* And once more, after a long soak, its been known to loosen some glue bonds.
**Apparently its safe to use this on finecast as well. I havnt personally tested it on finecast to be able to say for sure, but its been told that it works like a champ

Its true, I wouldnt lie. Ive tried a bunch of different things to strip a mini over the years. Simple green, purple power, SuperClean, paint stripper (That poor Ork boy)
Some work well, some decent, some horrible. Usually you have to leave the minis in your chemical for 3 days to a week to get good results, and that to me just didnt seem to be good enough. Ive been told about a product that works wonders and is cheap to boot, so I finally got around to testing it and was pretty damn impressed with its outcome. Heres my tutorial on how to use the stuff, if your a seasoned pro, then you can just glaze over and just try the stuff, but this is mainly for those of you that have little to no experience on taking the menace that is bad paintjobs off a mini with good results. So enjoy.

The magical product is called LA's Totally Awesome! I paid a whopping $3 for the larger jug in the picture from a dollar store. This is great since America has one about every 5 miles. Im not sure if this is sold over seas, so sorry to you guys over the pond if you cant get your hands on it.

Ok what you need firstly is a plastic container to hold the chemical in(dont water it down, go full strength) .Then a nice toothbrush, I used a soft bristle but having a hard bristle around might be a good idea as well for that hard to scrub off paint. Make sure with the toothbrush your not scrubbing hard, if you have to put much effort into this then either the paint is not ready or the stripping agent is not working how it should. Make sure you pour enough LATA(La's totally awesome) in to submerge the minis you put there, I doubt itll work that well half in half out You should end up with something like this



I let the minis soak for about 12 hours and tested out the stripping. Id say this will work well if you have light paint or something on there. Now these crons were nasty so I decided to let them sit a whole day. Here is everything I put in the tub o doom.
Now the warriors are half primed in GW white and the other half was a cheap black primer (I know this because I knew the guy I got them from) Then for good measure of the stripping abilities I added metal flayed ones and to REALLY test it out, a terminator sgt that was not only painted by a new painter, BUT sealed in MINWAX! Oh yea, more on that later.

So a full-ish day of soaking you get this (note they are not pink, so please dont ask why they are pink. Im not Dash here )
Its getting nasty in there but thats a good thing, its paint and such. Now you want to take your brush out and start scrubbing. Youll want to get into EVERY recess you can get into here. Also like I said before, DO NOT scrub hard, youll just break things and wear yourself out, if its working right the paint pretty much just rubs off. Use the tips of your bristles and in a swirling pattern worked best for me. If you push to hard the surfaces will be missed by the bristle tips and wont scrub right. Using LATA foams like mad, so if you need to see, just dip it back into the chemical again. More pics
Before

During

After (note I discovered that the cheap spray paints (I personally love them but didnt know this until now) actually stain the plastic. Youll see on the white ones the minis are bare plastic, but the black primed ones are stained black)


Ok after the scrub I put the minis in a tank with soapy water to help rinse the LATA off the minis. Pretty simple


Now onto cleaning. As always when you strip minis, youll want to clean them off and let them dry completely before doing anything with them. Nothing is more annoying then trying to prime something and have it ruined because there was residue left on the mini, that just means ANOTHER chemical bath. So get yourself another container or wash the previous one out. I put some warm soapy water into it for a rinse. Then scrub the mini briefly with the toothbrush. Then rinse it in the soapy water. Then let it air dry.
PICS!


OOOHH! So clean!


Thats basically it. Now as I said I did the plastic, the metal AND 1 lucky fella that had the minwax treatment (I tested one the wife practiced on to see how dipping panned out. Not for me) The plastic and metal came out beautifully. The ONLY problems I ran into was it seems to dissolve super glue a tad. The guy I got these from was not very good at bonding so the flayed ones lost some hands, the Immortal was 1 handing his gauss blaster and so on. Not a big deal really.



MinWax and you!
LATA actually does minwax with ease as well. But it takes a longer soak. At a full day I got it from this:


To this

Obviously the crevices will take more soaking, Id bet once MAYBE twice more and this will be cleaned. Im sure its because the minwax is REALLY thick at these spots. But still, in 1 day you can get a MINWAX army to that, a hell of alot better then the usual 3+ days.

SO! There you have it. I paid $3 for the big jug, and a buck for the toothbrush. And I stripped all this

To this


In around 24 hours. Best part is, I barely used the LATA, Ive still got a ton of it left over. Only side effects Im feeling from it, is I feel like Ive left my hand in a bath tub for a day, and that is a weird feeling. So you dont even need gloves and the like (unless your prone to skin irritation from chemicals) the only warning it has is not to get it into your eyes.....duh. Ok DAKKA, enjoy it, enjoy being a cheap ass, enjoy painting a new army





*NEW UPDATE 5/23/13

OK So Ive said a few times that LATA can strip damn near everything,
and strip it well. So I decided that Ill show exactly what it can
do to some minis that I did some years ago when trying my hand at
the Min Wax and some other quick army painting tricks.

I hated how they turned out and never touched them since, so now
I figure, what the hell, Ive been in a modeling/painting mood! So
Heres what LATA will do to a coated/finished model.

*These sat in a vat for 3 days strait. So LATA doesnt affect the
models in the least. Also note that it acts weird in regards to
Super glue. Ill note these weird acts on the pictures in question

As you can see, that fun Mt Dew color is gone and is brown. Full
of wax and other various "sealers" that make painting quick and
"easy" Note I some how lost the pic taken of the group with their
various coatings on. Sooo use your imagination





Now this is where it starts to act weird with Super Glue. As you can
see, the red dots are from a previous color on the plastic. The dots
were protected from the super glue, and obviously didnt melt off
from the LATA



But here....


Here...


And here...


You can see the weapons just popped right off. So the Sgt/Leader
fella had ZERO problems with Super glue losing its bond, and even
protected some paint (lucky red paint! *shakes fist*) yet the others
are pretty much screwed with no way to defend themselves lol

Oh well. The end reults





So as you can see, even sealants have little chance against LATA.
ITs a great, cheap way to strip your models AND keep a clean house.
Ive also hear a few times that it strips with no damage to resins
But Ive yet to try that. I WILL however, see about doing that in
the future so I can report to you lot on it. Cheers!

Well, sounds like another thing to add to my shopping list along with some fresh craft knives for next time I go to the dollar store! Thanks mate!

I lucked out the 99 cent only store had the big jug. works great just had to soak them longer. Used it before just figured i would share my experience as well stuff works just somes you need to soak them longer depends on how thick the paint is.

Could you find something like this in Europe?

Ive never been to Europe, so that I couldnt tell you. Try a google search for that very question and you might get lucky.

But yea, I did mention slightly that if the paint is thin, it takes less then a day, but thicker parts need a resoak for sure. Like the Sgt, Id say brush paint off and if it looks like the SGT, another soak and it should come right off

sorry if you did mention it already, but where those minis primed? i wonder how a chemical can counter the bonding process to the plastic...the stuff i used for stripping since has always had a problem to get rid of the primer... the paint was most time to be stripped rather easy but the primer stayed...of course with metals i never had a hard time but then again thats the whole point i guess to get metal minis to some extent... they are way more forgiving^^

Yea they were ALL primed before they were painted. The warriors that were pretty much clean plastic, was done in a GW white primer. The ones that look black still, were primed ina cheap black primer, that oddly enough stained the grey plastic
But in both cases the primer came right off, almost as easy as the paint on top

well you cant make a better product advertisment as showing this powerful way to get rid of even the primer... on some models i too have seen the primer seemingly influencing the plastic...maybe thats some ingredients of a cheaper primer...who knows...

Curse America and its useful chemicals!

SilverMK2 wrote:Curse America and its useful chemicals!

im with you!
tried googling and cant find it over here
but i have a tutorial for Dettol which apparently works great so thats the way for me i think

Revenent Reiko wrote:but i have a tutorial for Dettol which apparently works great so thats the way for me i think

Do you know what particular version of dettol you need?

SilverMK2 wrote:

Revenent Reiko wrote:but i have a tutorial for Dettol which apparently works great so thats the way for me i think

Do you know what particular version of dettol you need?

The original (brown liquid) version
here

SilverMK2 wrote:Curse America and its useful chemicals!

Hey we pay the price for it though, all those chemicals in our drinking water and such. Most children have 3 legs and 2 tongues! Small price to pay for useful paint strippers though

That is amazing , i payed nearly the same for a tiny bottle of acetone -free nail polish remover , luckily i'm on good terms with a school teacher who stripped most of my army for me using some simple green he had XD

Just a safety note: You should wear gloves. Most strong degreasers use solvents (called glycol ethers I believe?) that can be directly absorbed through skin. This includes things like Simple Green, 409 etc..., so I suspect that this stuff uses it also. These solvents are actually what strip the paint.

Mild exposure isn't a big deal, but over time with more and more exposure these solvents have an annoying tendency to attack the reproductive organs. If you're not worried about having kids fine, but if you are wear your gloves to protect those nuggies!

Hmmm stops the kid making parts eh? I think Ill go strip some more armies

This seems to work very well. I'll have to see if I can find any here in Canada.

Thanks!

Wow, you finally tried it out. I think you PMed me about LA's just about a year ago.

Yea, Ive kept it in mind ever since you mentioned it, but had no reason to strip anything until now

at Leprousy
so the glycol ethers is the real working ingredient in the stripping substance? well i was hoping someone would spill the beans about that for quite some time... now i can look a bit more effective for some products here in germany on my own...thanks mate!

vik

Just a update on my thoughts cheap ass spraypaint i had used to prime took 3 weeks of soaking to get it off. stuff works great just beware sometimes it can take a while to get all the paint off. I blame the crappy paint i had used.

Awesome! I need to try that....

cyrax777 wrote:Just a update on my thoughts cheap ass spraypaint i had used to prime took 3 weeks of soaking to get it off. stuff works great just beware sometimes it can take a while to get all the paint off. I blame the crappy paint i had used.

That's my experience with Simple Green, hobby acrylics come right off but commercial variety spray paints are usually stuck on good. I dampen a rag with acetone and wipe the paint off. Of course acetone will eat model plastic but that's why you don't leave pools of it on your model! it evaporates quickly and if you stop rubbing when the paint is gone I haven't done any harm yet.

Wow thanks a lot! Can you reuse the same fluid, or after stripping 10 models or so should you replace the fluid?

cyrax777 wrote:Just a update on my thoughts cheap ass spraypaint i had used to prime took 3 weeks of soaking to get it off. stuff works great just beware sometimes it can take a while to get all the paint off. I blame the crappy paint i had used.

You soaked the minis in LAs totally awesome for that long? Or something else? Because the minis I used, had a mix of cheap paint, all the way up to GW stuff, and it all came off the same.

imark789 wrote:Wow thanks a lot! Can you reuse the same fluid, or after stripping 10 models or so should you replace the fluid?

Thats a good question TBH. Ill have to try it out when I fell like getting off my ass and doing something

Yeah, at the dollar store by my house they only had the stuff in 32 oz bottles so I picked up one to try it out, hopefully I'll be able to milk that same bottle to strip lots of models.

I was wondering ifthis works on resin?

Turns out I had la's totally awsome orange degreaser. Will have to pick up this next time.

InquisitorVaron wrote:I was wondering ifthis works on resin?

Thats a good question. I have 0 resin bits to try this out on. Maybe when the metals flop over to resins in the future I can give it another shot. That or maybe Ill get lucky and get some resin stuff before that happens.

Does anyone know of any other effective chemicals for stripping that can be found in america?

AK907554 wrote:Does anyone know of any other effective chemicals for stripping that can be found in america?

Simple Green is the one I always hear about people using. There's lots of different things to use though, for instance, a friend told me to use brake fluid, but you have to worry about actually messing up the details on the model with that stuff. You can't let it sit for very long at all.

There are plenty, but this tutorial is on how well LATA works for a stripper. Ive used a couple others over the years, and this one works better/just as well as the others Ive used, and is FAR cheaper then the rest.

i use acetone free nail polish remover on plastic which only takes around fifteen minutes, and nitro mors on metal. it does the job excellently, and both methods take less soaking than anything else ive tried.
having said that, the nail polish remover does make the plastic soft for a while, but it does harden again after what i suspect is weeks, i used it on a battlesuit and didn't look at it again for several weeks, and it was fine.

Damn you America and your easily available solvent. We need to do with Ye Olde Browne Dettol.

Yea but it works right? Like I said, if I knew it wouldnt be a hassle to ship chemicals into your country, or cost me an arm and a leg to get it there, Id send some....but alas.....

Hmm, I think I've seen this stuff at the Dollar store. I'll have to try it out.

InquisitorVaron wrote:I was wondering if this works on resin?

I was also curious about this, has anyone tried yet?

Like I said, if I can get my hands on something resin Ill give it a shot, but as of yet, nope, no resin tests

I've heard a lot of people say that LA awesome works but I can never get it to work for me, I've had a lot of good luck with simple green though, that stuff is strong!

