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i read in foroums that i can use brake fluid in order to Strip plastic models.
if any of you had tried that and worked please let me know.
thanks.
epidemious

Yeah, you can. Some dont lik it because its not environmentally friendly (brake fluid is pretty rough stuff, use gloves to handle), but it works pretty well. Usually takes about 12-24 hours to really eat up the paint on the plastic. I dumped a bunch of models into brake fluid about 2 weeks ago. Had to let them sit as I was called out not long after I did it. I'll post up what kind of condition they are in when I get back. I'm hoping they arent trashed, I've never left them in this long. I had one poster here tell me he'd left some models in it for a year or some such and they cam out generally well. We'll see about mine.

you can put all your models in,no matter if they are plastic,metal or resin.

use an old toothbtush to remove all the paint that is left

ok.and one more thing:
touching the fluid with bare hands causes skin problems ?

I've used brake fluid before, can't say I was a big fan. It smelled bad and damaged the plastic models I put in. Granted, I left it in for too long because it wasn't taking off the paint I wanted to remove... so I guess that's three strikes. It worked eventually but not before destroying a few space marines. I much prefer cleaner/degreaser agents, I swapped to a Simple Green knockoff myself. IMO, use a degreaser. Brake fluid just isn't worth it.

ok ...
but i won't die by touching it

I handled it with my bare hands without issue. It might be corrosive but not enough to be noticeable over the half hour you'll be working with it.

You 'probably' wont die. But its best to wear gloves as it is an irritant.

It likely won't kill you but it will:

Appearance: Amber color
Physical State: Liquid
Odor: Mild aromatic
Hazards of product: WARNING! CAUSES EYE IRRITATION.
Effects of Single Acute Overexposure
Inhalation: Short-term harmful health effects are not expected from vapor generated at ambient temperature.
Eye Contact: Causes moderate to severe irritation, experienced as discomfort or pain, excess blinking and tear
production, with marked excess redness and swelling of the conjunctiva. Corneal injury may occur.
Skin Contact: May cause minor irritation with itching and possible slight local redness. A single prolonged exposure is
not likely to result in the material being absorbed.
Effects of Repeated Overexposure: Drying and cracking of the skin may result from prolonged exposure to this
material because of its defatting action.
Skin Absorption: Repeated prolonged contact may result in the absorption of potentially harmful amounts of material.
Ingestion: Single dose oral toxicity is considered to be low. May cause abdominal discomfort, nausea, and vomiting.
Chronic, Prolonged or Repeated Overexposure may cause injury.
Other Effects of Overexposure: Skin contact may cause sensitization and an allergic skin reaction in a small
proportion of individuals.
Medical Conditions Aggravated by Exposure: Any pre-existing disorders or deseases of the eye, skin, or central
nervours system (CNS).
POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS: See Section 12 for Ecological Information.

Also this stuff is HORRIBLE for the environment. DO NOT pour it down the drain. This must be disposed of at a Hazardous Materials Disposal site.

For these reasons alone, Simple Green or Purple Power are much safer and equally effective solutions.

Much safer and just as effective to use Purple Power or any driveway degreaser. They can still cause the same irritation (I react to PP more intensely than I do brake fluid) to your skin so using gloves is a good idea in any case.

I've found a steam cleaner and a rotary brush to be very effective and environmentally friendly tools for paint removal as well.

I use LA's awesome. Its sort of a all purpose cleaner that costs a buck. Works pretty well on netal and plastic. Doesn't burn skin.

If you have sensitive skin I would wear gloves. Scented soaps or moisturizers bother my skin and whenever I get brake fluid on me, even if I wash it off right away, my skin will turn red and get really itchy for a couple of days.

As a former mechanic I can tell you that brake fluid will strip damn near any form of paint off of anything...including cars...

However Simple Green or equivalent of such is your best bet, as already stated. It won't destroy the skin on your hands and you can pour it anywhere you want without the EPA knockin on your door.

Epidemious wrote:ok ...
but i won't die by touching it

Not immediately.


It's also pretty inconsistent... Brake fluid isn't formulated for acrylic paint stripping specifically, so different brands have differing levels of efficacy. Some work really well, some not as well... and some apparently eat plastic models.


Simple green is more consistent, safer, better for the environment, easier to dispose of, works faster, and is completely safe on both metal and plastic models.

Also, with simple greena nd purple power, you can strain the paint out and re-use them, which is cost effective. Plus they're good for if you happen to spill paint everywhere. :/

It's what I use on plastic models.
Admittedly, mine is a combination Brake and transmission fluid (dot 4 says the label). Blue liquid. I live in a street with 4 mechanics shops in it. It's a doddle to wander down and ask if I can dump my half-cup of used stuff into their disposal drum. YMMV. Autoparts store is around the corner, hardware is 3.5km away at the closest and doesn't stock SG. Nearest large hardware is further and still doesn't stock it. You use what you've got and take the appropriate measures.)

