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I've read pretty much every paint stripping guide around and know about almost all of the different recommendations for paint strippers (note:havent tried them all). Recently, I've tried pinesol and easy-off and a type of de-greaser with sodium hydroxide(recommended chemical for stripping plastic in a couple guides).

The problem is almost every single one I have tried has softened the plastics in varying degrees. Pinesol was pretty bad, I could pretty easily pull the plastic up with my finger nail. The easy-off didnt really seem to work that well(I used the spray-on kind a guide recommended). The de-greaser (mr clean multi-purpose) worked well but softened the plastic again, although a bit less than the pinesol did. I actually made the mistake of using the wrong type of cleaner someone recommended and it ended up melting 10 AoBR Space Marines I had intended on converting to chaos. I decided not to use simple green because I heard people either said it didnt work or if it did it caused the plastics to become green and/or feel strange.

Does anyone know a paint stripper that won't melt/soften plastics but get acrylic paint off ? If not, are soft plastics a big deal? They don't fall apart and only deform if i scrape at them or try to pull the plastic up, so should I just ignore it and re-paint them? I'd just rather not damage my models in any way unless I have to. While soft, they aren't melted, and all the detail is still there.

edit: I ask because I buy a lot of my models on ebay. Most of them are simply primed which isnt a problem, but about 25% of them have bad paint jobs that I need to redo .

I use dot3 brake fluid. Takes a while soaking to get it off. I've had models left in it for years. Pulled them out hit them with and old tooth brush and they where fine. Now the glue will soften but I've never had a problem with the pieces.

Superclean or its generic brother Purple Power work the best hands down for both plastic and metal IMO. They may take some time to soak but if you are patient they work like a charm.

i have always just used rubbing alcohol. Never had any issues with plastic or glue melting, just soak the models, and then give them a good scrub with an old toothbrush. Always worked for me.

Easy-Off works fine, but you have to let the models soak in a tub of the stuff for a day or two. It takes longer but it's certainly a decent paint stripper.

I use Simple Green, but have been meaning to try Purple Power. Simple green disolves super glue a bit, but generally leaves plastics alone. It sometimes isn't quite powerful enough if there is a serious primer on the mini (but I haven't figured out what the hell they used to prime those models... seems like soveriegn glue.)

Simple Green is the way to go. If you are experimenting with the different recommended products, I recommend using them in a diluted form first before going to full comcentration. Also, test the effect on plastic sprues first before you dunk you valuble model in the stripping medium.

I have placed a whole squad of Ravenwing Bikers in a dilluted Simple Green for 48 hours and it did eat some of the super glue away but the plastic was unaffected. Dillution was 2 parts Simple Green with 1 part water. Some people used a less concentrated mix but the figures I bought had a thick coat of paint.

Non-acetone nail polish remover won't soften models until after a few hours in the dip, and it gets acrylic paint to the point where you can pull it off with your fingers in about 10 minutes. An old toothbrush works better for removing the soaked paint, though.

forrestfire wrote:Non-acetone nail polish remover won't soften models until after a few hours in the dip, and it gets acrylic paint to the point where you can pull it off with your fingers in about 10 minutes. An old toothbrush works better for removing the soaked paint, though.

Dont be so sure http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/238756.page its very hit and miss

Pine-sol needs to be diluted, I'll point out. The UK-equivalent brand is already somewhat diluted and contains a tiny amount of rubbing alcohol, but I dilute it slightly anyway, and I've never had problems with it softening plastic. I've left plastics soaking in there for over a YEAR without problems.

Thanks for all of the responses people.

Quote from Tacobake : "I use Simple Green and I find it weakens plastic a bit so I pretty much swore off getting plastic minis off of ebay (I like to put em together myself anyway)."No one has had a problem like this? I'm not talking about melted, I mean the plastic is soft when you rub a thumbnail or brush it and the plastic is easily deformed/pulled up. The same has been said can happen with acetone-free nail polish remover, and brake fluid.

I think I might try castrol super clean or purple power next, I havent heard anything bad about those so far.

As a sign painter/airbrusher I can tell you the enely of any acrylic paint is isopropyl alcohol. Chemically speaking an acrylic paint works by essentially using a aqueous polymer to suspend and surround the pigment. These maintain an excellent UV resistance as the pigment is surrounded by the polymer. Alcohol is a type of solvent but is not in relation to the common benzene ring type solvents ie. petrol, acetone, xylene, etc...

The unique properties of the acrylic paints and the hydrophilic qualities of the alcohol work against each other. Basically the alcohol destroys the polymer bond of the paint but has no ill effects on the plastic or the glue.

Sarpedon_702 wrote:As a sign painter/airbrusher I can tell you the enely of any acrylic paint is isopropyl alcohol. Chemically speaking an acrylic paint works by essentially using a aqueous polymer to suspend and surround the pigment. These maintain an excellent UV resistance as the pigment is surrounded by the polymer. Alcohol is a type of solvent but is not in relation to the common benzene ring type solvents ie. petrol, acetone, xylene, etc...

The unique properties of the acrylic paints and the hydrophilic qualities of the alcohol work against each other. Basically the alcohol destroys the polymer bond of the paint but has no ill effects on the plastic or the glue.

Does it have any ill effect on the paint brush bristles?

