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Oh wise and wonderful dakka dakka veterans, my painting is getting ever so slowly better and looking back on my tactical squad I now realise they are pants. Does anybody know of a way of stripping my plastic mini's of their first rubbish paint job so I can give them a better one?

Your help in this will be appreciated.

The Emperor Protects

Ryan

I see you are in the UK. I hear Dettol is probably your best option.

I've mentioned my preference on more than one occasion.

If you're old enough to buy it (and have a way of disposing of it) Brake fluid rocks. Primer, acrylic, enamels - they all fall to this stuff.

Won't hurt the plastic (if you get the right one) and metals just laugh as they get shiny again.

Plus they don't smell all 'pine fresh' for YEARS afterwards.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/238756.page

If you keep reading, there's a long discussion on the various merits and flaws of the various types of strippers. That should help you to make a decision .

Why is there no stickied thread for this, this topic seems to come up almost daily...

There's an article for it:

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

You can't really expect stickies for everything. In the end, a stickies system becomes unwieldy.

True, I didn't know there was a FAQ page for stripping, though it only covers two alternatives (and only one with any depth). Perhaps Stripping should be a FAQ category, with articles on the different methods and their advantages and disadvantages inserted in there for ease of use. And there goes my organising gene again..

Thanks guys, sorry for posting in the wrong thread again, went with dettol approach as I'm in the UK

Yeah, as mentioned Dettol works perfectly well, it also gives the model a nice 'baggy' effect if you leave it in for a while.

I've had no problems with models being smelly either, once you give a scrub with an old toothbrush and rinse it in some clean water there's almost no odour.

Spray with Fairy Power Spray, leave for an hour, rub with an old toothbrush, rinse. Brings metal up to bare metal and plastic usually to undercoat maximum. Love the stuff.

Well left my mini's in the dettol solution for 12 hours, took them covered them in washing up liquid them scrubbed tehm with a toothbrush. The mini's came up quite well. There was a sticky kind of residue and the smell remained but I think I can cope.

Ahh, apparently with Dettol, you're supposed to scrub them with Dettol as well. That might explain the sticky residue. Also if I remember correctly, scrubbing isn't as effective as peeling the layer of paint off.

I've only stripped metal ones but I left them in for a few days and the paint washes right off under the tap. A quick scrub gets rid of the stickiness. Post priming there's not even of whiff of the Dettol either.

My only reservation would be how the plastic would react to prolonged soaking, someone else may be able to confirm if there's any detrimental effects otherwise just test it on a bit of sprue or random spare bit.