AK907554 wrote:Does anyone know of any other effective chemicals for stripping that can be found in america?
Yes. What I've personally used:
Acetone: great, but use on metal only. Acetone eats plastic. Dissolves superglue and epoxy over time, which may be a good thing.
Simple Green: sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. My P&M blog goes into more detail about that...the not working part.
Castrol Superclean: it's got a different name now and possibly a different formula. 6 years ago this stuff was great. Last year it didn't work at all.
Carb cleaner: same rules as acetone, not as good.
Pinesol/pine oil: thin it way down or keep the soak times
very short with plastic, as it will attack styrene over time. Fine on metal. Smells wonderful.
Paint thinner/ mineral spirits/ kerosene: kinda works on enamels, not as good on acrylics. Don't bother.
And my current favorite? 91% isopropyl alcohol. I really wish that someone had told me about this twenty years ago. It's cheap and it works on every paint (acrylic, enamel, whatever) that I've tested it on except for one*, usually in hours. It doesn't hurt anything. Cheap. Dries on its own quickly. This has been my weapon of choice since I've tried it.
* I got some Chinese railroad miniatures to use as civilians in Deathwatch for next to nothing. They were not nicely painted so I tried various stripping measures. None of the above worked. The plastic dissolves before the paint does. I have some that have been in Simple Green and alcohol for over a year now (haven't gotten around to dealing with them yet) and the paint hasn't been affected. I've since begun just touching them up and hitting them with a Future wash and calling it good.
I haven't tried the LATA yet but I'll give it a shot.