.jpg

 

It's easy to feel as though you're conducting an experiment with radioactive waste with jars of this sitting on your desk.

 

Minutes after I could see what appeared to be pigment from the paint streaming from the surface of the model and creating patterns in the goo as well as white, cobweb-looking stuff lingering around.

 

Scrubbing

 

Twenty-four hours later, I took the marine out.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Model_2_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Model_2_2.jpg

 

As you can see, the paint had started to thin already around the extreme edges of the armour. The PVA glue had pretty-well desolved and the sand could just be rubbed off. I suppose this might have been the cobweb stuff. After this I took to the model with a bowl of warm water, an old toothbrush and my own thumb nail.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Model_3_1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/penguin-91210/Oomph%20Experiment/Model_3_2.jpg

 

I was never expecting a pristine model to come out of the goo, so really I'm quite happy with the results. With a bit more work with say, a needle I'm sure I couldn've got a lot more paint off the surface. However for the purpose of the experiment I've put the Marine back into the jar and am going to wait another twenty-four hours to see if it makes the more stubborn parts, such as the leg greaves, backpack and butt come off any easier. Of course, though, the real results will come only after I've primed, repainted and sat the model next to my others.

 

I hope this has been helpful! I'll post more information when I have it.

[wRaith203]

Cool.

 

As another Aussie, I was stuck when it came to stripping a few Greenskins a while ago.

 

Brake fluid worked just fine for me, but it's always good to have another option out there.

[HIMSA]

You know... the stripped picture isn't actually so far from a decent white finish!