Works like a charm, thanks KingCraker, just throwing the two models that didn't strip back in.

Dual Face wrote:I've heard a lot of people say that LA awesome works but I can never get it to work for me, I've had a lot of good luck with simple green though, that stuff is strong!

Thats odd, what did you paint them with? Like I said, I had a mish mash of different paints in there and they all came off with ease

When people stick their hands in chemicals that you have NOT checked the MSDS sheet concerning what EXACTLY is in it, someone that is asking for trouble. Use GLOVES and a WELL VENTILATED AREA when stripping models.

I've been doing modeling for 40+ years. My expertise is the safe use of stripping models and have written a article or two about this aspect. Just not at this site... yet.

There is nothing special about this product as this product has small amounts Sodium Hydroxcide, Trisodium Phospate, Sodium Silicate (Meta), Ethoxylate Alcohol, and a Orange oil blend (plus water of course) as its chemical make up.

Moral of the story, know the chemical make up of what you are using before just doing it.

KingCracker wrote:

Dual Face wrote:I've heard a lot of people say that LA awesome works but I can never get it to work for me, I've had a lot of good luck with simple green though, that stuff is strong!

Thats odd, what did you paint them with? Like I said, I had a mish mash of different paints in there and they all came off with ease

I've used Dork Tower Primer, some GW primer here and there, some floquil primer (which I think is absolutely horrible) and lately, I've been using formula P3 primer with huge success

now to find the dollar store...

Adam LongWalker wrote:When people stick their hands in chemicals that you have NOT checked the MSDS sheet concerning what EXACTLY is in it, someone that is asking for trouble. Use GLOVES and a WELL VENTILATED AREA when stripping models.

I've been doing modeling for 40+ years. My expertise is the safe use of stripping models and have written a article or two about this aspect. Just not at this site... yet.

There is nothing special about this product as this product has small amounts Sodium Hydroxcide, Trisodium Phospate, Sodium Silicate (Meta), Ethoxylate Alcohol, and a Orange oil blend (plus water of course) as its chemical make up.

Moral of the story, know the chemical make up of what you are using before just doing it.

Obviously you dont want to take a trip down the chemical solvent isle and just toss a dart at one and guess it works. But, being that LA's Totally Awesome is a house hold cleaner and can be used in day to day cleaning, Im pretty sure your safe. But yea, use gloves and a mask if the area isnt well ventilated and you plan on using this stuff often.

I found the LATA bottles in my local Wal-Mart so I gave it a go on some SMs that my son painted. 24hr soak, a little brushing, and about 99% of the paint was gone.

I also found that a couple of the glued on parts came off. Not sure if it was due to the soak or due to the amount of glue actually used to attach (it was testors model cement).

But in either case, great tutorial. Thanks

Yup I had a similar experience with a couple minis coming unglued. I figured it was because the guy I got them from, was a total cheap ass and used a little glue as possible but maybe LATA does dissolve glue a bit. Not really a big deal as gluing minis back together is pretty simple, but still worth noting.

I shall be trying the Dettol theory this week sometime. I have been given a load of layered thick RTB01's to try to strip.

Hope I can as I'm sworn off buying anything else GW for the next, however long it takes them to come to thier senses!

If I use the Acetone stuff, do I have to keep a really close eye on them? Or can I disappear for an hour or so then come back to them?

Obviously you dont want to take a trip down the chemical solvent isle and just toss a dart at one and guess it works. But, being that LA's Totally Awesome is a house hold cleaner and can be used in day to day cleaning, Im pretty sure your safe. But yea, use gloves and a mask if the area isnt well ventilated and you plan on using this stuff often.

A chemical is a chemical and the human body absorbs and stores foreign substances for months to years, and that is my warning. I have seen what happens when people ignore simple safety procedures. Disfigurement and death.

This is not something you take for granted. The product you are using works for certain paints.

I am not not expressing how lousy the product is and you should not use it

I am expressing how you have to be ALWAYS safe in how you use the product. ANY product.

And that means the use of gloves (and other safety procedures) and to be done in a well ventilated area.

Thanks for your recommendation King, I had to strip alot of stuff that I had bought from someone who had base coated everything black (For my stuff I base in white). I was able to soak it for 8 hours and the paint came right off, with exception of a little staining but it is so minor.

I will be using it from now on.

Glad I could help. Also, I always thought your avatar was creepy as all get out

anyone able to speak to the availability of this product north of the border? i've tried walmart, home depot, MWW, zellers, crappy tire, janitor's warehouse, and have come up at a loss.

You guys have dollar stores up there right?

Warm Simple Green left on top of a running dryer. Seriously the extra vibration and warmth will strip a mini in about 2 hours.

Ah! Another amazing use for Totally Awesome! I used to buy this stuff all the time when I worked at a Dollar General...i never though to use it on paint stripping.

Thanks

Well the name alone has sold me, thanks for the info

Sarpedon_702 wrote:Warm Simple Green left on top of a running dryer. Seriously the extra vibration and warmth will strip a mini in about 2 hours.

Says you Simple Green Heathen!! Ive used the stuff in tests before and no way would it strip paint off in 2 hours. Ive heard people try doing that in an oven, but not only do I not want to heat those AWESOME chemicals in my oven, Im not a big fan of simple green. It works sure...but uh....thats as far as Ill go with it

I might agree with you for Plastic figures, but It strips metal even faster than that. And if you have a jewelry cleaner A vibration bath it'll strip them in no time at all.

Well I stripped metal minis as well, and Im not sure when the fastest time was to strip them, as they were WAY faster then the plastics were. If I had to guess Id say half the time? Buts a no brainer really, because paints to bond to metals like they do to plastics.




Also your talking about adding extra things to make your minis look exactly the same as mine did, in the same general time frame for more money. This is a strip your army for $5 tutorial. Not goto the ATM and pull out 2 20 spots so you can strip paint!!! tutorial

sarpedons-right-hand wrote:
Hope I can as I'm sworn off buying anything else GW for the next, however long it takes them to come to thier senses!

My position exactly.



I picked up some LA's Totally Awesome, and oh man does does it work great. You have to have some patience, as it takes about 24 hrs for a good soak; but I have gotten the model 99.9% clean with the stuff. Works especially well on Metals.

I also picked up some LA's Totally Awesome Pine Cleaner, and it works well too. Might have to let it sit a little bit longer though. I picked it up at the same time, because it comes in a jug that is twice as big (64oz) for the same $1.00.


Here is a LA's Totally Awesome store locator. These are most of the stores that carry it.
http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/html/Store_Locator.html

Also, if you don't live near a Dollar Tree or other place that sells it, you can bulk order it from Dollar Tree. 12 for $12 for the normal stuff, or 6 for $6 for the pine.
LA's Totally Awesome All-Purpose Concentrated Cleaner 32 oz.

LA's Totally Awesome All- Purpose Pine Cleaner, 64 oz.

Whoa. You work for the LATA company me thinks

KingCracker wrote:Whoa. You work for the LATA company me thinks

Lol, I thought somebody might say that xD

nah, I just spent about 5 minutes on Google. *shrug*

Ooooh so your sayin you work for Google then eh?

Be careful with pine oil based cleaners. They're not going to melt your figures like acetone but pine oil will eventually break down plastic minis. If you have to use it, do a 50/50 mix with the pine oil cleaner and water, and don't forget about it!

MasterSlowPoke wrote:Be careful with pine oil based cleaners. They're not going to melt your figures like acetone but pine oil will eventually break down plastic minis. If you have to use it, do a 50/50 mix with the pine oil cleaner and water, and don't forget about it!

I'm pretty sure this stuff is weak, at least compared to something like Pine Sol. I mean, I have to let it set for about 48 hours for it all to come off with the first scrub... I'm pretty sure if I were to 50/50 it, it would take days... I'll try it out though.

I tried diluting normal LATA roughly 50/50, and it only makes it take about a day longer, which is nice imo (i'm in no hurry...). That makes the 1 dollar bottle even that much better! lol.

Just wondering, does nail polish remover work on metal models? I've got an old librarian Tigurius model with some really thick coatings of paint, and I'm hoping I can just steal some of my sisters nail polish remover instead of having to buy a bottle of brown dettol to strip one model.
Im far too lazy to actually go out to the shops.

I'm currently trying to find the active ingredient for this but not having much luck. Citric acid has been the only real suggestion for an active ingredient. Anyone know what makes it work as i'm in Aus and well paying $24 for shipping doesn't seem like a good deal

Dark Apostle 666 wrote:Just wondering, does nail polish remover work on metal models? I've got an old librarian Tigurius model with some really thick coatings of paint, and I'm hoping I can just steal some of my sisters nail polish remover instead of having to buy a bottle of brown dettol to strip one model.
Im far too lazy to actually go out to the shops.

I remember a thread from awhile back where people were discussing using certain nailpolish removers to strip paints. They came up with, if your using plastics there was a specific type to use, other wise the remover would melt the plastic. But as far as I can remember Id say youd be fine if its JUST for metal. You might want to do a search for it first though, because that thread happened awhile ago and my memory is many things, but accurate isnt one of them

Denatured alcohol works really well to strip off paints. I'm redoing my army, it's been sitting for ten years, was primed, and I had painted over one color scheme before. I have a little mason jar with some denatured alcohol in it, dip in a pair of models count to ten and take one out, wipe it with a cloth or use a tooth brush on it and the paint falls right off. Put it back in and take out the second one, repeat. After a second dip all the little cracks and crevices are taken care of. It's not a hot enough stripper that it really does anything to plastic, metal, or resin that is more then two months post casting. Probably want to wear gloves.

Time to stock up!

Thanks Seth Rogen!

What works for me, and I don't know if they sell it in every country, but it is the Mr. Muscle (the kitchen version.)
I'd let the model soak for about 20 minutes, then just scrape it off with a toothbrush.
Really easy. Does not alter the plastic itself or the tin (resin I don't know yet.)

A Black Ram wrote:Time to stock up!

Thanks Seth Rogen!

Someone remembered
Anytime man huhuhuhuhuhuhuh *Seth Rogens annoying laugh*

so the LA Awesome does not mess with the details in the plastic? im nervious with cleaner ive used simple green and wasnt careful and it ate away at the details in my marines. i are was sad. and i used super purple which is a bit expensive but worked well. dont know if i want to spend 12 dollars on it. i use it for car parts and stuff so i had some laying around.

LATA didn't mess with any of the detail on all of the plastic minis I've stripped...how old were the marines? I'm surprised that it would mess with the detail since everybody recommends that stuff.

LATA works really well, and didn't do any damage to any miniatures (including a tactical squad that I believe dates back to second edition). Note that it doesn't work as well on latex-based paints (evidentially said 2nd edition marines were painted with latex paints, which stripped partially and then globbed up obnoxiously in some of the detail. Time to try again!)

As stated, LATA doesnt mess with details. Now I havnt left minis in the stuff for weeks (Ive heard people say theyve done this with other strippers, and Im sorry but I wouldnt do that)

I know someone who left a BFG fleet in LA's for over a year, it's not going to harm anything.

Well, I'm on the bandwagon (and making the rare wargaming-related post). I found LATA at Dollar General for 3 bucks in the big jug. I just started soaking my models at 7 pm Texas time a few minutes ago and this is what I have so far. I'll post result pics tomorrow.


Everything I need.


One of the sad orcs from my $3 Bloodbowl game. The paint is really thick and just kinda splashed on.


Incubate, my pretties!

Edit: Just realized that the copy of BB I picked up cost the same as the jug Kinda random.

Well cool, welcome to the bandwagon, we have fruity drinks with little straw hats in them


Let us know how your results were

21 hours I pulled them out and scrubbed away for a couple minutes on each. I purposefully didn't try to hard to see if it was necessary.




Aforementioned orc with lots of paint. The pics don't show much, but perfect results minus the tiniest of crevices which loved to hold onto a dab of that black primer. Either way, it's more than adequate and I fully approve

Edit: Comparison.


They're air drying now after a rinse so we'll see how they prime up

This is the thread I've been searching for for AGES! why did I not find DakkaDakka sooner.

Gonna try stripping some resin in Dettol, part of my Pylon, only a very small part to test is first. I'll let peeps know how it goes, for us Engrish peeps at least.

My question thought, to the Dettol users... Does it work on glossed models?

Never used the stuff, but as always if your unsure, try it on a test piece. This kindda thing itll either work, or it wont

Dedoctah. Give it a good soaking. It should come out

Dettol Works. I do not use it much because of cost per strip.

I have used Denatured Alcohol as well with very good results.

Gonna try it right now, only (since I live in the worst damn country ever) I'm using another product Wish me luck :/ Last time I tried my models melted >.<


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Sorry to double post:

To AK907554: Dermcare Nailpolish.

It smells strongly but in 5 minutes I was halfway done

And apparently, my test subject's former owner used cheap primer

Can I get rid of the LA stuff down a drain? Will it clog or hurt anything? Is it enviromentally safe? I live in an apartment so I'm having to figure how I'll get rid of the stuff once used.

