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Stripping paint from models


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Break Fluid is a go for me too!.  i would say plastic and metal models can be left/"accidentally" forgotten in a tub of break fluid and they will be find.  Resin Models on the other hand i would leave in for only a hand full of hours; mine were good after 2 hours.  Resin seems to become really soft after sitting in Break Fluid.  

Purple Power works really well for me. You can find it at most auto parts stores.

 

I've used that, but had mixed results. Hard to tell if the times it didn't work as well were because of the type of paint used or if the stuff is losing effectiveness over time. It works, but I'd be willing to try something else at some point. 

I have had alot of success with Mean green cleaner (http://www.meangreendegreaser.com/) I also use a cheep ultrasonic cleaner as well.

But I also soak the models for an age.... I mean I have a Cooler that I filled with Mean Green (4 bottles) a year ago and I have put two guard armys and a whole stack of random mins in the box, they get fished out at random and put in the cleaner than I run on and off for another week.

I then rinse and done.

It takes time, but not much effort. If I need a part soon I pull out a toothbrush and scrub but I hate the effort biggrin.png

Sorry chaps, you're all way off. In UK at least I use acetone free nail polish remover, available from Superdrug for around £1.50 a bottle. Two bottles is enough for your needs. Soak your minis for around 10 - 15 minutes and with a little light toothbrush work the paint quite literally just slides off. It doesn't have any adverse effect on plastic or resin (from personal experience). I've tried various things but now I won't use anything else.

Funny how the same conversation crops up anew every month or so! Admins/moderati should seriously do a one-stop shop sticky post at the top of the PCA with a definitive list of examples/suggestions and be done with it!

 

Nonetheless, ill throw my coin into the ring:

 

Dettol - Used it a lot on old metal minis. Not so great on plastic but still worked. Soaked for a few days. Required tremendous scrubbing at times, but generally they came out well. Have a bowl/vessel of clean Dettol in which to scrub those minis that have been soaked; this can then be used for more soaking afterwards. Use gloves and do it in a well ventilated area away from your better half. He/she wont appreciate the stink!

 

Nitro Mors - IMO, works better on metal minis. Use glass, metal or ceramic to contain the gloop. Use thick gloves! Do any scrubbing outside and/or use a mask. This stuff is probably very bad for your health (although, like petrol, has one of those alluring, deadly smells!). A few hours is enough to see results, although overnight is probably better. Scrub them in the gloop but have a bowl of clean water to hand too in order to rinse off now and again. Wont melt your toothbrush. You get lots in a tub!

 

 

Sorry chaps, you're all way off. In UK at least I use acetone free nail polish remover, available from Superdrug for around £1.50 a bottle. Two bottles is enough for your needs. Soak your minis for around 10 - 15 minutes and with a little light toothbrush work the paint quite literally just slides off. It doesn't have any adverse effect on plastic or resin (from personal experience). I've tried various things but now I won't use anything else.

 

Sounds like a good coup. Ill give this one a go next time

Perhaps a good resource with easily found examples across various countries? A list with suitable uses (e.g. "not plastic safe") and quick run downs on best use would be great.

 

I have also used non-acetone remover - but it is not plastic friendly. You'll only want a shorter dunk for non-metal models (I wouldn't risk resin) or you'll start to see damage and a softening of the plastic so be careful not to leave them too long.

In fact, I think that what would be the best thing to do would be for people to provide the composition of whichever product they use. Being a chemist, and reading the various products such or such are using I have a funny feeling it's all down to a few very specific compounds.

 

From there on it's just about finding which product you have locally available with a reasonable amount of said compound.

 

Someone earlier mentioned IPA (iso propyl alcohol) which is a very well known solvant. Said IPA can be found in significant amounts in... Dettol.

This is always coming up in the oldhammer community (as people buy old models and strip them a lot). The new undisputed king seems to be biostrip (available online in the UK, but they ship internationally I think) - it simply cleans faster and better than anything people have seen before I think. Resin safe for some types of resin not for others it seems, test on a small part first).

 

Here's a few others with a good reputation in case someone looks up this thread later on and so they can find something that's accessible to them locally:

 

LA's totally awesome degreaser (US)

Castrol Super Clean (purple stuff) (North America, maybe UK)

Fair Power Spray, old formula (UK)
Acetone (oldie but a goodie, not as fast as the others though) (available everywhere)

Dot 3 or 4 brake fluid (everywhere)

Dettol (UK)

Nitromors (extremely harsh, will melt your fingers, but also clean just about anything, metal only).

