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LO folks,
I recently recieved my stuff from the TGG kickstarter but unfortunatly the stuff is really badly cowered in whatever it is they use for to make them easy to remove from the mold. I know it's that and not uncured resing because washing them with warm water and soap does help... somewhat. But after scrubbing them for hours I still havent gotten all the stuff of, does anyone know of a better way?

Toothpaste and an old toothbrush.

It's a very fine abrasive that can work (it did for some particularly stubborn release agent on some FW stuff I had).

A soap with a higher degreaser (Limonene) content such as Swarfega, or a dish washing liquid.
Normal liquid hand soap will only do a little, you need a degreaser.

A degreaser would be what you're after, but given the flag by your username, I don't know what would be available to you.

One thing I like to use when cleaning my resin models is a sonic cleaner. That seems to take a lot of the work out of it for me.

How strong one are we talking the stuff you use to get asphalt of cars is to strong I guess? How about the stuff you pour down the drain to unclog the pipes? Or should I go easier laundry soap or dishwasher soap first perhaps?

Nothing so dramatic, you'll just want to look at the ingredients on the back of the bottle. You're in Europe, so your declarations will be the same as ours.

I'll tag in my partner, a chemist who develops cleaning products for a job, to say what to look for.

Do not use drain cleaner, that will more than likely have things in it that dissolve solids.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Nothing so dramatic, you'll just want to look at the ingredients on the back of the bottle. You're in Europe, so your declarations will be the same as ours.

I'll tag in my partner, a chemist who develops cleaning products for a job, to say what to look for.

Do not use drain cleaner, that will more than likely have things in it that dissolve solids.

OK, I'm the afore-mentioned chemist. The release agent is actually reasonably easy to remove. A lot of people that have problems with it are actually generating their own issues by using the wrong materials and then depositing other chemicals on the surface of the model. What you want is something with a decent amount of surfactant in, but here's the thing. You don't have to find an expensive cleaner with loads and loads of surfactant in, just buy a cheap one and use more in your water (you're not going to be using it undiluted). Bear with me...

My favourite type of surfactants for this kind of job are non-ionic ones. Your detergent will say on the label "Contains 5-15% nonionic surfactant" or similar. Second to nonionics are anionic surfactants, they're not as good, but will still work. You might need to soak a little longer or use the previously mentioned toothbrush (gently - chemical removaal should be possible).

What you want to avoid like the plague is anything with cationic surfactants. These WILL deposit on the surface and can give a wax-like water repelling effect.

As to the products to use from your local supermarket, firstly, look to buying 'own brands' rather than the big names. One thing about own brands is they are not stuffed full of expensive extra materials that don't do much other than let them put "Now with XXXX!" on the label! The two things I'd look for are hard surface cleaners such as floor or work surface cleaners and hand dishwashing liquids (not machine dishwashers), they'll have anionics. For hard surface cleaners, avoid bactericidal ones as they will often have cationic surfactants in them.

In either case, once you have your product, get a container full of warm (not hot) water, and add a couple of cap fulls of product (hard to be specific withoit knowing how much water you have). Soak if for an hour or so, then rinse, replace the solution and repeat. If absolutely necessary then use the toothbrush approach, but seriously, you can get by without that.

I hope that's of some help.

My fingers thank you The aforementioned dish soap is 5-15% anionic surfactant and 0-5 nonionic one. But i found a bottle of the second most common detergent in sweden (Ajax allrengöringsmedel for any swedes that come looking for the same info) that seems to fit your description. So what diluted 1:10 or something?

That fiirst one should be fine; I'd say go with the cheapest! Use warm water and 5%-ish ought to do the trick. Swish it around, then leave it to soak. Give it the occasional swish, then pour away and repeat. Always worked for me for over 20 years!

Yeah except yes on the repeat part, left it to soak for ten hours yesterday and some of the minis still look like someone poured oil over them. That said a lot of the minis were visibly better, I'm goign to up the concentration and try again.

 TheDungen wrote:
Yeah except yes on the repeat part, left it to soak for ten hours yesterday and some of the minis still look like someone poured oil over them. That said a lot of the minis were visibly better, I'm goign to up the concentration and try again.

If it really is THAT thick, then you probably will need the toothbrush!

That's the thing it doesn't look thick, it just doesn't come of properly.

Bur maybee I'm just paranoid maybee I've gotten enough of that the paint will stick now? Or are theysuposed to get all matte before paint'll stick to them?

No, resin sometimes just looks shiny. Some of the Forgeworld pieces can be as glossy as varnish when clean.
Some other companies look much more matt. I had one recently that looks like sugar candy. I think it depends on the materials.

I used to work for a resin manufacturer and the the stuff we used to remove this type of gunk from resin was basically acetone. The other thing I'd like to point out is that not all gunk on resin minis is release agent!
When resin cures it is actually styrene that is on the surface. Cast anything in resin and most surfaces will come out shiny and in that state useless to try and paint on.
Acetone will remove most surface mess better than any hot soapy water and most cleaning products also.
The only thing to bear in mind with dipping resin models in acetone;don't leave them in too long(30 seconds at most) and check on scrap bits of the resin first to see the reaction to the acetone! Many different types of resin will result in many different types of reaction!
Acetone will remove the shine and leave a good matt surface.

I use always liquid hand soap and an old toothbrush... is that the wrong way to do it?

If the hand soap and toothbrush work(you have a surface that takes the paint no problem) then keep using it!

Well the paint sticks somewhat well now, So I tried assembly just to find that all the smaller parts still can't hold on to their paint.
Byt it works relativly fine so i'll just repair it and be careful while painting then dip them in so much gloss varnish that it holds the paint in place no matter what.

Sadly it seems I've managed to lose a few parts while cleaning the minis :( My usual luck.

Matt varnish then primer/basecoat holds the paint on well, even if it's still a little shiny after washing. I had the issue with my Elysians where even after washing some paint would run off, but the varnish cured it.

I'll go for that next should my method fail.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Has anyone tried to actually add small amounts of matte varnish to the primer? Considering varnish's ability to stick to anything it might actualy help the basecoat to hold on to the mini.