You may remember this picture I posted four weeks ago, a pic of the Steel Legion and Stormtrooper models soaking in Simple Green. At the time I was quite excited about progressing with the Heroes of Armageddon Charity Project.
Well, after two days of soaking in the tub, I pulled out some figures and started scrubbing with my trusty old toothbrush. Nothing. Not a scratch. The paint just wouldn't budge.
I consulted with a few friends and determined the next step was to try a bath in Mineral Spirits (aka Methylated Spirits). After a few days I tried again. Slight progress. I let them soak a bit longer. Slight progress again. In the end my friend, Brien Dulaney, offered to help with some of the scrubbing. I gladly accepted his offer and gave him half the figures.
Above you can see a shot of the success I had (or complete lack of success) after three weeks in the MS. I ended up putting it down to the strength of the ancient GW primer I used 11 years ago. I figured this was the best I'd get...
...until I picked up the other half of the figures from Brien this afternoon. My Stormtrooper sergeant is on the left, his Stormtrooper is on the right. I was astonished and thanked Brien for all the scrubbing he must have done. He reveled he'd actually got fed up with scrubbing the figs after the MS bath, so he'd dunked them all in an acetone (nail polish remover) bath and, after one night in the stuff, it had taken about 30 minutes to scrub all the paint off all 30 models.
My next stop after I left Brien's? The grocery store to buy a bottle of acetone.
My half of the models should be scrubbed tomorrow morning and on their way to the painters tomorrow afternoon, looking like they've never seen a spot of paint before!
Thanks Brien, and thank you acetone : )
NOTE: Acetone will eat plastic very quickly. If you're stripping paint from plastics, then Simple Green and patience are best.
Dave, just remember to keep the acetone away from any plastic parts - acetone eats plastic like a bear eats honey.
ReplyDeleteI am planning on reclaiming some of my old =I= models (RT Inq's) and GKT's (again RT) - I had primed them up but not got nearly as good a clean as your fella's.
ReplyDeleteI'll give em a couple of days in a detol bath (I think that's pretty much the same as simple green) if not I'll rock the nail polish remover.
Wewt! Clean stormies!
ReplyDeleteBrake Fluid Dot 3 will work even better. Only metal though.....:)
ReplyDeleteI personally only use simple green on my plastics, I found acetone just works much faster on metals.
ReplyDeleteHi guys
ReplyDeleteFortunately everything is metal, it's all at least 11 years old ; )
Good point about acetone devouring plastic, I'll adjust the post accordingly.
Cheers
Dave
next time use brake fluid when removing paint from metal minis. do not use brake fluid on plastic minis as it will melt them, oven cleaner works wonders on plastic.
ReplyDeleteId suggest SuperClean over Simple green for plastics and metal. The only paint I have found that it wont work on is engine block paint. Why someone used Mopar orange on eldar I cant fathom. Or why they thought they needed paint that would resist 500 degrees and various engine fluids....
ReplyDeletemy advice, based on having to fix paint jobs on numerous cars and stripping my own minis is to use:
ReplyDeletebreak fluid for break/clutch systems in cars.
soak any painted metal mini in it for a week, doesnt matter how old it is, take out n scrub, then let dry for a day and hit it with a dry tooth brush.
all paint will come off, and any glue on there can be picked off with no damage done.
also, this slightly softens the metal i found, so molding lines clean off a hell of alot easier.
dont use on plastic though.
hope that helps
I back Mistress 110%!! I use Super Clean or Purple Power Degreasers (both found at Walmart or Pep Boys or Kragen or...) an auto parts place basically.
ReplyDeleteThe stuff works wonders. On metal or plastic! My housemate tried Simple Green and left it for a week. Barely anything. Super Clean for 2 days and Bam!...came right off.
There has been very little that it didn't work on. I've even done acetone on metal. Still had better luck with Super Clean.
Any advice for UK resisdents? Think a lot of these are US products which I am sure have UK equivs - anyone know of them?
ReplyDeletesuper clean/purple power does not like duplicolor sandable primer. Takes the paint off and leaves the primer underneath, otherwise it is excellent stuff.
ReplyDeleteI've also used brake fluid and it works quite well on metal models.
most nail polish remover over here in europ is non agressive and doesn't eat plastic as hard as real acetone. Best try it first and I never leave my models to soak in them for hours, just a few minutes and done. Acctual accetone eats everything by the way (if you leave it long enough)
ReplyDeletecheerz
griffit.
not that you need advice now, but for metals turps (mineral turpentine) works well. It's a bit sticky...but fun setting fire to the men :D
ReplyDeleteit'll melt plastic though.
Dave.
ReplyDeleteThose are metal models, why not just dump them in paint stripper! Caustic as but it is the thing for metal. Note, rinse the metal in warm soapy water and spray with GW undercoat otherwise the models will come down with 'lead cancer' small white crystals will appear on the models a year or so after they are repainted. I had this happen with some old RT dreads that have a higher lead content.
BTW white spirit and metho are two different things down here.
Brake fluid is the absolute best thing to strip plastic or metal models. The paint will fall right off after about 24 hours soaking. DO NOT use brake cleaner. Disastrous results.
ReplyDeleteI don't know but I suspect Simple Green changed their formula. My friend Jim ruined a bunch of assault marines and after a week sealed in a bag of SG it had no effect. This is in stark contrast to when I first used SG and it made the paint completely goop right off.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I worry that no one's actually reading my blog, but then I get 18 comments about stripping figures ; )
ReplyDeleteCheers
Dave
Haha, everyones interested in stripping....
ReplyDeleteI personally think that it's ok to leave some paint on the figures. Once they've had a scrub and most of the paints come off, the remaining flecks is usually pretty thin and normally doesn't obscure too much detail.
Buddy of mine swears by his ultrasonic cleaner to get paint off of minis. I never tried it, but it does work on airbrush, so, maybe...
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteYa man... Acetone is the stuff! Just be DANG sure you're well away from any open flames and wearing some gloves buddy. I usually keep my models in a bottle outside, and strip them while wearing some yellow kitchen gloves and protective eyewear.
Often you can redunk them briefly to soften up the paint.
Good luck man, looking forward to seeing the newly painted models!
~ dan
I will echo the comment on Superclean (castrol) in stripping figs. I stripped an entire army of RTBO1 marines last winter with no ill effects to the (ancient) plastic.
ReplyDeleteIt also works much faster than Simple Green and is equally safe for the environment.
I've found that cellulose thinners work wonders on metal minis - don't even need to soak it that long, 10 minutes & a brisk scrub with a toothbush and even thick paint comes right off.
ReplyDeleteDon't try it on plastic minis unless you're looking to make something that looks like it's been eaten & passed by a Carnifex
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ReplyDelete