Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi everyone, I was just wondering how well simple green removes paint and glue.

Will it dissolve plastic glue? How about super glue? How long will it have to sit?

I have about 30 models I need to get the paint and glue off of, will this have an effect on how long it takes if I put them all in the same simple green bath?

Typeline wrote:Hi everyone, I was just wondering how well simple green removes paint and glue.

Will it dissolve plastic glue? How about super glue? How long will it have to sit?

I have about 30 models I need to get the paint and glue off of, will this have an effect on how long it takes if I put them all in the same simple green bath?

Simple Green is the mothers milk of paint removal.

Absolutly perfect for metal models, it is a mixed blessing for plastics.

Glue? It loostens glue on metals, it does absolutly zilch for plastics. It will melt them down and warp the plastics in a matter of days, and remove your models faces.
Placing the plastic in the Bowel of simplegreen for a number of dunks, as opposed to leaving in over night has some effects, but not as a be all end all for the model.

Depending on the paint, the models, the results vary with the user.

Biggest thing to tell you is to TAKE YOUR TIME ON THE PAINT REMOVAL.
It isn't an exact science, and trying to cut corners usually lets you end up paying with screwing your figures up.

Although even the sourest lemon can be made... um... Anyways, this one guy left his guardsmen in brake fluid for seven or eight days, and what he had left at the end was useful for a panorama of Guardsmen in the throes of Nurgle's Rot.

I use Simple Green on all of my model's that need revamping/repainting.

As aforementioned, the metal model's come out very nice and clean. I usually leave Plastic models in the Simple Green for 24 to 48 hours, and have never had a problem with them melting or losing detail... however, sometimes not all of the paint comes off, but it is enough to do a nice rebase on.

-Vilegrimm

I second simple green.
I have never had it warp or melt any of my plastics before and I usually leave them in for 2 days. I havent noticed it really affect glue on plastic models before but it does make glue brittle on metals...But like Vile said, It wont get everything off but with simple green and a cheap electric toothbrush you should get enough of to be effective.
But you may notice slightly minty fresh models even after you have painted them...

I third Simple Green. I've found some primers don't come off the plastics after a soak but once washed up, dried and reprimed, I haven't had an issue.

To avoid risk of melting, you could use Dettol. (Do a search for more info)

Simple Green does NOT melt plastics! I have had about 15 or so test minis in SG for almost 2 years as an experiment, just as crisp as when they went in the first jar of it. This is old RT era SM & Space Hulk Terminators to more modern plastics.

Except for really crappy paint or primer, it basically melts the paint right off metal minis after a day or so of soaking (I do not dilute it any). Some come out shinier than when they would have been bought new, with most older ones looking really dull but otherwise like they did when first released.

On plastics, it seems to matter more what paint/primer was used on it, some come clean easy, some don't even after a long dip. The SM Terminators have some kind of weird white paint or primer that is slowly coming of, supposedly the previous owner tried to strip them in something else, so I have always wondered if it just made it harder to strip off with SG. They started with a heavy black layer that took a few months in SG to loosen most of it off.

So far I have had no pieces (that I know of) with green stuff or the like, so I don't know what Simple Green does/doesn't do to it. I do know that it will strip off the painted top layer of US pennies if given the chance.

If I get a chance, I will try to post some before and after pictures for minis I Simple Greened in the next day or so.

EDIT: Because it is easier (and I have way too many ebay specials to strip) I tend to get an empty pickle jar, fill it with minis, then fill it to the top with SG. I then have it sitting until I have time to strip stuff (which normally is a few weeks later ). One strange thing I found out since I moved, if SG is exposed to sunlight, its green color can fade but it does not affect SG's paint removing powers.

Same here - I never had a problem with SG melting plastics. I accidentially left some space marines in a tub of the stuff for about a week and lost no detail (even on the itty-bitty skulls).

I have found Simple Green to work for plastic but it softens it up.

It is more than possible there is a relationship between the chemicals in the plastic and the chemicals in the cleaner.

This thread really ought to be in Modelling.

A search in the Modelling forum will turn up several threads about stripping figures.

I've never heard of Simple Green melting plastic.

