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I just picked up a whole mess of Rogue Trader minis and over 3/4 of them are plastic. I am worried that brake fluid would damage the old plastic GW used back then (1987). Does anyone know what to use to clean these Rogue Trader plastic minis of paint?

Simple green should work.
Oven cleaner as well (the degreasing kind).

Which RT minis? The RTB001 plastic space marines? The IG, "space" dwarves?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_How_to_Strip...

Try this

I have 30+ Plastic RT Marines and 30+ Plastic Space Orks in great shape but horrible paint jobs.

I hate you.....j/k. I wish I had never sold off my RT marines and space dwarves...

Oven cleaner should work. Just hose 'em down let 'em sit and then hit them with an old toothbrush.

a SOFT toothbrush mind you or your plastic figs won't be in such great shape....

I use a medium toothbrush - not so hard and scratchy, but good at getting most of the gunge out.

I'm still using those RT beakies in my SM.
They are some of my veterans.

I am excited about the RT minis. The marines are not as bulky as current GW stuff but they are close to the same size. Now the plastic RT orks I think I might use those as grots since they are odd looking.

I've had oven cleaner melt my plastics, be careful there. Besides the Simple Green, try driveway degreaser. Castrol Superclean or Purple Power (from walmart) works wonders. You can dilute it to go farther and use a medium toothbrush for those tough-to-reach crevices.

Also, if you're not interested in keeping those RT orks, I'd be happy to take them off your hands. All my orks (with the exception of the AoBR guys) are RT era models

I third (or fourth) Simple Green if you can get it. It works very well on RT era plastics and metals (at least all that I have tried, and I have about 50 RT01 marines that I have striped and tons of the old metal marines from that time).

I have put 1 Ork in a 1 part Simple Green to 10 Water mixture, 1 Ork in a 50/50 mixture and 1 Ork in a pure Simple Green mixture. So far they have sat in the mixtures for 3 hours and so far nothing has happened to them, not even a flake of paint has come off. I am checking every 1/2 hour and will post when the paint starts to come off.

Honestly, I've always just take the straight 1 gallon Simple Green bottle and pour it into a container and throw everything that needs to be stripped in there without thinking twice... it gets almost all paints off, and is totally safe for the models. The only time I ever had any problems was when I left an IWM Battlemech in a jar and forgot about it for like, two weeks, by which point the paint was basically all done and there was a slight surface patina on the metal, which still came right off under a toothbrush. I'll be stripping my entire Blood Angels army and a number of new 2nd hand acquisitions in a few days, and there's nothing I'd rather use than Simple Green.

EDIT: I always leave models overnight in the bath, and most of the paint comes off the next day... any stubborn bits can be left for a second night, and then by that point the only issue is cleaning gooey melted paint out of deep crevices...

I just did my test on the pure Simple Green mixture and the paint has started to come off. So I know how long it will take I poured the rest into a covered bucket and dumped the rest of the orks into it. It seems that the plastic is holding up so I see that there is a new breath of life in these old minis.

I prefer Pine-Sol myself. Less caustic and not a problem to get rid of when done. I pour it straight into a bowl and drop whatever needs to be stripped in there. Then next day I put onthe rubber gloves and get the toothbrush and go to town. I was able to strip everything including some old RT/Space Crusade? CSM plastics in this with no problem.

Pine-Sol is a much scarier suggestion. It is far more caustic (SImple Green being not at all) and Simple Green is comepletely Eco-Friendly

You *can* drink Simple Green technically, though please don't it tastes bad.

For my delicates (plastic or hard to find models) I use SImple Green, and have personally stripped over 100 of the old RTB01 marines this way and a whole host of metal RT era marines/bikes/speeders etc.

If you want something faster acting...go with Castrol SuperClean, but if you have the time, definately use Simple Green, much better for everyone, and Mama Nature.

There are two sides to stripping figures -- one is the base material (plastic or metal) and the other is the type of paint.

As far as I understand it, all GW models have always been made of hard polystyrene, so it doesn't matter if they are RT era or modern.

The metal composition has changed over the years but since metal is more resistant to the effects of solvents it is less of a worry.

While nearly everyone uses acrylic paint now, 20 years ago a lot of us used oil based enamels. These need a more vigorous solvent which is more likely to attack plastic.

I have had a few test minis of different eras of GW minis from RT to present, metal and plastic for over 18 months, with the SG changed at least monthly, without any apparent harm coming to them. Only thing I have had happen is the weird black primer someone used on some Macragge minis merged with their plastic so they are a funky marble mix of grey and black now. I figure I will leave the test subjects in there until I get bored of 40k (which might happen), have to move on short notice (which has happened a few times ) or if something bad finally happens to them.