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Welp, I've read a lot of ideas people have about this so thought would do a three part experiment.

Stage 1. Test bits of (warhammer 40K grey plastic) sprue material in a range of solvents to assess damage (if any) caused.
Pictured is (left to right) Methelated spirits, hardware store acetone, Neat simple green, hardware store turpentine
After shopping tomorrow I will add dettol and listerine (ethanol?) any other suggestions?

Pictures of 24, 48 hours, and one week will be posted.
sprue with no dammage will progress the solvent to stage 2a and 2b

Stage 2a: superglue test
solvents that pass stage one will be tested on fresh sprue joinedtogether with ca/superglue that has cured for at least 8 hours
At this stage I will also add:
a)vinegar soak
b)detergent and water soak
c)oil (canola?) soak

Stage 2b: paint test
new bits of sprue will be painted with (rattlecan)
a) grey etch primer
b)grey etch primer + several coats of acrylic cured at least 12 hours
C)grey etch primer + several coats of acrylic cured at least 12 hours +2 coats of matt clearcoat

The desired result is to acertain which solvent/s to use to safely (no plastic damage):
a) strip models quickly/easily/cheaply without breaking superglue
b)strip models quickly/easily/cheaply andbreaking superglue to reduce them to components safely

I just recently did some stripping and ungluing of a few old metal figures, using Fairy power spray.

Worked a treat, but apparently I can't buy this anywhere anymore, and the formula changed to something that doesn't work.

So this will be interesting to observe, especially as it's with plastics.

24 hour update

FAILS
Acetone - melted to goo within 4 hours - shook the jar and grey puddle wont move off the bottom

Turpentine - less obvious dammage - looked bloated and a bit melty - shook the jar and it went to tiny strings like egg in water, or melted cheese

Still in contention

Simple Green - no dammage

Methelated spirits - no dammage

Adding

Classic listerine mouth wash - mostly ethanol and water

Neat (undiluted) Dettol [expensive, but someone said it works)

I assume my newly addeds wont be as agressive as the simple green and meths, so assuming no change I will start the superglue tests tomorrow evening and paint/varnish tests later in the week once it is all dry.

Zep Purple is the best stuff in the states if you have similar to try (hardware store degreaser).

skarsol wrote:
Zep Purple is the best stuff in the states if you have similar to try (hardware store degreaser).

@skarsol Do you mean for stripping paint, or breaking superglue? :-)

Aw, yeah! We're doing science in here!

I've used straight acetone in the past to free some metal eBay rescues from their prisons of superglue.

Frozenthunderbolt wrote:

skarsol wrote:
Zep Purple is the best stuff in the states if you have similar to try (hardware store degreaser).

@skarsol Do you mean for stripping paint, or breaking superglue? :-)

Mainly for paint, but it also tends to turn super glue gummy, which makes it easy to remove.

skarsol wrote:

Frozenthunderbolt wrote:

skarsol wrote:
Zep Purple is the best stuff in the states if you have similar to try (hardware store degreaser).

@skarsol Do you mean for stripping paint, or breaking superglue? :-)

Mainly for paint, but it also tends to turn super glue gummy, which makes it easy to remove.

Interesting, it mostly seems to be sodium hydroxide (lye) a powerful caustic base - something that I'm familiar to using from soapmaking, I may be able to integrate this idea.

By the by, I Glued up some sprue with CA glue tonight to pop into solutions tomorrow night. Nothing else I have tried has melted sprue so so far so good

I've got some models I'm having a heck of a time stripping. The primer just isn't coming off even after repeated days in Dettol and being scrubbed.

I used Meths in desperation. 10 min didn't work. 4hrs didn't work. Over night didn't work. 2 days stained the plastic purple. Oops

Still not effective at removing all primer.

There is nothing on the market that I have found that removes primer. Sometimes it depends on the primer (brush, airbrush, rattle can), sometimes how long the model has been painted. Sometimes the primer stains the plastic, thus it will never 'come off'.

In those cases, I have stripped the model to the primer, and then reprimed. Most times enough material has been stripped that I have a smooth surface to work with.

In the US, I have found that LA's Totally Awesome cleaner from the dollar store (yellow) has been the most consistent in stripping plastics. For metals, I go with straight Pine Sol. Though I have been noticing less efficacy recently, which means formulas must be changing to take out the harsh stuff (you know, the stuff that strips paint).

Any of the above seems that to weaken super glue, at least the models I strip seem to fall apart when scrubbing off the paint.

The toughest strip I did recently was a metal Mordheim soldier that my son had painted gold. Just gold paint. I tried solvents, Simple Green, LA's, Purple Power, and Pine Sol, in many cases left multiple days. I eventually got it down to metal, but still has gold paint in the crevices. And that wasn't primed. I think strippers aren't as effective any more. Or paints are becoming more tenacious. LoL

 Cruentus wrote:
For metals, I go with straight Pine Sol. Though I have been noticing less efficacy recently, which means formulas must be changing to take out the harsh stuff (you know, the stuff that strips paint).

Interesting, I noticed pin sol has been lacking lately too.

 Cruentus wrote:
There is nothing on the market that I have found that removes primer. Sometimes it depends on the primer (brush, airbrush, rattle can), sometimes how long the model has been painted. Sometimes the primer stains the plastic, thus it will never 'come off'.

Spoiler:

In those cases, I have stripped the model to the primer, and then reprimed. Most times enough material has been stripped that I have a smooth surface to work with.

In the US, I have found that LA's Totally Awesome cleaner from the dollar store (yellow) has been the most consistent in stripping plastics. For metals, I go with straight Pine Sol. Though I have been noticing less efficacy recently, which means formulas must be changing to take out the harsh stuff (you know, the stuff that strips paint).