Pfft.

Castrol Super Clean all the way.

I've used CSC for years, with no damage to plastic models and far easier paint stripping than anything else.

I gotta second John. I switched to CSC about a year ago, and I haven't looked back.

It's funny, I had a few plastic tacticals that I got secondhand sitting in CSC for the past 4+ months. I intended to strip them overnight, and never got around to it...

Over the weekend, I decided I was going to finish stripping a few Tallarn minis I got secondhand, and opened the jar to find the Tacticals I'd forgotten about.

I fished them out, scrubbed them down, and they're ready to go.

Tossed in the metals, and scrubbed them, too. So all-in-all, a good, productive weekend.

It won't take off all the paint, but enough to re-paint. Don't forget to wash the simple green of really good before you ret to repaint them.

i have used Pinesol and Simple Green in the past and have found them to work ok but not great. Pinsol will melt plastics after sitting too long and Simple Green takes too long and does soften them a bit. I have started using Purple Power which can be bought at Walmart in the auto section (thats where i got mine). a 5gal jug for $10 and it is completely reusable.

i tested PP vs SG to see how long it took to strip models. i took some rhino doors i had primed and painted and put one in PP and one in SG. the one in PP IMMEDIATELY started to have the paint come off (atleast the inks did). a soak overnight and i took the doors out and scrubbed them and then rinsed while scrubbing. the paint on the SG door came off but the primer was still on. the PP door had all of the paint gone and the primer almost entirely came off.

i have since then been stripping everything in the Purple Power. i have a plastic tub i filled up and i toss models and vehicles in and pull them out later. i have stripped stuff that was primed in GW black, white green and red. everything comes off to nearly bare plastic. GW black primer is the only one that has given me trouble, it comes off but not as much, it stains the color of the plastic but it is still smooth and easy to reprime again.

i have also stripped models that have been sitting around painted for years. and PP is also great for removing FW resin release agent.

Purple Power is a bit harsher than Simple Green, it will dry your skin out and it does burn slightly if you have open cuts. wear gloves to protect your hands. PP also does not smell as much as Pinsol or SG. so no stinking up the house.

perhaps if i get some time i'll take pictures of what PP can do to your models as i have been stripping chaos vehicles and have examples of what is left from a GW white primer and a GW black primer.

I'm guessing that "Purple Power" is the new name for Castol Super Clean...

heh i just switched from castrol super clean to simple green.

castrol super clean works about the same as far as i can tell (of course, i tend to leave plastics in overnight anyways). But castrol super clean does bad things to marble counter top (where i brush the models off with an old toothbrush under running water).

it left little craters, so my countertop looks like it was hit by a tyrannid bio weapon :/

Wow, that's the true power of CSC then!

Maybe you should brush the models in a wash basin. Or deeper in the sink?

So far, I have only had SG strip off the copper plating of Pennies attached to the bottom of bases and loosen/completely remove most glues. It also makes cleaning up the stripping area a snap since it is already a cleaning product.

Sorry about no pics yet but I can't find the Before pics.

Something to keep in mind.
Simple Green jellies epoxy.
Great for taking apart 80's leads, bad for any conversion work.

Belphegor wrote:
Simple Green jellies epoxy.

Would this jelly be simple to remove?

Yep, very easy. especially with a dental tool (costs about 2 dollars at a hardware store)
You need to soak the model for at least a couple of days.

Other tests I've done:
all in straight simple green
I've soaked models for 11 months or so, the pewter changes color (gets darker and a bit molted), but other wise unharmed.
Plastic the same amount of time, no softening.

I've reused it until the reactions with 'stripping' paints.
It's invective when brown.

