New paint stripping option

[Nicky blue eyes]

Mods, not sure if this the right place. Sorry if not. About a week ago I came across a product called "clean spirit" at B and Q. Its water based, doesn't smell and not so harmful to the enviroment as white spirit(winning). Also it doesn't destroy your models when you leave them in there. (I forgot to take them out and left them in there for 48 hours. Whoops) now bear in mind I'm not sure what paint was on them but its worth trying. However I take no responsibility if it does melt your marines. But it might be worth looking into when you are stripping stuff.

[painting.for.my.sanity]

Datasheet - http://www.tiger-supplies.co.uk/files/bf26611d-049c-4743-aee4-a6b800d18735/790-09-65%20Clean%20Spirit%20-%202%20Litre.pdf

 

Looks like its nitrilotriacetate-based. Apparently works okay for water based paint, but will not go through anything oil based.

[pawl]

If you're stripping plastic or metal I wrote a guide here that only uses isopropyl alcohol or acetone, depending on what you're stripping. Both are easy and cheap to get, and if you need to dispose of them for any reason (I just keep mine in the container I use for stripping between uses) you can just let them evaporate outside. =]

[Fajita Fan]

Yeah, 91% alcohol works really well for me so far except some Deathwing I did an awesome job priming black per recommendation back when I was new.  That black is like chemically bonded to the plastic and won't come off. :(

[pawl]

Yeah, 91% alcohol works really well for me so far except some Deathwing I did an awesome job priming black per recommendation back when I was new. That black is like chemically bonded to the plastic and won't come off. :(

It might sound silly, but have you tried using a higher concentration?

I was stripping metal years ago, and found that even after weeks sat in 70% acetone there wasn't the slightest change to the paint, but recent usage of 99.9% took it off with almost no work at all.

 

IPA does need a little more elbow grease in general I've found, but trying something stronger might help. Either that or just keep them soaking and scrub until your fingers fall off!

(am I right in assuming you used acrylic spray?)

 

Edit - autocorrect

Edited July 1, 2020 by pawl

[Fajita Fan]

Can you get alcohol stronger than 91%? I've never seen it in stores but I was really impressed with how much it did for models I've tried to strip before with Simple Green.

 

I'm sorta giving up on some of these blacked out Deathwing and may eventually repurpose them as Deathwatch if I can find some more shoulder bits in amidst my boxes.  

[pawl]

Can you get alcohol stronger than 91%? I've never seen it in stores but I was really impressed with how much it did for models I've tried to strip before with Simple Green.

 

I'm sorta giving up on some of these blacked out Deathwing and may eventually repurpose them as Deathwatch if I can find some more shoulder bits in amidst my boxes.

I've cropped out the rest of the photo because of reasons, but here's what I use.

https://i.imgur.com/W51SdcT.jpg

I've had more luck and better prices finding it on eBay (I use the same seller for 99.8% acetone, too) than Amazon, but I don't know if that will still be true when the world is a little more normal again.

[Fajita Fan]

Wow, I had to settle for some 70% because that’s all Walmart had. I wonder if there’s a way I can concentrate 70% further. 
 

#warhammerchemisty

[Arkhanist]

Well the normal method would be distillation, but a] IPA vapour is toxic, and b] explosive so I wouldn't recommend backyarding it.

Edited July 2, 2020 by Arkhanist

[pawl]

What Arkhanist said! Unless you work in a lab or are otherwise professionally trained, don't go messing with chemicals!

 

For what it's worth I pay about £10 (currently approx. $12.50 USD) for a litre of either IPA or acetone, which I think is quite reasonable. I would buy in larger quantities for savings, but I have limited space for storage.

[NemFX]

One post to recommend a product. Dubious.

 

But yeah, I tried using 3m's safest paint remover stuff. My poor repulsor tank. Don't use the stuff I did, it melts the plastic if you leave it on too long (but if you don't leave it on long enough, it doesn't do anything to the paint at all)

[Arkhanist]

One post to recommend a product. Dubious.

 

But yeah, I tried using 3m's safest paint remover stuff. My poor repulsor tank. Don't use the stuff I did, it melts the plastic if you leave it on too long (but if you don't leave it on long enough, it doesn't do anything to the paint at all)

Quick look at the MSDS datasheet for 3M Safest Stripper lists Dimethyl Glutarate and Dimethyl Adipate which are usually known as dimethyl esters, or DME - an increasingly common solvent instead of MEK or acetone as DME are low VOC vapour in comparison (i.e. less harmful organic chemical offgassing), so not surprising to see in a paint stripper. The "Safest" label is thus referring to the safety for the user and environment.

 

DM (like acetone) is safe for some plastics, but not others - and polystyrene is one of the plastics it can damage. GW models are polystyrene alas.