I read the bottle when I first got it, but it didnt actually say. Now youve got me wondering because I kept the bowl full still Ill see if I can find their website and find out


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well right off the bat is their review. She found that the stuff is non toxic, so Id imagine its safe to dump in the drain. But naturally her link doesnt work, so Ill keep looking.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1114158/product_review_las_totally_awesome_pg2.html?cat=6


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OK here be the site map
http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/html/Products_Degreaser.html

Something to watch out for! I have heavy callouses from playing guitar and this stuff dried my hands out so much that they fell off like leprosy. It's probably a good idea to use gloves or have good lotion on hand.

I actually picked up 2 bottles of this stuff today to try and strip my friend's eldar, the only place we found it was at The Dollar Tree.

Dettol test on resin was a success, so far no visable damage to the part. Only left bits in the little crevises.

OK I have to ask what is dettol? europe only simple green?
Any way I had some nasty thick with minwax AOBR termys 2 days and the paint practically falls off I made sure I got the degreaser this time and not orange clean.

Household disinfectant, so i'd say yeah its pretty much the same. Last night i tried a 50:50 mix with water and works just as quick as it does neat, makes it a bit easier to scrub off the paint.

Some paint still in the crevices is normal. Thats where the paint is the thickest and its the hardest to get to with a brush. If theres alot left, just resoak the mini for another hour or 2 and it should come right out

This is great! Thanks a bunch. I have been hard pressed to find something that strips the resin and plastic minis without softening them and ruining them.

The Dettol to use is "Dettol Liquid Antiseptic" which can be picked up at Tesco for £2.64 for 750ml (this is the cheapest I could find) which should keep you going for a while - it's also re-usable if you just strain out the old paint deposits.

Man I hope they sell this stuff in Oz, looks like it does a near perfect job of paint stripping. Im dying to try some out.

Stripping a landraider left it over night and the paint just slid right off. flipping it over to do the other half. Got some AOBR marines that were based in some shiny metalic blue took a extra day but it just feel off to.

Does any one kno if Krud Kutter would work. I kno all the cleaners suggested to me are degreasers. Wondering if thats the part that helps. I kno its realatively cheap at the hardware store i work at

Is it 3 bucks for the big ass jug I posted? If not, this is the cheapass way

Not sure but I kno that i get a discount at my store so it could wind up worth it if it doesn't ruin my minis beyond repair. I am wondering if the degreasing part of the cleaner is what strips the paint

I tested 2 figures, one I painted with a yellow primer before painting, the other normal primer, normal GW paints, and then a future wash over it. The yellow figiure is flaking, the future washed figure is immune to the stuff.

Just thought some more info would be appreciated by people. I have some eldar that are primed/painted that I want to do over, nothing wacky with them so hopefully this stuff will work.

Future wash?



General Hobbs
Id say, due a test mini. Or if you dont have one, paint part of a sprue that has the little lettering on it and see what happens. The ladder isnt a guarantee, but youll know, if it melts the letters or makes the sprue really floppy, you probably dont want to use it. I know I had a chemical stripper for a project when I bought my house, and figured what the hell it worked fantastic on the crap I used it on. That poor poor Ork boy. Im talking Robocop when that guy had the radioactive stuff poored on him

Okay King Cracker, I decided to buy a small bottle of this chemical solution. Since I do not know what kinds of paints and primers that are on the models that I am stripping, it is a good test to try out. All models/parts have been soaking for 16 hours.

This is what I have for information.

Will it take out all types of paint from the models I have tested so far on this date? Yes. I find it rather easy to take scrub off the paint with only a hard bristle tooth brush, especially on metal.

Will it take out all types of primer? No. This is not what I have seen from my stripping of these models. It really depends on what kind of surface the primer is sprayed on (metal or plastic) and what primer is being used. Metal is much easier than plastic to remove the primer off of. The primer more often than not was not affected by the chemical process. I will let the primed models sit more in the solution and see what happens next.

Will I recommend this as method of stripping models?

Yes, with the Caveat of. Use Gloves and do it in a well ventilated area

Question, did you dilute the LATA before putting the models in?

@ racta

Nope used it full strength from the bottle and poured it in a plastic container with a top that I can seal up afterward.

Thanks! One more question, did you reuse the LATA afterwords for more models or did you just chuck it?

I bought some the other day to strip a few eldar tanks and just trying to get all the info I can.

I havnt tried reusing it, as when I did this tutorial, I only had the Necrons to strip. I do however have a bunch of CSM sitting around that will need a stripping, I could try it on them when I get around to it. I dont see why it wouldnt work after one batch. Youd have to add more LATA obviously to fill it back up. But again, I havnt tried it so it might not work

racta wrote:Thanks! One more question, did you reuse the LATA afterwords for more models or did you just chuck it?

I bought some the other day to strip a few eldar tanks and just trying to get all the info I can.

I've been reusing it as much as possible. Of course the solution will weaken after a few times. But I'm doing 4 vehicles and so far so good.

Another thing that should be noted. It seems to weaken the glue bonding of the models in question. That is fine by me since I strip down and break models down to their components.

Excellent post. I can personally recommend LAs Totally Awesome. I have used it many times, it is cheap, effective, and safe (from what I have seen).

I left a Leman Russ in a bucket of the stuff for two weeks and the model was completely fine when I finally got around to retrieving it.

I would add as a tip to wear some cheap gloves when dealing with the stuff as it does make my skin itch a bit. Nothing serious but it is a bit annoying.

Thanks for this very helpful!

The problem with Dettol, for the UK minded people, is that it stinks and has a tendency to make the paint become goopy. It also takes an age to get the models clean.

Fairy Power Spray is the way to go folks. It will dissolve most acrylic paints within 15 minutes and does not harm the plastic and then comes clean under water with a toohbrush.

2 squirts, agitate with a toothbrush, no soaking in solution just put let it stand, 15 minutes later brush under the tap. Done!

so im curious what all different store uve found LATA in havnt looked alot but id like to kno where to start. Dollar General? Wallmart? I've checked at the Hardware store i work at to no success

I've seen it at dollar general, and I think at Walmart but don't quote me on that.

awesome definitely checking at the dollar general in town

KingCracker wrote:Future wash?



General Hobbs
Id say, due a test mini. Or if you dont have one, paint part of a sprue that has the little lettering on it and see what happens. The ladder isnt a guarantee, but youll know, if it melts the letters or makes the sprue really floppy, you probably dont want to use it. I know I had a chemical stripper for a project when I bought my house, and figured what the hell it worked fantastic on the crap I used it on. That poor poor Ork boy. Im talking Robocop when that guy had the radioactive stuff poored on him

Yes, a wash of future floor cleaner. It helps for decaling, and provides protection to the model, like a gloss varnish. It also helps other washes settle into crevices etc.

I have a couple minis that I sprayed with a rustoleum metallic grey spray paint as a base coat. They have soaked for 24+ hours and it really didn't do much. Should I just step up the duration or try a different product?

umm rustoleum is unbelievably tough stuff you gonna have a rough time trying to get that off without damaging ur mini. Why did you paint them with that stuff

dmthomas7 wrote:umm rustoleum is unbelievably tough stuff you gonna have a rough time trying to get that off without damaging ur mini. Why did you paint them with that stuff

Trying to paint grey knights with cheap materials from home depot instead of army painter

yea ur gonna have a tough time getting that
off

Ah that stuff looks like it works pretty good. I normally use Easy Off Oven Cleaner or brake fluid. Both have left me satisfied with thier results.

dmthomas7 wrote:so im curious what all different store uve found LATA in havnt looked alot but id like to kno where to start. Dollar General? Wallmart? I've checked at the Hardware store i work at to no success

Check their website for a full list of retailers. I found it at my local Dollar General though.

Viktor von Domm wrote:at Leprousy
so the glycol ethers is the real working ingredient in the stripping substance? well i was hoping someone would spill the beans about that for quite some time... now i can look a bit more effective for some products here in germany on my own...thanks mate!

vik

Glycolized ethers are glycolized so you can't drink them. I.E. to make alcohol cheap enough for cleaning products without the need to restrict sales to minors or tempt adults into thinking they'd be a good substitute for EverClear.

So...That old bottle of rum I have in the cupboard might do the trick? Hmm. I also have a bottle of rubbin' Alcohol in the bathroom cabinet.... Talk about cheap....

A quick warning: if you're setting a container on a wooden surface, be sure it's secure as the stuff likes to strip wood and soak into the grain.

Started my rhino in a soak last night. pulled it out and as of now everything but the primer will wipe off with my finger. rinsed with water to get the top coats off hopefully another day will further loosen up the primer and hopefully be able to scrub all that off. Haven't tried stripping anything else but impressed so far.

.

ChaosLordSam wrote:Where do you get it?

Has been asked/answered several times. Check their website.

Dollar General seems popular for most i picked up a 64 oz jug for $3

wow 2 day soak and the primer is still being tough to pull off much of it is still gonna take a little bit longer soke and hopefully be done in the morning.

Is this available in AUS?

Just for grins, tested some stuff for longer and after about 4 days green stuff starts to weaken significantly but plastic is a-okay. Also useful

on day four of my soak because the primer will not relinquish its grip on my rhino.

Great Idea! used to to strip some dwarves!

so this stuff is not dealing with the GW spray primer very well after what is 5 days of soaking im still unable to get the black under coat off. The glue weakened enough for me to disassemble the rhino im stripping maybe it will help the remaining paint loosen up a bit more. want to get as close to back to bare plastic since i have to prime with white next.

Are you sure the primer is still on? If you noticed in my pics, some of those crons were primed black, adn they are stained forever in black, yet it still looks like the primer is on. It could be that. If not that, I dunno, because the white crons were primed in GW primer and it came right off, Same with the terminator sgt. It was not only primed in white GW primer, but also painted and then dipped in minwax, and in that short time stripped off the wax, the paint and started to break up the primer.

So its either the stain problem, or youve got some super ultra GW primer, which is the opposite of the grainy crappy GW primer But if it doesnt come off, Id say try something else, or if the primer isnt thick, since its a tank, just primer it white. And this might sound like a dumb question, but is the tank submerged? Because if your just spraying it on the sides that wont really do anything

I guess it could be stained black but it would have to be an really dark stain. On other pieces everything came off much quicker and is now down to bare plastic. Have everything completely submerged in a mix of nearly completely LATA. havent looked at it since my last post. had a busy weekend.

Just wanted to say thank you to the OP.

Used two of the smaller bottles to strip 6 grav-tanks in the last week. It worked perfectly with a 24-48 hour soak for each one.

devilution wrote:Could you find something like this in Europe?

Dettol works perfectly. (Can have a little bit of trouble with Chaos Black primer, but gets there eventually!)

How well will this work on a larger model lets say Dreadnought sized... Venerable Dreadnought to be precise.

AK907554 wrote:Does anyone know of any other effective chemicals for stripping that can be found in america?

Simple Green (get the purple industrial strength). Here's a link! http://www.simplegreen.com/
It's the best, I swear by it. You can use it to strip plastic and metal models, all in the same bucket. Dilute the purple stuff at least 1:1 with water and leave it in for 4-12 hours, then just use the instructions listed above. If it doesn't clean it enough the first time, resoak it. I bought a pile of old metal & plasts CSMs off of Craigslist and they were caked with the most terrible paint jobs. When stripped about 3 different colour schemes came out. I have used both a tooth brush and a fine metal brush (VERY GENTLY) and have had no damage to the models at all. The metal brush is nice for the deep cracks that the tooth brush doesn't get.

On another forum I frequent, one of the guys from the UK recommends Flash Clean & Care and I've heard Dettol is an option as well. Not sure how these products work, but it's a place to start.

Watch out if you want to preserve green stuff- it came off a lot after a few weeks or so of soaking.

Adam LongWalker wrote:Okay King Cracker, I decided to buy a small bottle of this chemical solution. Since I do not know what kinds of paints and primers that are on the models that I am stripping, it is a good test to try out. All models/parts have been soaking for 16 hours.

This is what I have for information.

Will it take out all types of paint from the models I have tested so far on this date? Yes. I find it rather easy to take scrub off the paint with only a hard bristle tooth brush, especially on metal.

Will it take out all types of primer? No. This is not what I have seen from my stripping of these models. It really depends on what kind of surface the primer is sprayed on (metal or plastic) and what primer is being used. Metal is much easier than plastic to remove the primer off of. The primer more often than not was not affected by the chemical process. I will let the primed models sit more in the solution and see what happens next.

Will I recommend this as method of stripping models?

Yes, with the Caveat of. Use Gloves and do it in a well ventilated area

I wanted to update my stripping of models using this product.

I strip a great deal of models coming from all kinds of sources (such as Ebay). This product will not take out all types of primer. But so far it does remove all of the paint from models I have tested.

