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Don't know bout touching, but avoid breathing it. It does not reek like Dettol, but it does smell of death when enters your lungs.

 Swabby wrote:
I just want to say that Isopropyl Alchohol of high concentrations should not come in contact with your skin. If you are using this stuff please wear protective gloves and read a safety data sheet prior to use.

The OP said it was fine to get on your hands, it is not.

Iso alcohol wont do any long term harm to your skin. Hell, one of it's applications is as a direct wound disinfectant.

I'm having such wildly mixed results with this stuff at the moment.
Soaking is an absolute must for these old minis, but some are just starting to be a little gummy after 3 days, some have shed everything, and one is absolutely untouched. What the hell, Grey Knight!

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I'm having such wildly mixed results with this stuff at the moment.
Soaking is an absolute must for these old minis, but some are just starting to be a little gummy after 3 days, some have shed everything, and one is absolutely untouched. What the hell, Grey Knight!

Have you applied anything like varnishes to any of the models? Perhaps that may have something to do with the mixed results

Like acetone it will dry out your skin and will crack eventually. Stay well ventilated too as Im pretty sure its not good for you liver.

Well, isopropyl can be absorbed through the skin and is an irritant, so beware of that. It is recommended to wear gloves with products containing isopropyl alcohol.

Hey OP, thanks for sharing your tutorial.

I found it surprising that there isn't any mention of Iso in the "How to Strip your Minis" article. Can you go about adding something there?
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_How_to_Strip...

 Cleatus wrote:

I found it surprising that there isn't any mention of Iso in the "How to Strip your Minis" article. Can you go about adding something there?
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_How_to_Strip...

They do mention in that article that Denatured Alcohol is an eligible paint stripper, and that type of alcohol sometimes contains isopropyl as one of its additives. However you're right in saying that pure isopropyl is not mentioned; I will see to adding something there in the near future about it

Thankyou!

G.A

 General Annoyance wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I'm having such wildly mixed results with this stuff at the moment.
Soaking is an absolute must for these old minis, but some are just starting to be a little gummy after 3 days, some have shed everything, and one is absolutely untouched. What the hell, Grey Knight!

Have you applied anything like varnishes to any of the models? Perhaps that may have something to do with the mixed results

Nope. Most of these are just hella old badly painted marines. Some aren't even primed.

That's good to know seeing as I plan to strip some old miniatures myself that are terribly painted; perhaps it struggles to remove thick, old paint like you said before

I can't recommend much else to you, only say sorry that it isn't working out as I said it would However, perhaps mixing it with Fairy Platinum like Alex said before will help, since he also tackled a poorly painted, old model.

Hope it works out second time around

I'll take some pictures of what's happened, and some real success cases.

Safety data sheet for isopropyl alcohol:

http://www.flints.co.uk/pdffiles/isopropyl_alcohol_msds.pdf

I use the stuff to clean vinyl records and it works very well - can't believe I've never thought to try it out as a paint stripper.

If I may add a few notes from my own experience: I've been using ISA for many years as a paint stripper and frankly every time I see a "new" paint stripping thread I always recommend trying ISA as it is easier to find than alot of the commonly used products and it's safer to use. I personally have never used 100% ISA as its hard to find for me. The Highest I've used is 99% but I only use that as a finisher, as in the scrub off all those really stubborn little spots that just wont come out. On Average I stick with 91% for almost everything I strip.

I always soak anything for at least a day as it doesn't hurt plastic or metal ( at what I use doesn't). Soaking is not enough. I've had the same experience where a really tough mini that was painted with Krylon Fusion (the stuff that bonds) was soaked for a week and the paint was still intact. But once I started scrubbing the model with a nail cleaning brush dipped in the ISA the paint starts to come off. You can get these from any beauty supply store and I like the grip on these.



As noted in the tutorial agitation or friction is very important. I use toothbrushes for tight little spots but my go to brush is the Nail Cleaning brush because of the stiffer bristles. I've removed enamel, acrylic and rattle can paints successfully with just a 91% soak followed by a 99% Scrub.

Oh and PLEASE wear rubber gloves and eye protection. I learned the hard way. if you are a nail biter like me ISA burns like hell and it also burns when it gets in your eyes which it can when it flicks off the brush and gets airborne. So be safe.

As I said it also makes a great finisher for cleaning with other products such as Simple green and LAs Totally Awesome solutions. Soak as usual but dip your brush into ISA when you start scrubbing the paint off.

I've cleaned a ton on models like this including an entire Tau army I painted with Model Master enamels and a about 120 Marines that were caked in Rustoleum thick paint.It also breaks Super Glue bonds and will loosen greenstuff off a model that had conversions.

I hope this info helps with anyone having issues with using ISA.