Simple Green (some people think the recipe has changed and doesn't work so well anymore) (US)

Also ultrasonic cleaners are very cheap on amazon or ebay, worth it especially if you have an airbrush also for cleaning the parts.

Simple Green in an ultrasound bath does absolutely nothing to green stuff in my experience.

 

Depends on how hot the Bath gets. It normally separates from the model, and depending on what you used the Green Stuff for that may be a problem. 

  • 2 weeks later...

If you only want to strip metal models, Nitro-Mors is great. It burns through paint like there's no tomorrow- no need to leave it to soak or anything, just smear it on and scrub it off. But for the love of Slaanesh don't put it on plastic. I tried it on a piece of sprue and it melted into goop. Also, it's highly caustic (like, eats through latex gloves caustic) so BE CAREFUL. Basically, only use it if the paint absolutely must die now, and the model is metal.

 

The best option IMO is Dettol. It's totally safe on plastic (dunno about Resin) and turns paint to gunk. It can be a pain scrubbing the paint out of the recesses, but most of it will just slough off. I tried it on a few plastic and metal bits and they're now all clean.

  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone have any thoughts on stripping things too big to go in a jam jar full of power spray?

 

I've got an old predator and a Forge World Greater daemon I want to strip but am not sure how to go about it.

 

Will spraying the power spray work? Normally I'd leave them in a jar overnight before going at them with a tooth brush but that's just not practical with something tank sized or bigger.

 

Cheers

 

Vogon

Other than a larger jam jar? :P For the old Russ I wanted to strip I managed to pull it apart somewhat so it's more manageable but that's not always viable. I'm not sure if spraying will work by itself, as it'd have plenty of air bubbles in. Spraying and then giving a good scrub would have to be how you do it, but from personal experience I know that doesn't work very well on older/tougher paint. Give it a go and see if it works :)

Dip half under, then flip it?

I did that with a rhino in isopropyl alcohol and it worked fine.  

 

I'll say definitely make sure your nail polish remover is acetone free if you're doing plastic.  When I got started I had a lot of hand-me-down models with atrocious paint schemes and I heard nail polish remover would work.  I grabbed some (with acetone), and soaked them for about a minute and they had already melted together, ruining maybe $100 worth of models.  So don't do that!  

I have a Wraithknight that I bought from a friend who likes to prime stuff while still on the sprue and I have not had any luck in removing it (I don't want to have to use super glue and the primer is bonded to the plastic fairly well so scraping off sections is a huge pain). I have tried soaking in simple green for a couple days but the primer doesn't become any easier to remove. Do the methods you all have been posting work for getting rid of bonded primer like this? Keep in mind its a plastic model, not sure what brand primer but most likely GW skull white spray (stuff before the corax white came out)

I find primers are tougher, they're designed to cling to the model better as well as be a bit more durable I expect. I wouldn't say soaking is enough to remove primer, a good scrub would also be required along with more than one attempt. Is the primer that much of an issue? If it's not a thick coat (which it shouldn't be?) then you could use another primer on top?

I find primers are tougher, they're designed to cling to the model better as well as be a bit more durable I expect. I wouldn't say soaking is enough to remove primer, a good scrub would also be required along with more than one attempt. Is the primer that much of an issue? If it's not a thick coat (which it shouldn't be?) then you could use another primer on top?

 

Well the problem is the model is still on the sprue so it's unassembled which means I either have to scrape off the primer where the pieces meet or use super-glue and I don't want to do either ;). Otherwise it wouldn't be an issue. I have heard of people using plastic glue anyways as it can melt through the paint to the plastic, but I'm not confident in that actually working.

So you're only concerned with gluing the model together? I've found no real issue with gluing over a bit of primer, but if you don't want to scrap the connecting areas clean you can instead score it. This gives the glue something extra to work with, I usually criss-cross a bit and that's enough :)

So you're only concerned with gluing the model together? I've found no real issue with gluing over a bit of primer, but if you don't want to scrap the connecting areas clean you can instead score it. This gives the glue something extra to work with, I usually criss-cross a bit and that's enough smile.png

This works with plastic glue as well?

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