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Hello, I have a bunch of models I have been attempting to strip with simple green. They are primed with citadel chaos black, painted with citadel colors, and varnished with acrylic matte varnish from wal-mart. My non-varnished models stripped to primer in 24 hours, but my varnished models have been in for a week and a half, and the paint is coming off too slow. The paint is also not coming out of all the crevices. At this rate I figure they will take a month to strip completely.

Is there something stronger I can use? I want to strip to primer, but if it strips to bare plastic I don't mind re-priming them. I was thinking engine degreaser like castrol superclean or purple power, pine-sol, or maybe acetone free nail polish remover. I just want it done overnight, or max 2-3 days.

Can anyone advise me on what I should use? And how to use it. I live in Canada FYI

Easy Off Heavy Duty can do what Simple Green does in 1 day in 1 hour. I wouldnt use Pine Sol, it'll dissolve the plastic and isnt much better than Simple Green.

Also the best place to buy said products (wal-mart, canadian tire, ect)

Easy Off is available in Wal-Mart, Food Basics and most other department stores/grocery stores.

scubasteve04 wrote:varnished with acrylic matte varnish from wal-mart.

I never try to resurrect sealed mini's....the only way I've found that works at all is to take a VERY fine file to the varnish and break the seal...then soak it in undiluted paint thinner.

Please note that this can result in ruined carpets, clothing, I've had mini's "melt" a little because of it, and sometimes it doesn't even work worth a poop.

I just wanted to say I used this method tonight with good effect. I had painted a bunch of shoulderpads a hideous shade of gloss yellow which wound up coming out way, way too thick despite being very careful; sigh. I think this is the second time I've used this brand (valspar) in gloss to this effect, perhaps this time I will learn my lesson. If you have this brand available, it should be pointed out that the flat valspar works great, but only really comes in flat black and flat white, at least at lowes.

Anyway, this paint sneered at simple green - 3 days in the dip, no effect at all. I tried some oven cleaner that I had previously reserved for metal minis, first with a single pad and checked it after an hour. It definitely wasn't a miracle stripper, but it does work: I've been checking and refreshing the cleaner every hour. It's been 4 hours, and about 3/4 of them are totally clean, with the remainder having tiny spots of leftover paint I'm confident another 1 hour session will resolve. It does not appear the oven cleaner damages the pieces, but I can only vouch for 4 hours of being OK.

For what it's worth, in previous tests by others it's shown that it's specifically oven cleaners with Sodium Hydroxide as the active ingredient. Others are either not aggressive enough, or melt/soften the plastic.

This probably goes without saying, but anything capable of stripping probably should not be left on your skin; make sure you wash your hands carefully afterward. Better yet, wear gloves. They are very cheap and unlike the flesh on your fingers, easily replaceable.

I asked this question recently as well. Lots of advice can be found here.

whoops, I wish I had responded to that thread instead now.