Are you using 91% Isopropyl or 100%?

Either 99% or 100%, think it's the former

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I'll take some pictures of what's happened, and some real success cases.

Are you sure that this is not enamel pain't, cause I dont know if the alcohol can strip that.

I'm certain. It's stripping, and it's clearly acrylic. It's just not doing it in minutes. More like days.

Yea I call that stuff rubbing alchohol and it is fine on skin ..Do not drink it ..it is for external use only always have a quart or teo in the medicine cabinet ..its the sting in yet aftershave lotion and the base for many perfumes..

I'm intrigued as to whether the Iso removes primer. In the past I've tried using Isopropyl to remove paint, but I found it took me ages and didn't strip the primer off. I don't know what percentage it was, but I'd be curious to know if the 99% has a good effect on primer?

 Warpig1815 wrote:
I'm intrigued as to whether the Iso removes primer. In the past I've tried using Isopropyl to remove paint, but I found it took me ages and didn't strip the primer off. I don't know what percentage it was, but I'd be curious to know if the 99% has a good effect on primer?

From what I've used of it so far, yes it does remove primer easily, or should at least; I use Army Painter and GW primers, and both of those come off with moderate scrubbing. However white primers can remain in the recesses of the model and be tricky to dig out - you can see this in the test model I did in the tutorial (which was GW's Corax White). However it's no issue when the model is re-sprayed, as it's not enough to clog up any detail.

Plus I literally did that model in a minute or two, truthful to the title. I'm sure if you kept at it, you could get rid of all the primer.

We seem to be finding that age can be an issue when it comes to whether paint comes off or not. How old roughly were the model paintjobs you tried to strip before?

@General Annoyance - At the time, they were about 1 year old, but I'm pretty sure the issue was an insufficiently high % of alcohol.

 Warpig1815 wrote:
At the time, they were about 1 year old, but I'm pretty sure the issue was an insufficiently high % of alcohol.

I would reckon that anything below 90% would be too weak if you were using a concentration below that. The stuff I use is either 99 or 100%. If you're still having problems with that concentration, try what Buttery Commissar said and submerge them for a time and see if the primer comes off better after a few days.

Let me know how you get on

Just try with 99% concentration. It really strip anything within 1 hour. However, no many how good your paint stripper is you can land into this issue:




The guy bought some DA marines which cannot be stripped by anything.

I would agree that the MSDS shows that skin exposure could cause "sensitization", I would say from personal experience it dries out your hands terribly so if you forget the gloves, moisturizer is not a bad idea. Gloves are the good way to go especially if you have any cuts: it will sting like heck.

I just want to thank the poster for this guide. I rescued a horribly oversprayed Dragon Prince last night (entirely my fault) from 3 attempts at priming, stripping, priming again. Simple green had been only slightly effective after days of soaking, but an hour using this method and he was ready for a fresh coat of primer that looks great.

I used 93%, which is what I could get at the drugstore. I used it right on my hands and grabbed the model out of the container with my hand, and had no ill effects.

Thank you again!

Just saying, most of the stuff used for wound cleaning is only 70%

The only thing I've tried that's been better is car paint-thinner (don't know if it's called something else in english) but that will destroy plastic models. Metal models on the other hand are clean within minutes! (Don't breathe too much of the stuff though, especially if you think the Isopropyl smells bad. Thinner will knock your socks off, so mask on).

I would ecourage anyone who thinks that it is just drying up your hands to read up on defatting and skin absorbtion.

Just wear PPE and read a data sheet with any chemical you work with.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defatting_(medical)

Goddin wrote:
I just want to thank the poster for this guide. I rescued a horribly oversprayed Dragon Prince last night (entirely my fault) from 3 attempts at priming, stripping, priming again. Simple green had been only slightly effective after days of soaking, but an hour using this method and he was ready for a fresh coat of primer that looks great.

I used 93%, which is what I could get at the drugstore. I used it right on my hands and grabbed the model out of the container with my hand, and had no ill effects.

Thank you again!

Glad to hear you could rescue some old models!

Just a quick little update: I am trying to add a tutorial to the paint strip article on this site, but I'd like to take everything everyone has said here and use a new model for the demonstration, while learning how to edit articles there. When I get round to it and finish it, I'll post an update here

Happy stripping everyone! (teehee)

G.A

Just used some 99% isopropyl on my plastic model with lots of greenstuff and a resin base. It took the paint off quite easily as advertised although it struggles some with the primer. I went at it for a bit with an electric toothbrush as well as a manual and the black primer has faded some but is far from gone. For my purposes that's actually fine -- i'll just touch up the primer and be good to go! It did substantially weaken some of the glue bonds, fwiw.