That does not mean that this is not a bad product to have on hand. I do approve of it as an alternative method than using oven cleaner. I do not like oven cleaner as the dangers of using it offsets the results of stripping models. I would use item this over brake fluid as well. Brake fluid would be one of my last resort on areas of stubborn paint on a model in question and you have to be very careful in its use.

AGAIN I can not stress this anymore than what I have posted in the past. When stripping your models, PLEASE use gloves and strip your models in a WELL VENTILATED area. Thank you.

Agreed with Adam on the safety issue. I busted his balls a bit the first time, but that was only because I enjoy doing that to people. Stripping minis isnt so important that you should risk fething up your lungs/eyes permanently to achieve it





ALSO to add on other chemicals.

I used to use SuperClean (formerly Castrol superclean) and that by far, is the best stripper you can get your hands on. Seriously, it makes everything elese, simplegreen, purple power, over cleaners you name look like water, and doesnt hurt minis at all. Bu the problem I had with it was the dangers of it. It was safe to dump down drains, but the smell and the how corrosive it is is a big draw back. You HAVE to use gloves and a ventilator when using it. The fumes can damage unprotected eyes and it eats flesh. Not kidding.

Nightfall wrote:How well will this work on a larger model lets say Dreadnought sized... Venerable Dreadnought to be precise.

Same as any other model just need a bigger container for it I did a landraider.

Ok fist off I would like to say thanks to KingCraker for finding this stuff and making this thread. I have one question. I know that it can breakdown superglue but dose it breakdown plastic cement?

This question is more asking for a confirmation of what I am thinking from what I have read.

Well I can tell you that if its Testors type plastic glue then no, it doesnt touch the stuff what so ever. As far as any other brands I cant be to sure of. Ive only ever used testors (the orange stuff) and superglue. So if the other brands acts like what I use, again no it doesnt.

I kno it will slightly weaken loc-tite as well since Im certain thats what my rhino was glued with. weakened but it still held reasonably well

Any tips for stripping models with a light coat of varnish? Most pieces already have spots where I've filed/knifed back down to the plastic (removing mould lines from -old- models), and I've heard as long as there's a place for the liquid to get under the pant it should work. Any confirmation?

Brother_Khiros wrote:Any tips for stripping models with a light coat of varnish? Most pieces already have spots where I've filed/knifed back down to the plastic (removing mould lines from -old- models), and I've heard as long as there's a place for the liquid to get under the pant it should work. Any confirmation?

acetone for metal models

Plastic models I would use 91% (or better) Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol. It won't hurt the plastic model at all.

I've been soaking a metal model in some graffiti remover and that works well. I just put some plastic models in last night (the label says its safe on plastics), so later on today I'll check those out. If that doesn't work I'll try the rubbing alcohol. Thanks.

Brother_Khiros wrote:I've been soaking a metal model in some graffiti remover and that works well. I just put some plastic models in last night (the label says its safe on plastics), so later on today I'll check those out. If that doesn't work I'll try the rubbing alcohol. Thanks.

Using Graffiti remover should do the trick. I personally do not use the product due to the irritation to my lungs (petroleum distillates not orange based products which are also used as graffiti remover).

o Oni o wrote:

InquisitorVaron wrote:I was wondering if this works on resin?

I was also curious about this, has anyone tried yet?

I'm unsure if someone already answered this, apologies if so!

I stripped my Finecast Emperor's Champion with Simple Green. Left it soaking for about 24 hours before taking a toothbrush to it. Toothbrush didn't do anything, so I ran it under a faucet and the primer came right off. I'm unsure of how FW's resin would react to Simple Green (or LATA) but Finecast strips just fine

Adam LongWalker wrote:

Brother_Khiros wrote:I've been soaking a metal model in some graffiti remover and that works well. I just put some plastic models in last night (the label says its safe on plastics), so later on today I'll check those out. If that doesn't work I'll try the rubbing alcohol. Thanks.

Using Graffiti remover should do the trick. I personally do not use the product due to the irritation to my lungs (petroleum distillates not orange based products which are also used as graffiti remover).

Ok, I just went and checked my plastic models after about a 24-36 hour soak. The varnish had come right off. However, as both models had at least 2 different coats of paint (what can I say, they were my first models ), they didn't quite come clean. But I've gotten most of the first layer removed, and some of the second. However, some pieces I can't tell if I'm still on the original coat of paint or if I've broken through to the primer, since my original color was the old Midnight Blue and the lighting over the sink sucks. So after their scrubbing, I've put them back in to soak, and I'll probably go another 24-36 hours.

Anyways, I use Krud Kutter Graffiti Remover. I'd recommend soaking models in it at least 24-36 hours for just a regular paint job. However, if you're like me and varnished them, soak for 12-24 hours, scrub them lightly to help finish removing the varnish, then soak again for probably another 24 hours or so. One major note, though. If you're going to strip metal models with this, DO NOT leave the model(s) in for more than 48 hours or so. You may end up having little 'growths' on the model, and it actually ate away at my Necron Lord a tiny bit. Nothing major, and thankfully it was mostly on his cloak, so I can swing it as damage. But there's a good pin-head sized crater in his arm and one in his staff that I'll have to fill in.

I've skimmed the thread...somewhat, and I'm not seeing an answer to my question. How does it effect super glue? Ive yet to find a figure that can withstand staying in one piece after bring soaked in superclean for a set period of time. I got 300 bucks worth of nids for 50 because of the state they were in with glue and all. Managed to fully recover everything because the superglue eventually weakens and breaks away. Does not work on plastic glue though, and I suspect nothing ever will because the whole bonding thing. Anyways, so how does it effect super glue? If it does nothing to it I'll stick with superclean.

Super glue will probably come off fairly easily in most situations, since there's no fusing, which is almost essentially what plastic glue does. Now, if you use plastic glue over paint, then the plastic wouldn't fuse together. I've had a couple of mine come apart while stripping because I made this novice error.

Hardly a novice error. Heck hardly an error. I tell everyone I know not to use the stuff. If your figure is permanently stuck in the same pose, you can no longer change equipment, the sell value drops drastically, and repainting it will be hard if you paint things in individual pieces.

I can see it's use if you're doing a showpiece or something that will never change.

Necroshea wrote:Hardly a novice error. Heck hardly an error. I tell everyone I know not to use the stuff. If your figure is permanently stuck in the same pose, you can no longer change equipment, the sell value drops drastically, and repainting it will be hard if you paint things in individual pieces.

I can see it's use if you're doing a showpiece or something that will never change.

I generally don't swap weapons on a model unless the cost is worth it. IE, I'll buy two boxes of Tac Marines and pose/arm them all how I want without thought of magnetizing or anything (maybe with the exception of backpacks). However, those Assault Terminators I want? Yea, I'll buy one set and mag them so I can swap the TH/SS and LC's in or out, depending on what I need them to do.

And sorry for being OT.

Oh you bastards! Dragging a fine thread such as this off topic. What do you think this place is DAKKA?! Oh wait....it is DAKKA. OT is fine as long as it doesnt get my baby locked is all

AK907554 wrote:Does anyone know of any other effective chemicals for stripping that can be found in america?

Personally I use Simple Green to good effect. Like was said in this article tho, if the primer was cheap & has been on there for a while, it tends to stain the mini itself. I've never considered it a problem as I always prime black anyway. I usually leave the models in for @ least 3 days (usually due to the fact that I work 3-4 12 hr shifts in a row) so I put them in there before I start my work week & scrub/clean them when my weekend starts.

I think I'm going to give this stuff a go & see how it works - I picked up some used Raiders/Ravagers a few weeks ago that look like 3 different people painted them - there's paint on top of paint on top of paint on top of... you get the idea.

~Vryce

I just took my aforementioned models out of their soak, and I'll say I've found the results to be about the same as when used Simple Green on some other pieces; not the greatest, but not too bad either. Part of it may just be the plastic has become stained. Also note that I never tried baking the Simple Green or the Krud Kutter, so I can't say if that would help.

I've tried this product the past few days. I've recently had disaster with GW White primer actually globbing and ruining the detail of the models and wanted to remove it to go back to black with models. I left my models in this product for 36 hours and never saw it get the results posted. I do have another bottle that I might retry it in a smaller container. (I submersed around 35 plastic models for 36 hours. No paint on it besides the primer. 5 models were primed black before I tried to reprime them white). I'm kinda a new at this hobby, and this was my first attempt at stripping anything. I may try simple green if this doesn't work...

Thought id tryt his out. Soaked my assault marines for a mere 4 hours, paint came off with ease, no loss of detail at all. Scrubbed clean with a medium bristle toothbrush. Works great!

Stoupe. I have not had that kind of reaction yet, this is good data never the less.

Stoupe wrote:I've tried this product the past few days. I've recently had disaster with GW White primer actually globbing and ruining the detail of the models and wanted to remove it to go back to black with models. I left my models in this product for 36 hours and never saw it get the results posted. I do have another bottle that I might retry it in a smaller container. (I submersed around 35 plastic models for 36 hours. No paint on it besides the primer. 5 models were primed black before I tried to reprime them white). I'm kinda a new at this hobby, and this was my first attempt at stripping anything. I may try simple green if this doesn't work...

... ... ...

If you didn't the first time, try scrubbing them with a toothbrush, and possibly soaking them again after a thorough scrubbing. It may take a bit more soaking/scrubbing if the primer gobbed up the details as well. Just a thought.

Brother_Khiros wrote:

Stoupe wrote:I've tried this product the past few days. I've recently had disaster with GW White primer actually globbing and ruining the detail of the models and wanted to remove it to go back to black with models. I left my models in this product for 36 hours and never saw it get the results posted. I do have another bottle that I might retry it in a smaller container. (I submersed around 35 plastic models for 36 hours. No paint on it besides the primer. 5 models were primed black before I tried to reprime them white). I'm kinda a new at this hobby, and this was my first attempt at stripping anything. I may try simple green if this doesn't work...

... ... ...

If you didn't the first time, try scrubbing them with a toothbrush, and possibly soaking them again after a thorough scrubbing. It may take a bit more soaking/scrubbing if the primer gobbed up the details as well. Just a thought.

Did it the first time. This time I'm making a bit more documentation to make sure I'm doing things 100% properly. Trying again with LATA's (Bought 2 of the spray bottles when I was there so figured why not).

Put 20 skaven clanrats, 10 forest goblins (the riders, banner, and drum), and 5 eldar dire avengers in a tub at about 6:30 PM on 6/23/11. Like so:


Filled the tub with LATA (note: it seems I didn't have enough to completely emerse the models this time, however all thats sticking out is a mm or 2 of the bases.):


Put cover on the tub:


Time to let the models have a bath for a bit.... I did realize something though about the dire avengers. They were originally primed black underneath the white. You could still see it over the white. Now the black primer is gone from underneath the white primer... ing wierd.

devilution wrote:Could you find something like this in Europe?

There's dattol, it's like a disinfectant.

o Oni o wrote:

o Oni o wrote:

InquisitorVaron wrote:I was wondering if this works on resin?

I was also curious about this, has anyone tried yet?

I'm unsure if someone already answered this, apologies if so!

I stripped my Finecast Emperor's Champion with Simple Green. Left it soaking for about 24 hours before taking a toothbrush to it. Toothbrush didn't do anything, so I ran it under a faucet and the primer came right off. I'm unsure of how FW's resin would react to Simple Green (or LATA) but Finecast strips just fine

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar!

Stoupe wrote:Did it the first time. This time I'm making a bit more documentation to make sure I'm doing things 100% properly. Trying again with LATA's (Bought 2 of the spray bottles when I was there so figured why not).

Put 20 skaven clanrats, 10 forest goblins (the riders, banner, and drum), and 5 eldar dire avengers in a tub at about 6:30 PM on 6/23/11. Like so:


Filled the tub with LATA (note: it seems I didn't have enough to completely emerse the models this time, however all thats sticking out is a mm or 2 of the bases.):


Put cover on the tub:


Time to let the models have a bath for a bit.... I did realize something though about the dire avengers. They were originally primed black underneath the white. You could still see it over the white. Now the black primer is gone from underneath the white primer... ing wierd.

First, that tub looks suspiciously like one of the containers from My Fit Foods (I use them as bitz boxes, or to carry around a couple of the projects I'm working on. I can actually pack them into my tool box that's been re-purposed as a painting supplies box ).

Second, I've never tried LATA, nor do I ever prime white, but the results shouldn't be too different. Also, since its just part of the base sticking out of the liquid, it should matter too much, unless you were trying to weaken some glue (I was when I stripped mine).

Brake Fluid works well. Had plastic and metal models soaking in it for just over 4 hours (I think) and a plastic model that I coudlnt even see the face on it came out compeltely clear. Interstingly enough thoguh it appears to work better on plastics than metal. Will resoak the metal to see what happens and it also seems to attack plastic glue slightly but apart from that it's all good and fast and should be avalable in any good garage (that's where I got mine).

