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.

I want to strip down my first army Tau and repaint it. What's the best way to strip the plastic models without unglueing them or melting the plastic.

Simple Green, the stuff is magic!

I LOVE SIMPLE GREEN

the_ampersand_man has the best suggestion, but if you can't get this then (brown) dettol works. You'll need to soak and then rinse them/scrub them. There can sometimes be some issues with sticky paint residue depending on what they were painted with and how thickly.....have a scout through past threads and articles for more detail.

Get the simple green pour into a bowl or container ( I use the Chinese food plastic container ) drop in figs let soak over night , than take out ( don't throw away simple green you just used , you can reuse that a bunch of times ) scrub with an old toothbrush under warm water and BOOM your finished almost like its never been painted .

NO! Simple green works. But thats about it. The best stuff for striping paint is Castrol Super Clean. Youll have to wear latex gloves cause it likes skin. But it takes paint off of ANY type of mini with ease. Walmart or autozone are good places to get this. And its cheap

How safe is it for plastics though? Even Simple Green I find needs to be diluted 50/50 with water if you want to leave plastics in it more than 24 hours. Longer in it at full strength and they start to go soft.

Oh, and get a cheap electric toothbrush! No reason to scrub it all by hand, a good electric makes things MUCH easier, especially in those hard to reach crevices.

I normally use Dettol Antiseptic which works wonders.

Just leave your figures to soak in it for a while and the paint more or less peels off.

For a really good finish just use a little dettol and scrub with a toothbrush to give excellent results.

do these products work on humbrol enamel? I picked up a second hand bits box with a bunch of badly painted models which i'd like to get back to bare plastic/metal

Pine sol works well as well, and a bit cheaper than Dettol. If you toss a bit of rubbing alcohol in it - even better, I have used on both metal and plastic miniatures.

A cheap toothbrush and is does a good job, down side it's not as fast as other methods but, I left models in overnight and they were fine and clean.

Ok good feed back all ok so im going to try simple green & the castrol. About how long should i soak them??


Automatically Appended Next Post:
OOO and diluting how much should I and is the castrol going to melt the plastic?

I found out about Castrol Super Clean from a tutorial that was made ON DAKKA. It is totally harmless to any mini type (plastic/metal) They didnt try it on resin(forge world) so I dunno on that lol. But no dilution no nothing. Pour it into a cup or what have you, insert horribly painted minis, and after the time has passed, brand new looking minis.

Cool well i put 2 models in the same amount in and we will soon see wich dose the better job.

and before you paint em (at least for me) i had to soak it in some soapy water like you would for resin jsut cuz there was still particles of simple green

ok after a 12 hour soak so far the castrol striped more, but i liked the cool look from the simple green it gives a faded afect. But so far castroll is in the in front. I will keep posting to find out wich is are winner so to speak.

Ok the winner was castrol it striped a lot faster and better but it also weakend the glue. So if you want to save your self re glueing the model I would go with simple green. Thanks for all the in put all.

Glue smu.... It did the job better! HAHAAA! Another won for castrol

I swear by the Castrol, I have used it for a while and it has yet let me down. I have alot of plastic in it and have yet seen any sort of warping or loss of detail.

I have just started using acetone free nail polish remover (for use with artificial nails). You only need to leave models in there for about 2 minutes, then scrub with an old tooth brush and the paint just comes off without harming the models.

I have some CSM which were caked in paint, varnish and all sorts and they needed a couple of soaks and brushes, but they are all clean now.

Just don't leave the plastic in for too long. I put in some metal models with their plastic bases overnight to see what would happen and the plastic kind of fell apart...

As with all paint removers, you need to wash the models to get rid of the solution so you can paint them again.

i used nail polish remover for takeing off the glue. But useng it for paint scares me a little.

Lol, here's a nice..um, tutorial?

Pt 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkOp_q-jZ10&feature=channel

Pt 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QznSOGaOxKI&feature=channel_page


And if you don't know about it or haven't heard, there is a great group project goin on called WGC (War Gamer Community). Go subscribed, its good stuff!

WGC:
http://www.youtube.com/group/WarGamerCommunity

just use some ethanol or nail polish remover...

i usually use la's awesome its a great brand i got mine from the dollar store

Soak em in simple green, scrub em every 8 hours or so if they're plastic. If they're metal the glue will dissolve, but the paint falls off easily.

I like the simple green cause its safe around my kids if they get near it , it doesn't leave any toxic fumes and no need to wear gloves with it .

KingCracker wrote:I found out about Castrol Super Clean from a tutorial that was made ON DAKKA. It is totally harmless to any mini type (plastic/metal) They didnt try it on resin(forge world) so I dunno on that lol. But no dilution no nothing. Pour it into a cup or what have you, insert horribly painted minis, and after the time has passed, brand new looking minis.

ive used simple green on forge world models and its totally harmless

Castrol Super clean is the best. You can leave a plastic model in there for a year and it'll look brand new. I left my models in there for 2 weeks just get a toobrush and the paint comes right off.

Simple Green will bust super glue like nobody's business. It works well enough, but you end up with stuff in the crevices and it's worthless on paint like Testors. I also would still recommend gloves, especially if you're using the concentrated stuff. It's not bad for you per se, but it sucks the oils out of your hands and basically "prunes" you pretty quick.

Where the devil do you buy Super Clean at? I've been to both the cleaner and the automotive section in Lowes, Wal-Mart, and Meijers and I haven't seen anybody carrying it. Target is about the last spot in town I haven't checked.

It was formerly castrol suoer clean so anywhere that sells castrol products should have it. I just bought some at wal mart last night.

I can testify to the harmlessness of that super clean stuff.

Dropped a load of plastic LOTR figs in a tub of this stuff... forgot about it for so long, it dried up and left crystals of the minis..... Alls I had to do was put them in water and scrub em with a crappy tooth brush (which you have to do anyways) to get them looking like new again. And no, they were not soft or anything.

I find that leaving plastic minis in for 48ish hour’s makes for VERY easy paint removal... metal minis, drop em in before you go to bed. Then when you get back from work / school they should be good to go.


HOWEVER.... for removing paint on ALL METAL mins. By far the best thing I have ever come across was nail polish remover... put the model in for 5 or so mins and the paint will flake off with your fingers (using a tooth brush is still a good idear). But I can’t stress enough the fact that it must be ALL METAL, no plastic bolt pistols or grenades even. Unless you want to have a plastic blob where his hand used to be.

With nail polish remover I have striped a poorly painted model, rebased, reprimed, and painted it again all in the same night