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I just wanted to share a tip that I received at my FLGS, and one that I have not heard mentioned online. I have heard many ideas for stripping paint from a model: Simple Green, acetone, brake fluid, and just about everything else you could think of. The tip at my game store was pretty simple. Go to the local Wal-Mart, pick up a bottle of Dawn Power Dissolver, soak the model for a night, apply water and toothbrush.

After trying many of the previous suggestions, this one was simply magical. I have often recommended it, but I don't know if anybody on here tried it yet. So I wanted to post a quick example.

Here is my test model:



Over the course of the weekend I started out with a metal model that was spray painted white about a year ago. To give it the worst case scenario I decided that the model clearly was not white enough, so I gave it a second heavy coat of white. The next day I decided that white is not okay before Memorial Day, so I gave it a heavy coat of black instead. Then I painted it with some nice thick non-diluted coat of GW foundation colors, and then a second coat just to give it a nice chance of failure. Of course I also applied a coat of dullcoate to protect my awesome paint job. I tried to impersonate a model that you may have picked up on eBay, or maybe a model your 5 year old painted.

Here is the magic:



Pick it up at your local Wal-Mart! Made for stuff that you put your food on, so compared to a lot of other solutions it is a pretty non-toxic option. I dump mine in a plastic container:



Once you are ready to strip some paint, simply dump your model into the solution:



I usually let them soak overnight, but I dumped this model into the paint at 6am, and decided to clean it 6 hours later:




3 coats of spray paint, 2 coats of brush on paint, a coat of varnish, and 6 hours of soaking. Give it a try people, I swear by this stuff.

Edit 1/23/14:

Finecast update!

I got my tub of DPD to strip an old dread today, and it appears that I left a couple of models in there that I had forgotten about. I have absolutely no idea how long they have been in there, but it has been at least a couple of months.

The metal mini is perfectly fine and shining like new after a light brushing under runny water.
A third-party resin model is also clean, but it feels "soft" now. You could push your fingernail against it and leave a mark.

The Finecast Terminator Librarian arm is definitely clean but...



You can bend and twist it like it's a toy. This is pretty much just me rubbing it between my fingers.

Now the interesting part is that it doesn't look like it lost any detail at all, it just feels like it turned to rubber. I'm going to see how this stuff acts now that it is out of the PDP, but I'm just going to guess that it won't get back to being a solid material...

Looks like it works quickly and thoroughly. My wife would kill me if I left our sink in that condition.

It's the hobby sink, so models are just chilling there. It does get cleaned though.

I wish I had this kind of stuff in Portugal. :(

Do you soak it in simply the dawn product itself, or do you mix it with water in a solution?

I just soak it in the pure stuff out of the bottle, never had it do any harm.

Have you tried it on plastic or finecast yet?

~Vryce

 Vryce wrote:
Have you tried it on plastic or finecast yet?

~Vryce

Haven't done Finecast, but never had any problems with plastic.

I've done finecast and you just don't want to leave it in there for more than a day. I still swear by DPD

It really is amazingly tough and gentle at the same time.

Wow only 6 hours?

Ive heard of using awsome from the 99 cent store. Get the bottle with the sprayer spray and scrub.

thanks for this, curious if the same friend of mine who recommended this to me at the FLGS might have recommended it to you! ha.

+1 for interest on how it affects fine cast or more specifically forgeworld resin, as my brand spankin new squig gobba didn't get all the way stripped with LA totally awesome after a bad priming.. stiill has blue in all the crevices >.<

I cannot find this stuff at walmart in canada >>


for metals ive found OFF bug spray to work wonders

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/540218.page

currently testing if safe for plastics

tried the super dawn power dissolver stuff on FW models. worked great!

no issues

even did a SDE turtle in this stuff for about 5 hours and it came clean of some bad white spray primer.

tossed the rest of the turtles in the goop last night, and will wash after work today.

this stuff works wonders! i had to go to 2 different walmarts to find it though. It was not with the cache of dawn products at walmart on the dish cleaning stuff aisle, but was over in housewares with general purpose cleaners.


this stuff DOES leave some crazy goop. stringy and what not. i mean, its a little gross fishing minis out of this gak! boy does it work good though!

I live in Oztralia, do you know what the ingredient is? Like the active ingredient (Image is a little too blurry to read)

I couldn't actually find an ingredient list on the bottle, maybe I'm just blind. I did find this:

http://www.whatsinproducts.com//files/brands_pdf/16003618%20MSDS%20Dawn%20Power%20Dissolver.pdf

I also found a new use for this stuff, but I don't know if its recommended. If I am doing some priming with spray paints and end up with some paint on my fingers and hands I usually just dip them in my DPD bucket and it washes right off.

Ah thanks very much! This helps a lot. My guess is that it is the caustic soda common in many stripping techniques (haha) that helps remove paint off models.

EDIT: It is also listed as a skin irritant

 voxplayer wrote:
I've done finecast and you just don't want to leave it in there for more than a day. I still swear by DPD

Finecast update!

I got my tub of DPD to strip an old dread today, and it appears that I left a couple of models in there that I had forgotten about. I have absolutely no idea how long they have been in there, but it has been at least a couple of months.

The metal mini is perfectly fine and shining like new after a light brushing under runny water.
A third-party resin model is also clean, but it feels "soft" now. You could push your fingernail against it and leave a mark.

The Finecast Terminator Librarian arm is definitely clean but...



You can bend and twist it like it's a toy. This is pretty much just me rubbing it between my fingers.

Now the interesting part is that it doesn't look like it lost any detail at all, it just feels like it turned to rubber. I'm going to see how this stuff acts now that it is out of the PDP, but I'm just going to guess that it won't get back to being a solid material...

I've used Power Dissolver for the last 6 months, and won't use anything else now. Its so quick, easy and reliable. I've used it on plastic, metal and resin.


That said ... it did mess with some Bones minis I left in (accidentally) for a week - totally killed the glue that was used to bond the parts together. Easy enough to fix, and a pretty minor downside. And usually I don't let minis sit that long. Otherwise, great stuff.