Cheers

JamesG_89

I tried this on some trial and error paintjob marines and ICs and it worked really well. One thing - some paint is still in the recesses on a few of the models. I soaked them for 24 hours and used a brush to clean them. Do you suggest another 24-36 hour bath to loosen the recess paint?

I bought some Space Marines on Ebay, been trying the simple green method right now. Been soaking about 15 plastic/metal figures for about 4 days. Its coming off, layer by layer. I'm not sure what type of paints the guy used before.

I'm going to try some of the LATA next time, and I have a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol I'm going to give a try.

thanks man!

The paint that wont go away


I mentioned this somewhere in this thread, but hell its been 6 pages or so, so who the hell knows about it now

Yea MOST the paint will come off, but sometimes in the deep cracks/crevices will hold onto paint like a mom to her child. When that happens, or if youve got REALLY tough paint, just skim the goop from the LATA and let soak for longer. My brother has repainted his SM chapter a good 3 or 4 times depending on the model, so he had some issues on a few, and he found just leaving them in the LATA for a few days longer and the stuff just falls off.

Really the 24hours thing is a basic guide. If its 1 coat of just standard stuff and not thick, then 24hours is good enough. But depending on primers/paints/thickness it can take longer, but that goes for ANY paint stripping method.

Well here is some good info for everyone that checks out this guide. I have tried Simple Green, 91% Isopropyl Alcohol, and LATA, and here are the results.

Simple Green - put about 15 metal and plastic minis in about two weeks ago. I waited 24 hours before I removed them the first time, and it got the first few layers off, but seems to
have a hard time with primer. I got these minis on Ebay so not sure what primer was used. I've taken them out daily and used a toothbrush on them, and doesn't seem to
do much else. So Simple Green works, but very slow, and doesn't really work on primer to well. Now just to let you know, this was from a spray bottle I bought from
Wal-Mart. It might work better if in a concentrated form.

I give Simple Green 3 stars - takes a bit of time, but can be bought at Dollar Store, and doesn't effect plastic details or any glue that I noticed.

91% Isopropyl Alcohol - used this on some metal minis and then one plastic mini. Worked really good on the metal minis, stripped the paint all the way down to bare metal. This was after
24 hours of soaking. Didn't work as well on plastic mini. Didn't do any damage, but gets it down to primer coat, and has a hard time there. About the same as
Simple Green.

I give 91% Isopropyl Alcohol 2 stars - Works good on metal, really good for a final clean on metal, was what I used working in a Sheet Metal shop in the Army,
About the same as Simple Green for plastic, but more expensive.

LA's Totally Awesome - Bought some of this LATA from the Dollar Store, and used it on 10 minis, both plastic and metal. Used a toothbrush on them after a 24 hour soak, and it
worked great. On the metal minis, cleaned off 99% of the paint, and on some, was already stripping some paint off, before I even touched them. It also
dissolved the glue used to hold the metal minis together, not sure the type used, since this are minis bought on Ebay. As for the plastic minis, worked just as
good. Took off about 85% of the paint in the first try. Like King Cracker said in the original post, it does stain the plastic, but not bad. I'm going to let the
plastic soak another 24 hours and see if the rest comes off. It didn't dissolve the glue on the plastic minis though.

I give LATA 5 stars - Cheap, fast, and gets the job done.

Hope this is helpful, and Thanks King Cracker, good find on your part, and passing the word along.

Great tutorial, KC. I'll definitely have to try this out, as I have a big batch of Marines awaiting a new life. Also, odd coincidence, there's a Dollar Tree(25 years and everything's still a dollar!) acroos the street from my apartment where my fiance works. I can get a gallon jug of LATA there, for a buck of course, and a pack or 8 toothbrushes. Hell, I can even snag some single-use aluminum pasta pans from work for free. Hopefully I'll have some bare plastic Marines to paint and convert soon.

Jon

Has anyone seen their metal minis come out dark and with a texture after using LATA to strip them?

It works great!

Havok210 wrote:Has anyone seen their metal minis come out dark and with a texture after using LATA to strip them?

Nope, nothing even close. Maybe something from the paint used???


And wow, I honestly forgot this thread was here, and I wrote the damn thing

It comes out grey like the color of unprimed plastic. I did not think paint would actually stain the metal.

Nice i will try this

Havok210 wrote:Has anyone seen their metal minis come out dark and with a texture after using LATA to strip them?

Yes depending on the length of time in Superclean and temperature of the bath. It is not staining so much as oxidation it does not affect primers ability to adhere to the model, only the look of the clean figure. Similar to the patina a old piece of pewter takes on. If anyone knows how to restore minis back to shiny instead of the old yellowed or graying metal let me know please.

I've had about 10 marines soaking for about 24 hours. Started witha AoBR Sgt first he soaked for 12hrs, gave him a test brushing and the paint fell of with LATA. So I grabbed a glass jar and tossed in the rest, been at work so havent been able to really look at them. Will probably give them a go tomorrow afternoon sometime. I'll post the pics with my results. Thanks for the heads up on LATA!

Awesome, would love to see some results man!

What is the active ingredient in LA awsome ?
So far i have found isopropanol to be the most effective.

What would be the French version of totally awesome? What is it's base ingredient or main purpose?

CthuluIsSpy wrote:What would be the French version of totally awesome? What is it's base ingredient or main purpose?

That would be Le LA's totally awesome *crickets chirping* yea it was bad I know.


And I honestly dont know the active ingredient, I tossed the bottle when it was empty, maybe check their website? Or ask one of the fellow users that have a bottle still? Maybe its on there

I've used Detol not sure if thats available in the States, I left the models in a tub filled with Detol for 2 days the models that i used eproxy glue melted and sticks all over the place, models that I used zap-a-gap didn't not melt or deteriorate. Hope that is useful to someone out there!

LA's doesn't list the ingredients as it's not a toxic substance. The active ingredient is a surfactant of some sort, though.

MasterSlowPoke wrote:LA's doesn't list the ingredients as it's not a toxic substance. The active ingredient is a surfactant of some sort, though.

On page 2 of this topic I made a posting on what is in it.

I'll cut and paste the important part:

There is nothing special about this product as this product has small amounts Sodium Hydroxcide, Trisodium Phospate, Sodium Silicate (Meta), Ethoxylate Alcohol, and a Orange oil blend (plus water of course) as its chemical make up.

Thanks, looks like quite strong stuff.

Someone in the UK needs to Start importing LA Totally Awesome, they would make a killing.

I am not sure if anyone commented on this, but this stuff does work well. However, be sure to wear gloves. I used the thin Latex gloves and it ate through them several times while stripping the models.

The first time, I ignored it and my left hand (the hand that I reached in with) turned all "leathery" that night and then the skin proceeded to dry off and peel over the next few days. It looked really gross. No long term damage, but I cannot imagine that was good for my skin.

The second time I used, I replaced the gloves as they eroded and had no problems. It works great, but be careful.

This works exactly the same as with Dettol

Never knew how paint stripping worked but wanted to do it for a while so i did that a week or 2 ago:

1.Bought a bottle of Dettol 500ml(10 euro).

2.Got a glass jar and filled it halfway with Dettol(specifically Dettol because it were all plastics).

3.Tossed in a bunch of chaos marines and terminators a friend of mine gave to me after he quit 40k(painted real thick btw).

4.Waited 12 hours and brushed of the paint.

5. A lot of paint was still there in the recesses, so they liked another bath of Dettol for another 6 hours.

6. After that i brushed them clean another time with an old toothbrush, i didn't washed them with soapy water but let them dry for at least 48 hours in a good-ventilated room.

The models are as new(just as the reuseable Dettol, just get a coffee-filter and get a jar under it and you've got yourself new and fresh paint-remover),

Just posting my experience here hope i helped out someone!

Cheers,

Wolf

This stuff is awesome. I picked up some of it in order to strip the paint off my old IG. Simple Green has been my go to for years, but the work and clean up always made me hate stripping my models. 12 hours in this stuff (as opposed to days in Simple Green) and the models are super stripped with no damage and little effort.

Good find mate!

I do heartily endorse this product.

Used on 2nd edition metal minis & used on 1st & 2nd edition plastic, wont damage your models!

Give it time to work (1 day to week +)

KingCracker - It makes your hands feel like they have been in water all day because it is pulling all the oil and moisture out of your hands. I have been using this product during the winter (i usually get bad dry hand in the winter) and it has really done a number on my hands... lots of red cracks.... I DO recomend gloves, of either the latex or vinyl variety. You probably dont want to let this stuff be absorbed through your skin anyway.

Thanks for the great tip!

It looks like the results are more or less identical to simple green but at a lower price. That's cool. I wish it was less caustic to the skin, though.

Same. I just go some. Picked a model up that was soaking in it. it causes you skin to itch for awhile. So get gloves kiddies or someone gullible.
But i got two small justs for 2 bucks.
Awesome fine king gracker.

I also just picked up 2 small bottles for $2, and a $1.25 plastic tub to soak stuff in.

I've had zero luck with simple green, some luck with Purple Power, and of course lots of good with Pine Sol (on metal models only).

I've got a salvage operation drop pod in there, some metal raptors, and some really old paint glopped marines. We'll see how it works when I take em out tomorrow.

Cruentus wrote:I also just picked up 2 small bottles for $2, and a $1.25 plastic tub to soak stuff in.

I've had zero luck with simple green, some luck with Purple Power, and of course lots of good with Pine Sol (on metal models only).

I've got a salvage operation drop pod in there, some metal raptors, and some really old paint glopped marines. We'll see how it works when I take em out tomorrow.

For me i used to use oven cleaner. It really was a pain. But hopefully this stuff will remove the varnish and stuff i have on my models.

That seems like a waste of money. It would be just as much to buy a can of primer, and that has a whole 'nother use!

I'm a fan of Super Clean. Its a cheap engine degreasor and has stripped everything I've ever put in it. For $8 a gallon, this purple stuff will cut through varnish and paint in the matter of hours. I've stripped both plastic and metal models in an afternoon with this stuff. Its not toxic, but its not something you want to get in your body (eyes, mouth, etc.) It will dry your hands out if you don't wear gloves.

I've found that I let the models soak for an hour or two in the garage and I can wash them off in the kitchen sink and brush the model lightly with an old tooth brush. I believe the stuff also doubles as a drain cleaner so its safe to dump down the drain. If there is any stubborn paint, I drop it back in the solution and pick up another mini and by the time I get back to it, the paint just flakes or peels off. If they are varnished, I'll let them soak over night for the same effect. I've never let anything soak for more than a night so I don't know what it would do if you soaked plastic stuff in it too long (a week or more?) but I haven't had any trouble at 48 hours and I don't like to put stuff in chemicals and let them sit out for too long any way.

You can buy Super Clean at WalMart in the Automotive section. Just look for the purple jugs.

Success! The LA's stuff worked great. The paint came right off the drop pod, and, as an added bonus, it either removed or loosened the glues used on the model (I believe it was superglue).

I'm going to go back down and finish the metal and badly globbed models, to see how they fared.

I'll try to post pics later tonight.

T tactical squa covered in
1 layer of paint.
1 layer of wood varnish
1 layer of matte varnish
Anoter layer of varnish
All stripped in a day and a half.
This gets my seal of approval.
KC if i werent afraid of your beard i would hug you

Revenent Reiko wrote:

SilverMK2 wrote:Curse America and its useful chemicals!

im with you!
tried googling and cant find it over here
but i have a tutorial for Dettol which apparently works great so thats the way for me i think

Dettol ruined a command squad of mine....fairy power spray is pretty awesome apparently


Automatically Appended Next Post:

mwnciboo wrote:Someone in the UK needs to Start importing LA Totally Awesome, they would make a killing.

Yoink

hotsauceman1 wrote:T tactical squa covered in
1 layer of paint.
1 layer of wood varnish
1 layer of matte varnish
Anoter layer of varnish
All stripped in a day and a half.
This gets my seal of approval.
KC if i werent afraid of your beard i would hug you

Ill take the compliment. Glad to see this has helped so many people out, and on the cheap.

SuperClean - Any comments on SuperClean I will agree with. The stuff is a beast, and as gentle as a diaper. But it will remove your skin as easy as it does paint. So LATA is a bit safer, but as mentioned, it will screw up your skin if you leave your hands in it long without any protection. But lets be honest, when playing with any chemicals you should play it safe and wear protection

I love that stuff, I actually use it to clean my house. Works great for getting out animal stains too. Never used it to strip minis though, now it -can- do anything.

Just picked up another bottle. I thought I was going to have vacation next week to paint my Blood Bowl team for the upcoming tourney, but I don't so I'll have to paint every night until then, including stripping half of the figs. Ugh.

I've seen this stuff in the dollar tree. I'll have to pick some up!

Damn, KingCracker, you may have initiated a stripping revolution!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Any word on how this works on resin?

Note, Dont get the lavender cleaner. it doesnt clean your models well and it makes your models smell like cleaner.

For the UK I heard Cillit Bang does the job on plastics, but I've not tried it myself, so don't quote me on that!!! Don't want to be responsible for melting anyone's pride and joy...