I have always used simiple green stright out of the bottle at ful strength. It works great and I have left RT minis in it for months and no damage what so ever. Old toothbrush and some gloves so it does not dry out your skin.

Any of the products may have an ill effect on brushes over time. As with any waterbased brushes a final cleaning with soap and water will keep the bristles soft and supple.

I'd recommend using a toothbrush like Pipboy and several other posters have mentioned.

Halsfield wrote:Quote from Tacobake : "I use Simple Green and I find it weakens plastic a bit so I pretty much swore off getting plastic minis off of ebay (I like to put em together myself anyway)."No one has had a problem like this? I'm not talking about melted, I mean the plastic is soft when you rub a thumbnail or brush it and the plastic is easily deformed/pulled up.

I've never had this problem with Simple Green.

I had a squad of Rogue Trader-era Beakies floating in a jar of full strength Simple Green for about 3 months with no ill effects.

The closest I've had to a problem with it is that it doesn't always do a fantastic job on spray undercoats... but then, neither did most of the other strippers I've tried, and if you're just going to repaint anyway, a little bit of leftover undercoat isn't really a problem.

I vouch for Simple Green thats found at your local Wal-Mart autocare section. I used it on nearly a hundred plastic Catachans and various IG metals and it did the job fine with no real ill effect except that it did weaken some glue bonds.

I only let my models sit in the solution for about half a day to a full day though and used a cheap electric toothbrush to rub the paint off.

I can not stress any stronger that no matter what you use make sure that you wear gloves. Brake Fluid is toxic, Simple Green, Nail Polish Remover and the like will cause your fingers to dry out and the toothbrush will rub them raw or even cause your skin to crack. So whatever you use where rubber dish gloves since latex gloves will break with excessive use.

Well I'm going to go to the store tomorrow and pick up a few different products and try them out.

One last question is what kind of brush you guys use for cleaning the models after the soaking? I usually hear "stiff bristle brush" are we talking steel wool/metal style bristles or just nylon/etc that is stiffened? I use an old stiff toothbrush that I don't care about and it seems to do ok. I'm worried about using anything stiffer because I don't want to etch the models.

Judging from the responses and my own experience, I'd stick with a toothbrush. You're going to be dealing with softer plastic and soft metal so you want to use something softer than either material.

I use a medium toothbrush since it is soft enough not to damage the model but strong enough to take the paint off.

Well, I'm trying a mix of different chems tonight. I tried diluting the pinesol a bit, I'm using acetone on some metal terms I got, and trying some castrol super clean (purple bottle, biodegradable). I was a little worried with the acetone because I dropped a commander in that had plastics parts (I didn't know at the time they were plastic) and as the paint immediately started peeling off it revealed the plastic and I thought I just ruined my model, but I pulled it out quickly, the super glue bonds were weak so I easily pulled off the plastic parts from the metal, and they seemed fine but were completely clean of paint with only a very short dip and very light scrubbing with a toothbrush. Now this acetone is called "gentle" but I have no idea what that means. It amazes me what these companies can get away with as far as not labeling what is in their product as long as they have a warning on the back.

Halsfield wrote: Now this acetone is called "gentle" but I have no idea what that means. It amazes me what these companies can get away with as far as not labeling what is in their product as long as they have a warning on the back.

I'm not sure how much labeling you would expect. 'Contains Acetone' seems somewhat redundant.

I used the acetone on the metal terms as said above. One strange problem is there is a purple ink/paint/something on one of them that stained the water purple and it actually stained the other models (the actual metal in some places) purple. The nice thing about the acetone was that all of the super glue was easily peeled off so I can reposition their arms/etc without trying to scrape it off somehow.

insaniak wrote:

Halsfield wrote: Now this acetone is called "gentle" but I have no idea what that means. It amazes me what these companies can get away with as far as not labeling what is in their product as long as they have a warning on the back.

I'm not sure how much labeling you would expect. 'Contains Acetone' seems somewhat redundant.

Uhh..how about product amounts? There is a different between .0005% acetone in a product and 10%. The "gentle" on this bottle probably means it is either lower concentration or has another product in it to inhibit some of the acetone's effects. A lot of companies actually have the active ingredients on the front and have a %amount of how much of each is in them.

Brakefluid and toothbrush.

I've used concentrated simple green many times and over extended periods and I've never had a single problem with plastics softening.

Purple power/superclean-just wear gloves. Doesn't hurt the models one bit, even worked on my barracuda so it doesn't harm resin. Left pieces in for weeks and no problem.

1)I'm going to try simple green if these others arent satisfactory (so far the super clean in the purple bottle is working very nicely)

2)Brakefluid has an enormous amount of problems

3)Please read the entire thread before responding, or don't complain when your post is skipped over.

4) Pinesol has yet to prove itself to me. It softened the plastics undiluted, and didnt do anything to the paint when I diluted it 75pine/25water or 50pine/50water.

5) The acetone that got on the plastics removed the paint very quickly but so far I havent seen any melting/softening. Maybe just a quick bath in the acetone would be worth a try.

The other issue I have with the acetone right now is that it is not removing testors paint from these terms. So I'll have to try something else to get that off, takes acrylic paint off incredibly easily though.

Super clean FTW!

Castrol Super Clean.

Buy a gallon, and you're set for life.

I've been through perhaps a quart of CSC so far, for dozens and dozens of plastic and metal minis, no problem.