Any of the above seems that to weaken super glue, at least the models I strip seem to fall apart when scrubbing off the paint.

The toughest strip I did recently was a metal Mordheim soldier that my son had painted gold. Just gold paint. I tried solvents, Simple Green, LA's, Purple Power, and Pine Sol, in many cases left multiple days. I eventually got it down to metal, but still has gold paint in the crevices. And that wasn't primed. I think strippers aren't as effective any more. Or paints are becoming more tenacious. LoL

Sadly i think you are correct. I don't really like these models but they were really badly painted. Want them in my new colours. Will just brush them back as far as I can and hope for the best.

I found brake fluid (dot3) to work.
The stuff that goes in your brake LINES, not the stuff to CLEAN the brakes. It's usually a bluey liquid.
Cons: Must wear PPE (gloves, goggs, probably a mask, as the fumes can be bad. It also feths with your joints with long exposure, which is why older mechanics have stuffed hands). Can't be poured down the sink, so become friends with a mechanic. They have disposal drums that get picked up for disposal.

Pros: Strips acrylics, strips enamels, strips primer to bare metal. Even etch primer (but etch primer will stain the model).
You will still need some pointy picks to get paint out of crevices, but it works.

Regular acrylic paint (like GW, Army painter, Vallejo, tamiya, etc) comes off with alcohols. Methylated spirits, pure ethanol or isopropanol all work. Will also need a scrub and gloves/goggs are recommended as you don't want any of this stuff in your eyes.

 Cruentus wrote:
There is nothing on the market that I have found that removes primer.

Depends on the primer. I was able to strip the pre-primed Nolzur’s D&D minis (Vallejo surface primer) with LA’s Totally Awesome after soaking it for a week and occasionally scrubbing with a toothbrush.

But while LA’s was able to strip the paint off some old plastic Space Marins I bought used, it did nothing to the black rattle-can primer. I switched to the purple Castrol Super Clean, which did only slightly better: some models with a thin coat of spray primer were partially stripped, but most showed no improvement.

That’s when I pulled out the big guns: an ultrasonic cleaner. Filled it with the purple Castrol Super Clean, and with a half-dozen 10-minute cycles, the heavy black rattle-can primer was gone.

 Bold wrote:


That’s when I pulled out the big guns: an ultrasonic cleaner.

not more toys I need to get for my toys :-D

Castrol Super Clean in the states works better than anything I've tried. It will remove most primer as well. Usually takes 3-7 days and it will break down Superglue.

If you just want to break superglue bonds and dont want to strip paint just stick the minis in your freezer overnight. Super glue hates being frozen, becomes as brittle as glass.

If it’s for metals then you really can’t go wrong with nail polish remover (avoid the acetone free stuff)

Strips paint, superglue and epoxy based glues/putties within half an hour.
It’s also only £1 per bottle (or less) and available just about everywhere in the UK.

Sadly even the acetone free stuff eats plastic, so no good for that.

Only downsides is the smell can be fairly strong depending on the brand and you need to wear gloves or it strips a few layers of skin after 10 mins cleaning.

I use a stripper from greenstuff world in a half an hour it gets rid of all acrylic and primer from model and you can as a rule reuse it plenty of times

Jackal90 wrote:
If it’s for metals then you really can’t go wrong with nail polish remover (avoid the acetone free stuff)

Strips paint, superglue and epoxy based glues/putties within half an hour.
It’s also only £1 per bottle (or less) and available just about everywhere in the UK.

Sadly even the acetone free stuff eats plastic, so no good for that.

Only downsides is the smell can be fairly strong depending on the brand and you need to wear gloves or it strips a few layers of skin after 10 mins cleaning.

For my metals I use straight up acetone from a building supply shop.

Kayback wrote:

Jackal90 wrote:
If it’s for metals then you really can’t go wrong with nail polish remover (avoid the acetone free stuff)

Strips paint, superglue and epoxy based glues/putties within half an hour.
It’s also only £1 per bottle (or less) and available just about everywhere in the UK.

Sadly even the acetone free stuff eats plastic, so no good for that.

Only downsides is the smell can be fairly strong depending on the brand and you need to wear gloves or it strips a few layers of skin after 10 mins cleaning.

For my metals I use straight up acetone from a building supply shop.

While that works amazingly the smell it throws out can be insanely strong.
I’ve used it once and even with good ventilation it was a bit too strong.
It’s almost essential for stripping enamel paint though from metals.

I got some older metallic Tau units from ebay. Had to go through similar exploration of which stuff works. Ended up acetobe being the best stuff I got my hands on.

Used them on unit of xv15 and first version of broadsuit. Was bit suprised to find that "metal" broadsuit was actually only partially metal : D Not wanting to waste parts left over I am planning to use them to moder crisis suit frame and make bit like jury rigged broadsuit.

Fictional wrote:
I just recently did some stripping and ungluing of a few old metal figures, using Fairy power spray.

Worked a treat, but apparently I can't buy this anywhere anymore, and the formula changed to something that doesn't work.

So this will be interesting to observe, especially as it's with plastics.

I’ve started using cif eco refil pods. Put it in a pod and dilute. Best part is you can make a stronger mixture that you would get in a spray bottle. I haven’t seen fairy for ages either.

Been awhile, but the purple cleaner (Super Clean, Purple Power, etc.) worked best for me, as did Isopropyl Alcohol 90%.

I heard Simple Green changed its formula to isoproyl alcohol. But Isopropyl Alcohol at 70% didn't work well.

No luck with freezing and superglue, but I'll try it again.

Most of the time, though, I'll just paint over the figure, partial stripping or no stripping.