I was told you can pick this up on Amazon.com. I dunno if you lot across the pond can still get it through them, but its worth a shot looking. Let me know if you guys can ya?


And stripping is what I do.................er.....................well..........

No Lie. this stuff is amazing. I just read this last night, today i put some figs in the LA Amazing 1$ at dollar tree, and three hours later some of the heaviest paint and glue ever are just melting off my model. it does seem to have weakened the plastic a little bit but since this model was a throw away, making it salvageable is bomb. seriously this stuff rocks.

It might seem like it does at first, but only to really skinny models. I noticed on those Crons I soaked, a couple were in there awhile, and their ankles seemed a little weaker then normal. But after it all dries up, that goes away. The SM I soaked, didnt notice a thing wrong with that guy. But then again, most of those Crons didnt feel weaker at all, so maybe it depends on the actual model in question.

This guid is one of the best on dakka! Love it man!

I love it, My wife all ready buys awesome from the dollar store, and I have some imperial guard I want to repaint. I don't have to go anywhere to try this. "Awesome" painting tip!

Cheers lads, I wanted to start a revolution, but no one was into walking around with no pants and wearing just sport jackets. At least this one took off

Great tut KC... will have to look for that!

Question. How do you dispose of the degreaser when you are done?

Its non toxic, and made from natural ingredients so you can just flush it down the toilet or flush it down the drain.

LA's totally awesome is the best cleaner that i've found, it works amazing.

It's sold at the dollar store here for huge jugs, which works out nice.

only thing i would add is in the pictures i noticed you didnt have glove on. I would highly suggest it, working with harsh chemicals doesn't really have short term effects besides maybe some skin irritation if enough exposure is taken but could have long term effects, but its just me being paranoid. working around chemicals get you weary of what some of them can do.

Its been mentioned yea. I can tell ya, you definitely want to wear gloves. It didnt eat my skin or anything like that, but they certainly felt weird for awhile . So if I get some insane brain tumor in my 50s, Ill know why.

Interesting, ive always used oven cleaner to strip my models, it smells awful and you need gloves but damn does it ever work.

This may have already been addressed, but my powers of skimming have turned up nothing. Will this affect green stuff or liquid green? Already cured of course.

Ever since I saw this thread, I have used LATA to great effect. It has stripped everything with ease, however I usually leave them in the solution for about 2 days (depends on what paint was used and size of model.) There has been marines, guard, orks, and tau, infantry and vehicles, and it all comes clean. Granted everything stripped had a GW chaos black hand brushed primer. Depending on if anyone knows how this will effect liquid green, I will soon test LATA's effectiveness on minis with an Army Painter grey spray primer.

Hmm, It seems to hold some of the bonds.
Also, I can removie krylon in 6 hours or less.

ChocorateMirk wrote:This may have already been addressed, but my powers of skimming have turned up nothing. Will this affect green stuff or liquid green? Already cured of course.

the only problem ive had is if the greenstuff isnt properly attached ( not sure if it wasn't enough glue or if i didn't mold it enough or what) but i had a few pieces of green stuff come unattached after letting it soak for more than a day

ChocorateMirk wrote:This may have already been addressed, but my powers of skimming have turned up nothing. Will this affect green stuff or liquid green? Already cured of course.

Id say, take a junk mini, toss some GS or liquid green on it, throw a few layers of paint on and see what happens.

I'm going through some stuff that is ancient primer and paint and it's coming slowly but surely.

KingCracker wrote:Cheers lads, I wanted to start a revolution, but no one was into walking around with no pants and wearing just sport jackets. At least this one took off

You mean we're not doing this anymore? Why didn't anyone tell me?


OT, I've used this on a number of metal and plastic minis, most of them in pretty bad shape, and its worked better than anything else I've tried (simple green, purple power, etc.). I still think I'd stay with thinner or pinesol for metals, but this can't be beat for plastics. In many cases, it has even removed primer, which I guess depends a lot on the primer (GW vs armoury vs walmart vs auto primer).

I really can attest to this! It is the best stuff you can find if you are a cheap guy like me!

AK907554 wrote:Does anyone know of any other effective chemicals for stripping that can be found in america?

Yes. What I've personally used:

Acetone: great, but use on metal only. Acetone eats plastic. Dissolves superglue and epoxy over time, which may be a good thing.
Simple Green: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. My P&M blog goes into more detail about that...the not working part.
Castrol Superclean: it's got a different name now and possibly a different formula. 6 years ago this stuff was great. Last year it didn't work at all.
Carb cleaner: same rules as acetone, not as good.
Pinesol/pine oil: thin it way down or keep the soak times very short with plastic, as it will attack styrene over time. Fine on metal. Smells wonderful.
Paint thinner/ mineral spirits/ kerosene: kinda works on enamels, not as good on acrylics. Don't bother.

And my current favorite? 91% isopropyl alcohol. I really wish that someone had told me about this twenty years ago. It's cheap and it works on every paint (acrylic, enamel, whatever) that I've tested it on except for one*, usually in hours. It doesn't hurt anything. Cheap. Dries on its own quickly. This has been my weapon of choice since I've tried it.

* I got some Chinese railroad miniatures to use as civilians in Deathwatch for next to nothing. They were not nicely painted so I tried various stripping measures. None of the above worked. The plastic dissolves before the paint does. I have some that have been in Simple Green and alcohol for over a year now (haven't gotten around to dealing with them yet) and the paint hasn't been affected. I've since begun just touching them up and hitting them with a Future wash and calling it good.

I haven't tried the LATA yet but I'll give it a shot.

This is awesome, I can't wait to try it with my black painted models and see if they can be converted to Imperial Fists

How long do you soak your models for? I've been usin simple green and usually wait a week so it's fully striped of paint

Has anyone tried this on finecast?

...Does it work?

I use the break fluid for removing the paint of my mini. It's good.

I REALLY need to know if this will affect Finecast.

Can someone please tell me if they had any experience?

I've never stripped any models before, and god knows i've got a lot to do. Do you know if this stuff is safe with fartcast? I do not like finecast at all, but when it comes to eldar I don't get much choice. They're hard enough to find as it is in my area.

I decided to go ahead and take one of my crappiest finecast model for a bath. The stuff works fine on finecast, as far as I can tell there is no ill effects on the model. Like the plastic models it feels a little flimsier while its still wet, but that goes away after drying it. I also feel the need to emphasize how important it is to wear gloves while working with this stuff. I made the mistake of buying gloves too small then decided to go without, long story short my fingers got so dried out so fast that they almost cracked open.

Vendetta 476 wrote:I REALLY need to know if this will affect Finecast.

Can someone please tell me if they had any experience?

Paint finecast sprue, soak sprue, see what happens.

I've used a product that looks very similar to this in the UK. Its advertised as a cleaner for things like bbq grills where you leave the grill in a sealable bag with some of this stuff and its comes out shiny clean. Can't remember the name of it for the life of me, but I'm pretty sure it came from a Wilkinsons store.

I just stripped a FW Macharius Vanquisher (awesome tank) with super clean, which I beleive it chemically stronger then LATA. So logically LATA should be ok for FW. Also Im stripping some finecast stuff and it doesnt appear to harm in it any way. Ive also embarked on a great undertaking. I am stripping 13000-14000 points of IG for a good friend. Including about 60 vehicles. I am doing this with LATA. And it appears to be working very well. I bought about 62 32oz bottles totaling roughly 15 and a half gallons of LATA. Super clean is my favorite stripping agent ( not stripper ) but if i used it on this massive ordeal it would cost upwards of 170 bucks. I did it for around 80 dollars. Im gonna let the stuff soak for around 36 hours and then go to work

I posted here before and took this stripper one step further. I used this with my Ultrasonic cleaner. 1/2hr stripping on most models and done.

This stuff really works

I'll post pictures later when time allows.

Adam

Status report. I stripped 13000 points of guard...in 3 days. LATA worked pretty good, it didnt take all the paint off some vehicles, but worked well on others. Super clean is still my favorite but for this volume of work LATA is by far the best choice because its so cheap. I used 15 and a half gallons of the stuff. Totaling aroound 75 dollars. Super clean would have cost me at least double that

iflywhirlybirds wrote:Status report. I stripped 13000 points of guard...in 3 days. LATA worked pretty good, it didnt take all the paint off some vehicles, but worked well on others. Super clean is still my favorite but for this volume of work LATA is by far the best choice because its so cheap. I used 15 and a half gallons of the stuff. Totaling aroound 75 dollars. Super clean would have cost me at least double that

You know that you can recycle your cleaning fluid. LA Awesome recyceles well enough for my purposes.

Yes im aware of that but there is also a point at which the solution becomes totally saturated and is no longer usful, i reached that point MANY times during that job

iflywhirlybirds wrote:Yes im aware of that but there is also a point at which the solution becomes totally saturated and is no longer usful, i reached that point MANY times during that job

If you are talking about particulate matter then a coffee filter or a paper towel does the trick to remove it from your solution. If you are talking about change in color of the solution well that is up to you.

We all have methods on how to do things. Your observation on what over saturation is for your work is probably different than my own. But I know our methods of stripping are different as well. I'm giving a general viewpoint the the rest of the masses that from my observation you can strip a great deal of models, plastic or metal with this cleaner and be able to reuse it again for other stripping models. People have a tendency of thinking that if the color of the solution has changed then the cleaner is no good and that is not necessarily the case

Below is what I stripped with 32 oz. of cleaner. The container has 20 oz. cleaner left that I have recycled and the most recent batch was done this evening and is on the black tray.

Yes I know that it only costs a dollar at the store for 16oz but that is one less dollar I have to spend on my stripping projects and one more dollar I can spend on purchasing more terribly painted/used models in the near future.

The Cleaner works very well and I have been very impressed by its results.

There is no question this stuff works great, I just prefer super clean to it. LATA didnt touch some paint that I know super clean would remove. Its still a great stripping agent tho

report for the uk crew, no new info really but here it is incase it helps anyone stumbling in and wishing they stocked LA/Castrol Super over here.

so Ive been cleaning out my loft, managed to struggle down the ladder with a large tote filled to the brim with little metal men that hasnt seen the light of day for about 17 years. Theyre in an awful state but theres a ton of them and looking online it seems theyre still worth a lot if fixed up and painted to a high standard, so a project has been born, and the first step, stripping these buggers bare.

When I was a kid I used white spirits/nitromors, having read the tut on here decided to try out the dettol and the fairy power spray. Both work really well, infact significantly better than white spirit or nitromors used to, and they dont melt plastic too which is a bonus. With the Dettol Im finding the best method is to soak em, then take them out and use a tooth pick to get rid of the majority of the paint, then resoak, eventually use a tooth brush to get rid of the bits in the cracks (chain mail ). If you go right in with the tooth brush the paint seems to disintegrate into a mush and form an emulsion with the Dettol fluid which acts like a guey, foamy paint in itself, this can be rinsed off with more Dettol but at the expense of pretty much ruining the fluid for reuse. Heres where the second warning comes, if you then try an rinse it with water instead it sort of sets and you are back to square 1, maybe even worse than when you started. I read that in a tut, didnt listen, had to resoak a little plastic orc tester. If you can peal the majority of the paint off in sheets with a tooth pick before you put it back in the Dettol then you just have some little shrivelled rolls of paint to throw in the bin and your Dettol remains pretty fresh for using again.


Def ware gloves though, I had plastic gloves on, sharp points on the miniatures poked some holes and the Dettol got inside, didnt burn at all but certainly drys your hands out. While you might know whats in your stripper of choice, you probably dont know whats in all your old paint and glue or what abominations will be formed when they all start reacting together so do yourself a favour a glove up, pink marigolds would be a choice selection of strip mittens

Where glue is concerned, from what Ive seen poly cement welds remain completely untouched as you would expect, super glue seems to remain stuck although Ive noticed after a while in the Dettol it does start to melt the surface of it into a guey sludge thats rather unpleasant, so maybe if you soak long enough the joins will possibly weaken, esp if the fluid can get in around the joint.

and there we have it, 70 models stripped, 2 square foot of lead and plastic to go, wish me luck.

Thank you so much worked out great!

*bows* Not a problem. Just doing my duty for DAKKA.

I will be buying some of this tonight. I just have to find a dollar tree store around where I just moved to. I have some horribly painted Plague Marines and Necron Destroyers.

Let me strip those bad jobs off so that I can add my own bad job to it!

Edited to add 4/18/12:

Grabbed two bottles and poured one into two small tubs last night. I was able to move surface paint on the Destroyers, but didn't have time to go at it with the brush to see if it removed the primer. So far, so good. I will work on cleaning them off tonight.

The only downfall is depending on the primer, it stains the plastic. Ive said it before somewhere on this thread, but the necrons I stripped were indeed stripped, but they were left black in color And for the best results, you should leave them in the soak for a day or 3 depending on how thick the paint is. But yea, let us know your results

I've stripped a couple of batches now.