Also I've had the best results with a 5 day dip
(minis completely submerged in a sealed ball jar)
rinse them off with water
with a scrub with a old tooth brush
and a second 2 day dip for plastics

use pins and dental tools to gently pick out the soft paint from the details
best to do this when the paint is still 'wet'
also blue tack is helpful for grabbing the paint out of details as well

oh and ALWAYS use gloves, ALWAYS
Simple green EATS organic material, that is why its a strong cleaner
if anyone says otherwise, ignore them
when first working with it I got lazy, didn't wear gloves and hand joint pain in my hand for a week
just buy a box of surgical gloves, it's about 10 dollars for 50

Also if your looking to get super glue off of metal models:
Boil them, it make super glue brittle and easy to snap off
(for plastics, your just stuck as heat will warp them)

Plastic glue 'melts' the plastic together, so you'd have to cut the joints
be careful, since that bonded area will be a different density (a bit harder) so it won't cut the same as the rest of the model

Grot 6 wrote:

Typeline wrote:Hi everyone, I was just wondering how well simple green removes paint and glue.

Will it dissolve plastic glue? How about super glue? How long will it have to sit?

I have about 30 models I need to get the paint and glue off of, will this have an effect on how long it takes if I put them all in the same simple green bath?

Simple Green is the mothers milk of paint removal.

Absolutly perfect for metal models, it is a mixed blessing for plastics.

Glue? It loostens glue on metals, it does absolutly zilch for plastics. It will melt them down and warp the plastics in a matter of days, and remove your models faces.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Im going to disagree with most of the guys in this thread

for Metal mini's use Acetone , it will take the paint right off and melts superglue to nothing , it also evaporates clean so its good for getting solvents off and no need to wash the minis after stripping. Acetone will however melt a plastic model in less than 20 seconds. ( which makes it great for takeing bases off metal fig , well at least bases you don't want anymore).

For plastic I would use Prestone Dot 3 Brake Fluid.
you can soak plastic in it for weeks with no ill effects ( makes the plastic slight more brittle but PS is somewhat soft to start so nothing big) it will melt super glue , and after an over night soak even the thickest paint will come off. It not very skin friendly and you need to wear gloves ( if it gets into an open cut it can cause nasty damage to tendons), but for paint stripping it works like a champ.

both of them will need you to use a tooth brush to get into the details to get the paint out.

neither of the two strippers i mentioned are enviromentally friendly, On the other hand they ACTUALLY work , unlike simple green or pin-sol which just basicly pretend to take paint off.

@Narlix: I've stripped dozens, if not hundreds of minis using Castrol Super Clean.

CSC works as well as, if not better than, any of the nasty stuff (i.e. acetone / brake fluid).

simple green does not pretend to get paint off, the paint is no longer on the model
(plus simple green can not pretend, since it is a non-sentient fluid)

Narlix, I have stripped many of my old metal minis with simple green.
both pewter and lead
its a lot safer than acetone,
and for mixed models (like the old eagle armor space marines) it doesn't destroy their arms

the only time paint on plastic seems to be a problem for simple green seems to be when the prime binds to the plastic

getting rid of brake fluid is a pain, since you can't responsibly pour it down the drain, same goes for acetone in large quantities
plus fumes

I've restored about 160 models with simple green and boiling (for super glued metals)
with cleanup, eco-responsibility and personal safety combined simple green wins out compared to the other choices.


Narlix, how do you dispose of your brake fluid?

@Belphegor - I assume he simply drinks it.

Belphegor wrote:oh and ALWAYS use gloves, ALWAYS
Simple green EATS organic material, that is why its a strong cleaner
if anyone says otherwise, ignore them
when first working with it I got lazy, didn't wear gloves and hand joint pain in my hand for a week
just buy a box of surgical gloves, it's about 10 dollars for 50

Weird, I work with SG for a few hours at a time without gloves and have never had it cause my hands to hurt in anyway (ok, one time I worked with it so long, my fingers and hands got all "pruney" like I had been in the bath way too long).

Attached are some pictures to show you the results of SG. The upper two are "For Sale" shots taken by the seller. Note, all the silver/grey ones are heavily primed and not base/bare metal. The red terminator and the blue CSM were sent back to the SG because they did not fully lose their crappy primer and/or base coast to my satisfaction. The bottom picture shows my last batch of striped minis (note: they are not really that grey/tarnished looking in RL, I just could not get a good balance between flash and light to make them look like they do in RL). I could not find the pictures of the painted RT01 plastics but the paint jobs were bad, very bad! I forgot to place a normal penny next to the stripped pennies, sorry.