PSA: Don't try stripping minis with lacquer thinner

[Evil Eye]

I had a whole bundle of rather badly painted Gaunts from my early days in the hobby and thought it'd be a good idea to try restoring them to grey plastic, with the intent of repainting them better. To do this, I took my ultrasonic cleaner and used a roughly 3 parts lacquer thinner to 7 parts water mixture to fill it with, before dunking the models into the thing to soak for a bit. Lid on, button pressed, waited a bit...

 

...Returned to find the diluted thinner was still strong enough to melt not only the paint, but also the plastic of the miniatures AND THE PLASTIC BASKET INSIDE THE CLEANER.

 

I'm currently letting the cleaner and its contents soak with water in the hope of at least avoiding any further damage to the cleaner. I suspect the Gaunts are toast (or rather, syrup) at this point though. Fortunately they were not a great loss, as they were painted thicc, but even so. Let this be a cautionary tale not to use lacquer thinner as a stripper, even diluted.

 

With that being said, what's a good thing to put in an ultrasonic cleaner to strip miniatures without turning them into mush?

[jaxom]

LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner All Purpose Cleaner or Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner.

[Rik Lightstar]

Biostrip 20 is great, just put the minis in the pot overnight then rinse them in water.

 

After that a quick run through the Ultrasonic cleaner with water and maybe a little detergent just to get any residue off.

 

Rik

[Evil Eye]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll try and get some of those in.

 

Sidenote: Turns out the thinner I bought (which I got in a big can for airbrush cleaning purposes) is "industrial strength". Whoops.

[No Foes Remain]

Biostrip 20 is great, just put the minis in the pot overnight then rinse them in water.

 

After that a quick run through the Ultrasonic cleaner with water and maybe a little detergent just to get any residue off.

 

Rik

100% biostrip. I've left models in there for a few months and they're fine. Get the 750ml spray bottle, a old ice cream tub or something and a old toothbrush. It's amazing stuff.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Yeah, lacquer thinner is nasty stuff (will eat rubber seals on airbrushes) :(

 

As an alternative, isopropyl alcohol works really well. :) (although it is flammable, so don't put it in an ultrasonic cleaner unless you want to create a bomb... there again, I've found just dipping the model in it and then brushing it with a toothbrush was enough)

[pawl]

Hey Evil!

 

I could be wrong, but I think lacquer thinners are basically just acetone and some extra nasty stuff to make it more effective - definitely not something to strip plastic with! I also seem to recall reading that ultrasonic cleaners can create small sparks that make using flammable substances in them dangerous!

 

Either way, my suggestion would be isopropyl alcohol. I wrote a thing about it a while ago here. =]

In general time is your friend - you can get it to work almost instantly, but the longer you leave something soaking in iso the easier it is to remove the paint. I've got a tub that's been sat for more than a year now - the models aren't damaged or weakened at all, but you only have to look at the paint and it falls off!

[Cris R]

I used Green Stuff World's paint stripper and it's amazing stuff. It's definitely more expensive given it's just a 240 ml bottle but I'd pick up one for minis or bits that need the VIP treatment when removing their paint.

Edited November 15, 2021 by Cris R

[sarabando]

I love using isopropyl alcohol for mine, dunk for 20-30 mins for stubborn paint, tooth brush and done. For light paint a litteral splash and brush. Then you can run the iso through some coffee filters and good to go.

[Sothalor]

Yeah, lacquer thinner is nasty stuff (will eat rubber seals on airbrushes)

 

As an alternative, isopropyl alcohol works really well. (although it is flammable, so don't put it in an ultrasonic cleaner unless you want to create a bomb... there again, I've found just dipping the model in it and then brushing it with a toothbrush was enough)

 

Wait wait. Is there some risk of igniting things with an ultrasonic cleaner?

[jaxom]

 

 

Yeah, lacquer thinner is nasty stuff (will eat rubber seals on airbrushes)

 

As an alternative, isopropyl alcohol works really well. (although it is flammable, so don't put it in an ultrasonic cleaner unless you want to create a bomb... there again, I've found just dipping the model in it and then brushing it with a toothbrush was enough)

Wait wait. Is there some risk of igniting things with an ultrasonic cleaner?

The vapor-phase is the issue with many of the dangers we face in the hobby. Lacquer, oil thinners, etc all have low vapor-phase pressures so they enter into the gas phase more readily. This creates an area of gas above the liquid and gas is more prone to ignition than liquid for a variety of reasons (fun fact: candles rely on this to burn gas, while the wick provides a steady supply of liquid to replace what was lost to the gas phase). Enough agitation can provide the energy to ignite a gas phase, but it’s a simple fix of letting the gas disperse into the atmosphere. Just don’t use a closed container.

Edited November 24, 2021 by jaxom

[Wulf Vengis]

Yes, everything Jaxom said is good advice.

Basically DO NOT shake flammable liquids that produce a combustible gas.

Just don't.

For all of us.

We don't want anything bad to happen to you.

We love you.