Removes acrylic AND enamel paints (the figures I stripped with it were primed with an enamel (matt) primer. It stripped them down to bare plastic. It was the softer RT plastic the original Imperial Guard plastics were made from. Still a styrene, but the plastic they currently use is a trifle harder and more brittle).

It does dissolve fats and grease, too (which is why it can cause skin issues with prolonged exposure. Wear gloves (regular rubber dishwashing gloves are fine) and use some tongs to get the pieces out of the liquid.

Oh, Distilled water and de-ionised water both have an MSDS (so this is not on its own a property of "bad chemicals").
(Worked in a Dangerous Goods warehouse - we were required to be fluent in what the various things meant).

ok thanks for the intel.

You can also use that window cleaner stuff (the blue kind) It's cheap and almost any house has it. It has trouble with primer though, and some models will smell of it, but that's good anyways because it's nice having your models smell of a spring meadow

well i dont think that the thousand sons would be honoured by smelling like this ,thanks anyway.

I melted some guardsmen by using break fluid. Now a guardsman's constitution is not that of a space marine and no where near a thousand sons.

I suggest simple green, its cheaper and enviromentally friendlyish and I have heard of no one melting their models.

My prefered for metal is pine sol but this will melt plastic.

I use whats called super clean... its comes in a purple gallon jug for like ten bucks at auto zone!

Todosi wrote:It likely won't kill you but it will:

Appearance: Amber color
Physical State: Liquid
Odor: Mild aromatic
Hazards of product: WARNING! CAUSES EYE IRRITATION.
Effects of Single Acute Overexposure
Inhalation: Short-term harmful health effects are not expected from vapor generated at ambient temperature.
Eye Contact: Causes moderate to severe irritation, experienced as discomfort or pain, excess blinking and tear
production, with marked excess redness and swelling of the conjunctiva. Corneal injury may occur.
Skin Contact: May cause minor irritation with itching and possible slight local redness. A single prolonged exposure is
not likely to result in the material being absorbed.
Effects of Repeated Overexposure: Drying and cracking of the skin may result from prolonged exposure to this
material because of its defatting action.
Skin Absorption: Repeated prolonged contact may result in the absorption of potentially harmful amounts of material.
Ingestion: Single dose oral toxicity is considered to be low. May cause abdominal discomfort, nausea, and vomiting.
Chronic, Prolonged or Repeated Overexposure may cause injury.
Other Effects of Overexposure: Skin contact may cause sensitization and an allergic skin reaction in a small
proportion of individuals.
Medical Conditions Aggravated by Exposure: Any pre-existing disorders or deseases of the eye, skin, or central
nervours system (CNS).
POTENTIAL ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS: See Section 12 for Ecological Information.

Also this stuff is HORRIBLE for the environment. DO NOT pour it down the drain. This must be disposed of at a Hazardous Materials Disposal site.

For these reasons alone, Simple Green or Purple Power are much safer and equally effective solutions.

Lol, an MSDS block on brake fluid? Awesome.

ok thanks for the info...

There are plenty of good choices out there, simple green is my favorite as well.

Brake fluid though is a bad choice. It can burn skin, gets used up quicker, and has to be driven to a haz waste facility to be disposed of. Unless you are some kind of idiot/loser and dump it down a drain. And it offers nothing over other safer choices.

Gloves have been mentioned a few times. Wear safety glasses too. If you get splashed when you drop that ebay warboss into a bucket of something corrosive you'll quickly find your eyes are far more sensitive that your fingers.

I've used brake fluid before... Ate right through the plastic without touching the paint. It works great on metal, but keep plastic away.

However, something like nail polish remover works just as well for metals, and isn't nearly as annoying to work with.

ok then i will rethink about using the brake fluid.
thank you all

I have used brake fluid to good effect on old plastic and metal minis. For metal you can leave it in for weeks and it won't hurt the model. For plastic, don't go more than 24 hours.

That said...
1. Be sure to wash the minis thoroughly with soap after stripping. You don't want to get brake fluid on you.
2. Use gloves.
3. Dispose of used fluid at a proper place. (Many mechanics shops can take it for you)

From the sound of it, simple green or other cleaner may be a better bet from a safety/environment standpoint, but brake fluid definitely works.

As far as I know, Simple Green is not sold outside of the US. There is a product sold here in the UK called Dettol which I've had some success with, although I'm at a loss as to whether it's available in Greece.

Any of the similar chemicals work, in Canada here I forget what it is called but it is the big jug of green coloured enviroment cleaning stuff. I think in the UK it is called fairy power spray or something like that.

I've heard of people using Fairy Power in the UK but cannot offhand recall what their result was. I am back in the us and when i have a chance in a few days i will post up what the results of my extaned, impromptu brake fluid experiment are. Hope it all gos ok, i dumped about 3000 points of ba into the crap.