The First Batch - 4/18:

This batch included some CSM bits I received as part of an auction I won. There were some oop metal CSMs, an armless old style Obliterator (a bonus that I didn't expect), and some random bits in there. For the most part, everything stripped off easily. As previously mentioned in the thread, some of the thinner plastic pieces became a little too pliable and some of the superglue weakened. However, overall, it worked on removing some really nasty paint jobs.

I strained the LATA and repoured it over some of the figures in this batch that had stubborn spots, and they will be recleaned tonight when I get home from work. I did check on the figures on my way out, and, although the LATA is now black, it doesn't seem to have lost any of its effectiveness.

The second batch - 4/19:

These were some converted plague marines (converted with what looks like grey stuff), the aforementioned necron destroyers and warriors, a metal spyder.

After sitting nearly two days in the LATA, the paint on the destroyers was practically sloughing off. It was a breeze to remove the majority of the paint and required very little effort. The same occurred with the white primer on the warriors. There was some black primer left on the Spyder from a cleaning prior to me winning it and that came right off.

Some of the white primer in the deeper crevices of the warriors seemed to resist the tooth brush strokes and has remained in there. However, it is a minimal amount of primer. As these soaked for almost two days, I'm not sure if a longer soak will fix this. Perhaps getting a toothpick to get a pointed object deeper into the crevices might work.

The converted plague marines were interesting. The legs have some dark green, dark blue, and black staining that I simply could not get off. It gave way a little, but it seemed really stubborn. I'd be inclined to let these soak for a week, but the LATA seemed to weaken the grey stuff to where I could scrape bits of it away. I might look into putting in just enough to soak the legs, but might just use some paint on primer instead.

Conclusion:

I have to say that the LATA is hard to beat for the $3 a bottle I paid for it. One bottle easily took care of what I was looking to strip, and if I'd been smarter about the container I used, I could have probably gotten by with half of a bottle. Fortunately, it doesn't appear to lose any potency after the first round of stripping.

The containers definitely had to be cleaned well. The LATA left a really slick film on them. Then again, if it washed away with an application of water, it likely wouldn't be that great of a cleaner.

I ended up running a sink full of cold water and brushing off the paint in the water. This allowed me to work without gloves, which helps with the arthritis/carpal tunnel/whatever I have in my hands without getting any significant chemical exposure. I think it helped me keep everything rinsed well. So far, I haven't experienced any issue with build up, though I may run some drano, just in case.

@ kcwm

People seem to believe that when the color changes in your cleaning solution they seem to think that the solution is no long the case. Thanks for Verifying what I posted earlier about the cleaning aspect of this product.

In my case I now only strip with LA Awesome and 91% alcohol with my Ultrasonic Cleaner. I use the alcohol as a final bath (only a few minutes) to wash all of the film from the cleaning solution. Then rinse and let dry.

KCWM - Grats on the successful strip session you had.
Glad to see this tutorial helped another batch of horrible paint syndrome

Question, i used GWs white primer as a basecoat and after a soak of 2 days it doesn't look like it's coming out. The regular paint strips fine but not the primer. I used the tooth brush too. Any help?

King of the Elves wrote:Question, i used GWs white primer as a basecoat and after a soak of 2 days it doesn't look like it's coming out. The regular paint strips fine but not the primer. I used the tooth brush too. Any help?

Are you using a firm toothbrush? I picked up a couple of cheap ones from walmart.

The necron warriors I stripped had a white primer, though I'm unsure if it's the GW brand or not. Regardless, it came off easier than anything else.

I might have to try a final rinse in the alcohol, though brushing them off with a sink full of cool water seemed to do the trick too.

King of the Elves wrote:Question, i used GWs white primer as a basecoat and after a soak of 2 days it doesn't look like it's coming out. The regular paint strips fine but not the primer. I used the tooth brush too. Any help?

Brass wire brush is a little stiffer than a regular tooth brush Also if you have some dental tools that will be a great help to get into those tight crevices clean up.

I am using this at home right now and it works so easily. I do let the models sit for atleast 48 hours though.

Yup, the main key for a proper stripping is to let soak for a few days. Although in my OP I did get some pretty decent results on some minis in less time, but still, to be sure, better let them soak a few days.

Ok, I read the first couple pages, and then the last one, didn't really want to search through the whole post.

Just to let you know, the "staining" you are talking about is what a primer is supposed to do.
The whole idea of primer is that it bonds to the material to create a better surface to take paint.
Basically, if you are seeing a base primer that is not coming off, this is not cheap paint staining your model, this is primer working as intended.
If your "primer" is simply washing right off with this tecnique, you sir, got hosed when you bought that "primer"

For UK only

You can get this product from any B&Q, I have been using it for a few years and it works amazing on Metals and I decided to try it on plastics in the last few months with amazing results. See below

What are your opinions on nail polish remover?

From what I hear, if it contains acetone, it WILL melt your models.

Yea theres 2 types of nail polish remover, one will melt your plastic, and the other one will strip apparently. Never used the stuff personally. And why not, LATA is far cheaper, and many many times more liquid

I really enjoy using Motsenbockers LiftOff, its a nature friendly chemical agent and its an acryllic paint destroyer. I stripped 11 Vostroyans that had some cheap terrible awfull ugly paint on them with just a 30 min trip and a good scrub session with a hard brush and another dip for those nooks and crannies and their all primed again for their new coats of paint.

If I ever deal with a bulk army I'll look into LATA for sure as well.

Motsenbockers LiftOff is plastic friendly as well! You can pick up a 24 oz container for 5 bucks at a Lowes or Home Depot (sorry europe, I don't know of home improvement center equivelents there).

I finally got the point where I had some plastics to strip paint from, mainly ebay stuff, but a couple of things I did a few years back and want to redo in the future too. Being in the UK it gave me a chance to use the dettol method. Now it works, but I did encounter a couple of things I found bothersome.

Firstly was the odd feeling residue (?) left on the models after stripping, even after washing them a couple of times after the bath in pine oil based goodness.

Second the plastic seemed to get stained by the process a fair amount, again, maybe from residue of the paint being brushed off with the toothbrush.

Anyone got some advice on dealing with this?

Aside from that I forgot to dilute the stuff a bit too, but the paint was bubbling and coming away within a couple of hours, and even leaving stuff in for a week as a test, no harm done to the models

LATA worked well enough for me on some pieces I wanted to start over with, but after 2 days in the bath the white primer is still strong (and unfortunately still very craqueled) and all the glue has released.

I didn't realize I'd be rebuilding as well as repainting.

I've had a bunch of minis that I've been needing to strip but haven't had the extra cash lying about to do it. Then I saw this. Works like a charm.

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.

Thanks to this i was able to strip 180+ IG models that i bought from a friend in only the course of 3 days soaking (my own time table, probably could have worked with less).

Worked like a charm!!! and the models are good as new!

Thank you

Bought some LATA after seeing this posting. My ork did not even soak for 12 hours. The paint and primer came right off with very little work with a toothbrush.

I now swear by this stuff. $1 to strip tons of minis, is hard to beat.

Nice well done. I used to do the Simple Green, but I went techie and got an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner instead. It cost me like $60 and does the trick in like a champ. Don't really need the toothbrush. But $60 vs $3 yeah, maybe just a nice bath soak is all they really needed.

Just incase anyone was still wondering, it works for finecast too

mars2024 wrote:LATA worked well enough for me on some pieces I wanted to start over with, but after 2 days in the bath the white primer is still strong (and unfortunately still very craqueled) and all the glue has released.

I didn't realize I'd be rebuilding as well as repainting.

Then you should of read the thread a bit more carefully, its been mentioned that it loosens glue bonds. Just sayin.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

hotsauceman1 wrote:Just incase anyone was still wondering, it works for finecast too

Well thats a + to add to the front page me thinks. Thanks for the tip

KingCracker wrote:* And once more, after a long soak, its been known to loosen some glue bonds.
**Apparently its safe to use this on finecast as well. I havnt personally tested it on finecast to be able to say for sure, but its been told that it works like a champ

Its true, I wouldnt lie. Ive tried a bunch of different things to strip a mini over the years. Simple green, purple power, SuperClean, paint stripper (That poor Ork boy)
Some work well, some decent, some horrible. Usually you have to leave the minis in your chemical for 3 days to a week to get good results, and that to me just didnt seem to be good enough. Ive been told about a product that works wonders and is cheap to boot, so I finally got around to testing it and was pretty damn impressed with its outcome. Heres my tutorial on how to use the stuff, if your a seasoned pro, then you can just glaze over and just try the stuff, but this is mainly for those of you that have little to no experience on taking the menace that is bad paintjobs off a mini with good results. So enjoy.

The magical product is called LA's Totally Awesome! I paid a whopping $3 for the larger jug in the picture from a dollar store. This is great since America has one about every 5 miles. Im not sure if this is sold over seas, so sorry to you guys over the pond if you cant get your hands on it.

Ok what you need firstly is a plastic container to hold the chemical in(dont water it down, go full strength) .Then a nice toothbrush, I used a soft bristle but having a hard bristle around might be a good idea as well for that hard to scrub off paint. Make sure with the toothbrush your not scrubbing hard, if you have to put much effort into this then either the paint is not ready or the stripping agent is not working how it should. Make sure you pour enough LATA(La's totally awesome) in to submerge the minis you put there, I doubt itll work that well half in half out You should end up with something like this



I let the minis soak for about 12 hours and tested out the stripping. Id say this will work well if you have light paint or something on there. Now these crons were nasty so I decided to let them sit a whole day. Here is everything I put in the tub o doom.
Now the warriors are half primed in GW white and the other half was a cheap black primer (I know this because I knew the guy I got them from) Then for good measure of the stripping abilities I added metal flayed ones and to REALLY test it out, a terminator sgt that was not only painted by a new painter, BUT sealed in MINWAX! Oh yea, more on that later.

So a full-ish day of soaking you get this (note they are not pink, so please dont ask why they are pink. Im not Dash here )
Its getting nasty in there but thats a good thing, its paint and such. Now you want to take your brush out and start scrubbing. Youll want to get into EVERY recess you can get into here. Also like I said before, DO NOT scrub hard, youll just break things and wear yourself out, if its working right the paint pretty much just rubs off. Use the tips of your bristles and in a swirling pattern worked best for me. If you push to hard the surfaces will be missed by the bristle tips and wont scrub right. Using LATA foams like mad, so if you need to see, just dip it back into the chemical again. More pics
Before

During

After (note I discovered that the cheap spray paints (I personally love them but didnt know this until now) actually stain the plastic. Youll see on the white ones the minis are bare plastic, but the black primed ones are stained black)


Ok after the scrub I put the minis in a tank with soapy water to help rinse the LATA off the minis. Pretty simple


Now onto cleaning. As always when you strip minis, youll want to clean them off and let them dry completely before doing anything with them. Nothing is more annoying then trying to prime something and have it ruined because there was residue left on the mini, that just means ANOTHER chemical bath. So get yourself another container or wash the previous one out. I put some warm soapy water into it for a rinse. Then scrub the mini briefly with the toothbrush. Then rinse it in the soapy water. Then let it air dry.
PICS!


OOOHH! So clean!


Thats basically it. Now as I said I did the plastic, the metal AND 1 lucky fella that had the minwax treatment (I tested one the wife practiced on to see how dipping panned out. Not for me) The plastic and metal came out beautifully. The ONLY problems I ran into was it seems to dissolve super glue a tad. The guy I got these from was not very good at bonding so the flayed ones lost some hands, the Immortal was 1 handing his gauss blaster and so on. Not a big deal really.



MinWax and you!
LATA actually does minwax with ease as well. But it takes a longer soak. At a full day I got it from this:


To this

Obviously the crevices will take more soaking, Id bet once MAYBE twice more and this will be cleaned. Im sure its because the minwax is REALLY thick at these spots. But still, in 1 day you can get a MINWAX army to that, a hell of alot better then the usual 3+ days.

SO! There you have it. I paid $3 for the big jug, and a buck for the toothbrush. And I stripped all this

To this


In around 24 hours. Best part is, I barely used the LATA, Ive still got a ton of it left over. Only side effects Im feeling from it, is I feel like Ive left my hand in a bath tub for a day, and that is a weird feeling. So you dont even need gloves and the like (unless your prone to skin irritation from chemicals) the only warning it has is not to get it into your eyes.....duh. Ok DAKKA, enjoy it, enjoy being a cheap ass, enjoy painting a new army

found this stuff about a month ago and stripped about 2 companies of marines down to the plastic.

It's an absolute god-send.

Best stuff on the market today to use, bar none.

It seems to work no better than the pine-sol i use. One of my biggest annoyances when stripping paint is getting in really deep crevices. I'm curious what happens chemically to that area when left uncleaned because I feel like you don't want to prime the model until every last bit of old paint is off, else have issues with the paint falling off on thew model. Can anyone confirm this?