 

Polystyrene "safe" paint strippers are usually sold as degreasers, not paint strippers. They include high concentration IPA (as discussed above) which is fine but does require some elbow grease, and biostrip 20, which is what I use as paint comes off easier for me than IPA; but will soften plastic if left for a very extended period (i.e. weeks). Two highly recommended ones in the US are Super Clean degreaser or LA’s Totally Awesome degreaser, but I haven't tried either personally - they may be available in Canada.

 

Simple Green and Dettol are two that were highly recommended in the past, but there are better options out there now.

 

Note such polystyrene safe strippers are usually not suitable for resin models, and given the variety of resins out there it's best to get a resin-safe stripper like AK Interactive's Paint Stripper. This also works on plastic, but is more expensive than household degreasers.

 

For metal models, you can use much stronger solvents so easy to strip; high strength acetone is great for them, but will melt plastic models!

Edited July 2, 2020 by Arkhanist

[Fajita Fan]

Simple Green didn't work well at all for me.  There's also seems to be a difference between stripping acrylic paint and rattle can primer.  Depending on how good a spray job you did getting that stuff off is an exercise in frustration. 

[pawl]

Rattle can acrylic primers apparently contain something that very lightly pits the surface of the plastic to help it adhere to the model.

I've still had really good results using the methods in my guide though - not yet had something I couldn't get down to bare metal/plastic. =]

[Firedrake Cordova]

Rattle can acrylic primers apparently contain something that very lightly pits the surface of the plastic to help it adhere to the model.

I did hear that one of the Mr Hobby (airbrush) primers contained methyethylketone (aka mek) to increase bonding.  I guess it could be something like that..? :)

[Arkhanist]

Basically a primer coat (as opposed to 'paint in a can') is intended to bond better to the original material surface, and provide a better surface for the subsequent layer of normal paint to bond to. It's supposed to hang on tigher than normal paint! One way to do that for a smooth surface like plastic is to use an organic solvent to 'etch' the plastic slightly, thus increasing the ability of the primer layer to bond to it. Though you can also do it via the make up of the polymer etc so not all primers use this method.

 

Check the number of toxicity warnings on the bottle/can; most spraycans are flammable because of the propellant, but if it also kills fish, causes nerve damage or has a high VOC warning, odds are it's an etching primer!

[pawl]

Edit; replied at the same time as Arkhanist above, and I think he did it better!

 

 

 

 

Rattle can acrylic primers apparently contain something that very lightly pits the surface of the plastic to help it adhere to the model.

I did hear that one of the Mr Hobby (airbrush) primers contained methyethylketone (aka mek) to increase bonding. I guess it could be something like that..? :)

A little Googling hasn't turned up much, annoyingly. Apparently Army Painter rattle cans (which I'm currently using) contain a tiny amount of acetone, which would explain why the plastic coating on the paperclips I was using to mount minis remained 'sticky' even weeks after the paint had dried.

 

Either way, it can almost definitely be stripped - IPA is magic! The plastic might be slightly stained (likely due to the contents of the spray can) but getting it smooth again should be doable.

Edited July 3, 2020 by pawl

[beefeb]

I recently moved from dettol to IPA after seeing it mentioned on a FB post.  I was paranoid the alcohol would attack the surface of the plastic.  I am a total convert to IPA now.  The dettol worked great...after soaking for about 7 to 10 days and then you had an incredibly messy and smelly job cleaning off the paint which had turned to a sludgy sticky goop which was not water soluble.  Now i soak models in IPA filled jar overnight, and lightly brush with an old toothbrush.  No mess, no fuss, no stench....totally converted me...Ive been able to strip down models for old aborted paintschemes and resurrect limited edition models....highly, highly recommend the IPA method.

[Arkhanist]

Yeah, dettol is definitely old hat these days. It mostly worked, eventually, but ugh the goop. I've got models I stripped years ago than still smell faintly of dettol! Glad you heard about one of the better alternatives!

[Nicky blue eyes]

Hello sorry about the one post thing . New to this forum but been modelling on and off a few years now and always looking for new stuff to try out. I found the hard way about not testing paint strippers on small bits first.(I killed 3 terminators with white spirit.lol). As for dettol which would have been my go to safe option, during lock down it was like hens teeth to get hold of. As for the sciency bit of the chemicals just saw water based and gave it a try.

[pawl]

Hello sorry about the one post thing . New to this forum but been modelling on and off a few years now and always looking for new stuff to try out. I found the hard way about not testing paint strippers on small bits first.(I killed 3 terminators with white spirit.lol). As for dettol which would have been my go to safe option, during lock down it was like hens teeth to get hold of. As for the sciency bit of the chemicals just saw water based and gave it a try.

In future isopropyl alcohol will definitely serve you better! You can get it cheap on eBay with quick delivery, it lasts for ages and it'll get you down to bare plastic with surprisingly little effort. Just don't put Finecast in it!

[Nicky blue eyes]

I will give it a go. Cheers. Its good to try new options when stripping stuff that looks like its been painted with a plasterers trowl. Lol