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Some of you know this already, so this is old beans, but for those who haven't tried super clean yet.... read on. I know that you could read articles on this and suggestions, but I am writing this with the perspective of someone trying out a product for the first time. So, the product on trial is Super Clean!

I used to stand by two products. Simple green and turpentine. I'd do all of my metals in turpentine to strip them, It might take several trials, but in the end I got excellent and pleasing results (even If the paint remained dreid on after the scrubbing, the slightest effort with a pick saw me peeling away strips). All said and told, the effectiveness was about the same between simple green and turpentine for time and effort, with the exception that turpentine was better at getting the basecoat as well. I was having trouble cleaning off the primer with simple green.... Obviously, i could also only ever toss my plastics into simple green.

Now, my girlfriend just got into 40k, and decided to go for eldar. As it happened I had an army of used eldar sitting on hand on the bottom of my list, so what I decided was to go and cleaning. Problem was it had superglue as well that needed removing. I remember hearing or reading often that superclean will attack superglue as well. Now, whether or not that is the case, right now, is irrelevant. I will get back to you on the superglue in..........26 odd hours if things work out. Anyway..

I went and bought some superclean today..... definately not cheap stuff. I know that simple green was much cheaper, so unsure of how the product would work, I went and got the least I could. I took a small tub, filled it with parts, and added superclean... Now... I tossed an avatar in, that had red paint on him. When I say the effect was instantaneous, I really do mean the effect was instantaneous. The tub was half-filled with superclean, nad it was already pretty darn red from that avatar. I pulled the part of the avatar out after having been in for only 10 seconds, and gave it a rinse. It was immediately visible on the avatar that parts of the paintjob had lost color. Instead of being a brilliant red, it was more of a drab orange.

Final assessment?
After 10 minutes of sitting in the container with the superclean, the effect was comparable to having sat 10 days in simple green. Superclean is more expensive, but so far it's doing a much better job. Not only is it tearing through paint with gusto, primer lifts off of the models like soaking a greasy pot in the kitchen. After 10 minutes, I'm sold on it. PLEASE TAKE NOTE! Super Clean is corrosive! use all the precautions indicated on the container you buy it from, including but not limited to wearing safety glasses, gloves, and working in a well ventilated area!

Upcoming reports:
-effect on superglue
-effect on plastics

Cool! I think its corrosive nature is what will keep me from using it though, cant exactly put it down the drain where I live and I dont want o kill mself with fumes lol

chaos0xomega wrote:Cool! I think its corrosive nature is what will keep me from using it though, cant exactly put it down the drain where I live and I dont want o kill mself with fumes lol

DON'T put it down the drain. I keep a second tub around, I put a seive over it and pour into it. This way it catches everything as its poured over, and does a bit of filtering, and I hold onto all of my chemicals. There's no point letting it down the drain. Depending on where you live, from here on, giving the left over parts a rinse should be okay.. In any case you can collect unusable chemicals in a seal-able container. Once thats full, you should be able to take it to your local fire-depot for disposal.

The advice I got from my local council with this sort of stuff was to let it evaporate.

blah, i completely neglected to report back on this...

Well, the assement on plastic is it's still a miracle product. I've now stripped an entire bloody army inside a single small container of Superclean. I've not witnessed the plastic going soft, so you should be okay with putting your plastics in for a while and forgetting about it. Cannot comment on resin, though...theoretically, it should all be fine, and I'd love to test it out using at least the resin sprues, but seeing as I have none and lack any sort of need to buy resin products, it's unlikely i will be commenting on this.

When I say I've cleaned an army in a tub of this, i really do mean i've stripped an army. think of something along the lines of 355ml of the stuff managed to burn through 1500 points and it's still got some corrosiveness to it. It's soaked up a lot of paint color into-itself and turned a lovely shade of disgusting, but it continues to devour paint off of models. I've even tested models that had already been stripped by Simple Green into superclean (now, these are models with my first ever paintjobs, so the paint was caked on pretty good) and even these "finished" strips saw a dramatic improvement after a treatment in superclean.

I've not noticed any amazing effect on superglue though. Some deterioration occurs, and it's easier to remove the superglue, but it doesn't magictastically dissolve into not-superglue. Still, it does eat into it and makes it easier to remove.


My final assessment of superclean is obvious, i deem it to be a superior product for stripping in comparison to simple green. That said, I would like to caveat this, and suggest that mayhaps the particular package of simple green contains a lower concentration of active chemichals. I've noticed both of the compounds exude more or less the same chemical stink.

i use Super Clean exclusively and have tried many things including Pine Sol, Simple Green and Purple Power.

Super Clean is the best option by far. It is also not that expensive. you can get a 5 gallon jug at Walmart for $15-17.

it will take you a LONG time to get through all of that.

Now go to over some points you have mentioned and clarify/shed light on others.

It does work pretty fast. if you soak something for a day it will generally be able to be scrubbed of paint and primer. Some primers take a bit longer but will come off eventaully (car primer included!).

the cleaning power does degrade over time but i have been able to still clean stuff 100% with 4 month old fluid, it just takes longer.

Super Clean will not harm plastics, metals or Resin (FW or other). i have had models sitting in super clean for months with no negative results, just cleaner models.

I also use my Super Clean in an ultrasonic cleaner which only accellerates the cleaning process as well as increases its cleaning effectiveness as it can scrub every spot on a model.

Super Clean also weakens glue, especally CA glue. It will turn it white and make it brittle. Most of the time your model will fall apart in your hand or while you are washing it off.

Super Clean does contain alkalines and it is a bit abrasive to the skin. Wear rubber gloves when handeling. even if you do not, you really have to have your hands in contact with it for a decent amount of time to get a burn.

Super Clean is also biodegradeable, which i presume makes it more safe for disposal.

Super clean also doubles as a pipe cleaner so as long a its not filthy when you dump it down the drain your pipes should be relatively clog free.

Its not that much if you look at how much you get. I think Walmart sells the stuff for $7 for a 2.5 gallon jug. It will take you a long time to go through that much of the purple stuff.

It says on the side of the package for the Super Clean that it will unclog pipes. If you can't dump it down your drain, how would you unclog the pipe? Just saying that they indicate on the side of their product that it can be used to unclog pipes. The EPA (aka US Brown Coats) would not let them make such a claim if it would hurt the environment.

@boyd Probably bad for the groundwater bro... Noted above.

@Poda_t What version of superclean did you use? I ask because I notice you're also in Canada and when I tried it, I had different results.

Ulterior wrote:@Poda_t What version of superclean did you use? I ask because I notice you're also in Canada and when I tried it, I had different results.

I got it from walmart at the automotive section. I think the trick is that the cleaners/degreasers from there are quite a bit better than the ones located elsewhere. I got my Simple Green from Canadian Tire from the painting section, which may have something to do with it, as there is also a different package of simple green in the automotive section. Try out the automotive variant, it's about 2-4 times more expensive, but ~~300 ml of superclean did what about 1 liter of simple green did.

edit: i meant to say that the cleaners from the automotive section in general, as opposed to the cleaners in the painting section.

I ought to caveat this that this experience is with removing acrylic paints, there are other things that may not work so well....

I have also used super clean, and have to say that my experiences match the majority of the comments here.

Although, I will say I still run into some minis that are difficult to strip - must just be the variety of primers I run into (I strip a lot of old stuff I get off ebay).

It can irritate the skin, but not like "OMG!!!" more like after handling it for a while the skin is irritated - I do agree that gloves are a good idea.