I have been suffering with these ketchup and mustard painted orks for too long. Ruined one in Acetone (Defft Choppa).... Now that I am getting back into Orks I tried Fantastic - Simple Green and was about to get Super Clean But there is a Dollar Mania Store next to my Walmart and now am going to gram this stuff instead. BTW half of them have a gloss green coat on them. Wish me luck !!!!

Good luck buddy. The ones that have that gloss on there, might need another soak after your first cleaning, the terminator Sgt I did had some floor finish over it, took a couple soaks, but I did end up getting it all off.


As for the paint that sticks in the deep crevices, your going to need a pick to dig it out. Think about it, paint pools in the low spots, and those crevices are not only low, but deep, AND narrow, so the paint is really thick as well as has lots of area to stick to. But soaking and then brushing the paint off, will soften those spots up, then just pick it out and your golden.

Chewbacca wrote:It seems to work no better than the pine-sol i use. One of my biggest annoyances when stripping paint is getting in really deep crevices. I'm curious what happens chemically to that area when left uncleaned because I feel like you don't want to prime the model until every last bit of old paint is off, else have issues with the paint falling off on thew model. Can anyone confirm this?

Regarding paint that is left on, you have two issues.

The first is that there is still paint there - adding more paint will make it thicker and can lead to obscured details. Quite often, it is in areas that are not immediately problematic, however - sometimes they are covering more important detail locations like emblems and what not.

The other problem is quite often the paint has absorbed some of the stripper. If you try to paint over it before it has had time to fully dry again - the residual stripper can cause the new paint to bubble, fog, glaze or do some other unexpected thing.

Normally though, as long as you let them dry for a week or so before you attempt to paint them again - the paint that remained stuck in place will still remain stuck in place and any paint you put on it will stick to it just fine.

Regarding LA's - it really isn't anything special from what I have seen. It works well enough, but there are plenty of other cleaners that work as well - and many which even work better. The primary workhorse chemical in its formulation is 2-Butoxyethanol. You find that in about half of the various organic degreasers out there (including Simple Green). While it is generally considered to be safe - it does have an LD50 number, which means that given enough exposure - it will kill you dead. The rest of it are mixes of fairly common surfactants and detergents which have minimal impact on paint (trisodium phosphate and ethoxylated alcohol for example). Simple Green actually has a higher concentration of the 2-Butoxyethanol than LAs - so if you were to actually do a blind side by side test - it should come out the winner between the two.

For me - I still prefer Super Clean or Oven Cleaner. Wear gloves and you are golden. Works on metal, plastic, resin - dissolves any paint that you will find. Works fast, and the chemicals have been in use for a few hundred years so you don't have these new studies popping up linking them to tumors and what not. After I get everything mostly clean - if there are some problem areas, I use an air eraser to get into the cracks and remove the last bits mechanically.

Well I can tell you without bias it does not work as well, and doesn't cost nearly as much.

Sean_OBrien wrote:Regarding LA's - it really isn't anything special from what I have seen. It works well enough, but there are plenty of other cleaners that work as well - and many which even work better. The primary workhorse chemical in its formulation is 2-Butoxyethanol. You find that in about half of the various organic degreasers out there (including Simple Green). While it is generally considered to be safe - it does have an LD50 number, which means that given enough exposure - it will kill you dead. The rest of it are mixes of fairly common surfactants and detergents which have minimal impact on paint (trisodium phosphate and ethoxylated alcohol for example). Simple Green actually has a higher concentration of the 2-Butoxyethanol than LAs - so if you were to actually do a blind side by side test - it should come out the winner between the two.

There's clearly something more to it than that, because that doesn't line up in any way with my tests and real-world experiences. I recently stripped some Shrikes I picked up at an auction. Days of soaking in undiluted Simple Green only barely budged the paint, while the same soak time in undiluted LA's got it done. Before that, I tried some ancient RT-era IG plastics...again, Simple Green had mediocre results while LA's got them almost completely clean down to the plastic. I'm confident I could keep repeating these results.

I've been stripping miniatures for 15+ years and have tried virtually everything at one point or another. I'd put LA's performance on par with brake fluid, but obviously without the disposal issues.

This stuff has been my go to for cleaning plastic, for metal I go straight to pine-sol.

gorgon wrote:There's clearly something more to it than that, because that doesn't line up in any way with my tests and real-world experiences.

If there is - they've got some 'splaining to do.

From their Totally Awesome MSDS (http://www.midlandtool.com/MSDS/L.A.%20Totally%20Awesome%20Cleaner.pdf)

0.01-2.5% - Orange Oil Blend (CAS# 8008-57-9) & (CAS#111-76-2)
0.5-4% - Ethoxylated Alcohol (CAS# 9036-19-5)
0.5-2% - Disodium Salt (CAS# 6834-92-0)
0.5-2% - Phosphate Sodium (CAS# 7601-54-9)
0.5-0.8% - Hydroxy Sodium (CAS# 1310-73-2)
88-98% - Water

All percentages by weight. The first component is Orange Sweet Oil (CAS# 8008-57-9). It is used for flavoring and aromatherapy as well as as a fragrance additive to soaps to cover up other chemical smells which might be present and not wanted. The second component is 2-Butoxyethanol (CAS#111-76-2) - as mentioned, it is an organic solvent which works on paints and lacquers and is the primary component in Simple Green. The third component is polyoxyethylene octyl phenyl ether - it is primarily a surfactant...that is it is used to reduce the surface tension and help to get under the paint. The fourth component is a detergent auxiliaries, primarily used for its oil absorbing properties (remember - this is a degreaser). It also is a dye auxillary - which may explain some of the staining which occurs on miniatures stripped with TA. The fifth component is Trisodium phosphate. TSP is a common degreaser used to clean various surfaces prior to painting them (you can find big buckets of TSP at DIY stores in their paint departments). The 6th component is sodium hydroxide - the good stuff that lets Super Clean and Oven cleaner eat through paint...and your skin. Finally - there is the water...which doesn't do much at all but act as a carrier for everything.

Simple Greens MSDS (http://www.simplegreen.com/pdfs/MSDS_EN-US_AllPurposeCleaner.pdf)

≥78% - Water
≤5% - 2-butoxyethanol (CAS# 111-76-2)
≤5% - Ethoxylated Alcohol (CAS# 68439-46-3)
≤5% - Tetrapotassium Pyrophosphate (CAS# 7320-34-5)
≤5% - Sodium Citrate (CAS# 68-04-2)
≤1% - Fragrance
≤1% - Colorant

Now, you have water first - which again, is just a carrier. After that you have the 2-butoxyethanol - same as TA, though at higher concentrations. Then you have another Ethoxylated Alcohol - different formula, same purpose though. Simple Greens ethoxylated alcohol has additional foaming properties though, which help to lift stuff with agitation (either brushing or ultrasonic). TA uses the disodium salt in addition to their EA to match the properties of the EA used by SG. The Tetrapotassium pyrophosphate is used as a degreaser and is comparable to the TSP used in TA. The trisodium citrate is used as a PH buffer, preventing breakdown of the components over time. The fragrance and colorant serve the same purpose as the sweet orange oil in the TA.

In terms of what is there and not there - the only real kicker is with the Sodium Hydroxide (which is probably the best paint stripper you will find). It is in such low concentrations though, that I would be surprised if it had that much added impact. But, if it is in fact doing the extra work - why bother with going in for halves when you can get the whole thing. Super Clean, Oven Cleaner, Purple Power and others all are Sodium Hydroxide based cleaners that work in minutes or hours as opposed to days.

why bother with going in for halves when you can get the whole thing

For 1$?

Cheapest I have seen LA's TA was $5 for a 32 ounce container. Purple Power goes for $5 for a gallon. Since there are 128 ounces per gallon - that would be 4 of the LATA for the same volume... Purple Power wins.

I buy my Super Clean in 2.5 gallon containers for $23 each. That would be 10 bottles of the LATA for the same volume... Super Clean wins.

If I managed to find it in the 64 ounce containers that the OP mentioned and could get it at the price he mentioned ($3 each) it would end up costing a dollar more than the gallon of Purple Power and about $7 less than the Super Clean. However, since I generally only have to soak the miniatures for 4 hours or so in Super Clean and it removes it down to bare material in a single go - the extra few bucks are worth it IMO.

They sell LA's TA at the dollar tree bruv.

What About Australia!

This stuff works awesome. It even stripped clear gloss nail polish.

Break Fluid (automotive) has been a common paint stripper for model railroading for many years. You do have to be careful with some plastics.

This thread was freaking AMAZING.

Simple Green didn't do to strip my marines. Soaked for 3 days and there were several that still weren't stripping.

When to the Dollar store to see if they carried this, and low and behold it was there!

Threw them bad boys in to the new mix and BLAM! 12 hours later it took them down to bare plastic.

THIS ACTUALLY REMOVED KRYLON FUSION.

I couldn't be happier.

Many thanks to the OP!!

 Revenent Reiko wrote:

SilverMK2 wrote:

Revenent Reiko wrote:but i have a tutorial for Dettol which apparently works great so thats the way for me i think

Do you know what particular version of dettol you need?

The original (brown liquid) version
here

Use fairy power spray, same price as dettol but have the amount BUT it doesnt smell at all, while dettol will make your minis smell for at least a month after

Awesome,

I horribly messed up my new army and this looks like the perfect way to get them re-painted now that i know what I'm going for!

Well I have posted my results earlier on this topic with pictures of the results with the models I have stripped.

I have been using all sorts of methods of stripping models for the past 35+ years. I've also painted houses, cars, motorcycles, HO scale trains, (and so on) besides miniatures. Yup, looked and researched all of the products listed for my use and it comes down the this.

LA Awesome, which is reusable, does 90% of all of my needs. For my usage it is safer than the other cleaners I have used for stripping plastic (and metal) models.

The other 10% of cleaning issues, I use 91%( have 99% as well) of isopropyl alcohol as well well a ultrasonic cleaner.

LA Awesome to me simply works.

 NickTheButcher wrote:
This thread was freaking AMAZING.

Simple Green didn't do to strip my marines. Soaked for 3 days and there were several that still weren't stripping.

When to the Dollar store to see if they carried this, and low and behold it was there!

Threw them bad boys in to the new mix and BLAM! 12 hours later it took them down to bare plastic.

THIS ACTUALLY REMOVED KRYLON FUSION.

I couldn't be happier.

Many thanks to the OP!!

Why, your very welcome

 Eldar Man wrote:
What About Australia!

Use ebay or Dettol or wait for my little science experiment to finish.

I'm using 5 various cleaning products on some lord of the rings minis which i don't care if they melt! they have been painted for nearly 10 years and have had it caked on really badly.
I'm going to leave them for 24 hours and see what works the best. For the record I'm using 1: Domestos, 2: Handy Andy, 3: Pino Clean, 4: Cleaning Vinegar, 5: Earth Choice Cleaner.
I will let you know how it goes!

Edited by AgeOfEgos

I'm going to be stripping some Death Company that the previous owner painted white. I'll be sure to post before and after pictures.

As for super glue becoming looser, I find that I ran into this far more with the thinner Necron models than I did with Marine sized models.

Hey I just bought some of this from ebay for my poorly painted nid models and I am just wondering if its safe with forge world resin and also the yellow stuff that the hierophants torso is made of?

awesome

I've found that Simple Green is great for getting rid of the paint, but struggles with the primer. Right now I've got some models sitting in LATA - we'll see where it goes.

Already, I'm a little dubious because after twelve hours, my plastic tub doesn't look anything like KingCrackers. The LATA is still clear, and although the paint looks a little loose, it doesn't seem to be dispersing on its own, as it did in KingCracker's photos. In fact, it looks... just like they do in Simple Green.

I'll give 'em a good scrub in a little while and see how that works.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forget I said anything. I was wrong - terribly, terribly wrong.

I just went back to the models and peered at them in better light. Then I stirred them. And woah... paint came flying off them. It's a paintastrophe in there. A paintsaccre. It's paintful to look at.

This sh*t is for real.

ElectricPaladin wrote:I've found that Simple Green is great for getting rid of the paint, but struggles with the primer. Right now I've got some models sitting in LATA - we'll see where it goes.

Already, I'm a little dubious because after twelve hours, my plastic tub doesn't look anything like KingCrackers. The LATA is still clear, and although the paint looks a little loose, it doesn't seem to be dispersing on its own, as it did in KingCracker's photos. In fact, it looks... just like they do in Simple Green.

I'll give 'em a good scrub in a little while and see how that works.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forget I said anything. I was wrong - terribly, terribly wrong.

I just went back to the models and peered at them in better light. Then I stirred them. And woah... paint came flying off them. It's a paintastrophe in there. A paintsaccre. It's paintful to look at.

This sh*t is for real.

Indeed it is. LATA is an excellent AND CHEAP paint stripper.


Forge World resin - I havnt personally tested this on resins, but someone somewhere in these pages mentioned they tried it out on resins and it worked a charm. But since I havnt personally tried it out, I cant vouch for the results. As always. test it out on some sprue or a bit or something