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Now i've set up my Moneymate and Ubuy accounts, i've started wondering how i'm going to get rid of all the god-awful paintjobs on these £0.99p squads, as well as unwanted primer.

I've searched around and been told Dettol is good for UK people, but I want to be sure i'm getting the right thing first.

I've been told it's the 'brown Dettol', which on their website appears to be this: http://www.dettol.co.uk/products-for-your-family-personal-hygiene-liquid

I just want to know i'm buying stuff that will strip the paint, not just make the minis soggy, albeit smelling fresh and being 99.9% germ free.

Yup that's the stuff I use, it does turn black undercoat into a horrible sticky mess if your not careful.

Dettol is amazing!!!! However forget trying to strip grey primers but for normal stuff its good - Just dont rinse the models off under water...
I got my bottle from Wilkinsons

Brown Dettol works really really well soak minis for ~24hours in a mix of dettol and water then brush the paint off with cheap toothbrushes from tescos. (10p for 2). Depending on how much paint you have to remove get a lot of toothbrushes, at least the space marines I've been stripping seem to coat the brushes in a sort of paint sludge pretty quickly, after a point you are just moving the sludge around rather than removing paint.
Tooth picks i've also found handy to get paint out of details if you dont have anything like dental picks or sculpting tools.
Also might be useful or annoying depending on what you are working on but dettol seems to eat super glue, which is amazing if you want to rework some of the models or change weapons but a possible annoyance if you are happy with the model other than the paint job. Pretty minor issue overall.

Also don't forget about your minis I kind of forgot about a tactical squad for about a month or so in a container, makes the plastic a bit soft but otherwise they are fine.

[edit]
Some shots of using detol
Before | After 24h | After another go to get some stubborn black out of details.
Notice the base being a bit grey after being forgotten for a month.

Yeah that's the stuff. My brother's been stripping pink tyranids with it and it's pretty good, even leaves the white undercoat it apparently had prior to being painted pink >_<

This talk of it stripping paint but only messing with the undercoat is giving me second thoughts, how easy would the undercoat be to remove in its bacteria-free state?

Brown Dettol works really really well soak minis for ~24hours in a mix of dettol and water then brush the paint off with cheap toothbrushes from tescos.

What's the preferred mix ratio of Dettol:Water?

I use the Fairy Power Spray to strip my models, can't leave the models to soak (i've not tested it though) just spray it on and it starts to take the paint off, it takes metals back to the metal (or just takes it off the edges) but takes plastics down to the basecoat

Avatar 720 wrote:This talk of it stripping paint but only messing with the undercoat is giving me second thoughts, how easy would the undercoat be to remove in its bacteria-free state?

Brown Dettol works really really well soak minis for ~24hours in a mix of dettol and water then brush the paint off with cheap toothbrushes from tescos.

What's the preferred mix ratio of Dettol:Water?

Eh, I think the last time I did it i used about half and half was more concerned by stretching out the use of the bottle of dettol as much as anything.

Seemed to work ok, only issues I've had have been some models that are particularly heavily painted or have annoying details with paint in them sometimes need another soak.

Also get some disposable gloves, as its messy work.

A batch of minis and the container i used. I piled all the marines, dread and bikes in there filled it till the bottom inch maybe was dettol and added water on top. Can't really say I've got it down to an exact science. All the colour in the bottom of the tub isn't parts or minis thats just loads of stripped paint.


Also seriously get a lot of brushes and lots of kitchen roll and gloves this is messy work. (Brushes after cleaning / washing off the guys above)

^ when you get to that stage need a new toothbrush or you just get horrible paint streaks on the minis you are stripping.

General method is;
Grab minis, throw them in plastic container.
About half and half mix of dettol and water to cover.
Leave overnight.
Clear up now loose paint with toothbrushes and rubber gloves.
If you can a sink with running water and washing up liquid probably helps with the paint gunge issues but flatmates and significant others might not be too happy.
I can't claim a sink so I've been using a plastic basin with a mix of dettol and water to clean off the minis after soaking, the downside is that the water you are using gets filled up with paint flecks so you have to keep changing it.
Switch brushes when you get to the critical mass of paint gunge

I've not been as careful with some of them as I probably should have as to be honest I was happy to write off most of these since they were so badly painted and have been in a loft for years, been really impressed at not only getting the paint pretty much completely off of everything (other than bikes so far) I've been able to reclaim / rebuild a lot of models as the super glue has dissolved. I've only really lost a couple of bases because its a lot of hassle cleaning loads of paint and glue to save a single base after you just gave yourself blisters cleaning 15 marines. Similarly very small parts such as bolt pistols might be just easier to replace with new bitz as trying to hold and scrub the paint from very small parts is torture.

Not sure about how well this works with different spray primers as its been so long that I can't remember if any of the stuff I've stripped was spray primed or not.

I've found that undercoat is not a problem for dettol if you do it this way: Scrub the models while still submerged in dettol,the paint only turns into sludge when taken out of the dettol. Also keep an eye on how sludgey the dettol gets, you'll need to use new stuff regularly.

I just stripped some minis with Pine-Sol and encountered the same issue of black undercoat turning into tarry sludge.

After some initial disappointment I solved the problem by switching to this routine:

1. Remove minis from Pine-Sol
2. Scrub them
3. Dip toothbrush into Varsol
4. Scrub again

Led to great results, and stripped minis that are far shinier and fresh looking than what I'm used to from stripping with brake fluid or acetone.

Slipstream wrote:I've found that undercoat is not a problem for dettol if you do it this way: Scrub the models while still submerged in dettol,the paint only turns into sludge when taken out of the dettol. Also keep an eye on how sludgey the dettol gets, you'll need to use new stuff regularly.

Good tip this, i was going to say this too.
Also for best results use the Dettol undiluted and make sure you wear gloves if you are holding the models in the dettol with your hands.
I have been using a £1 seive and 50p funnel to put the dettol back in the bottle for another bash.
I will be trying some cheaper antiseptics to see if they get the same desired effect but for less cash, im not sure exactly what chemicals it is that will work, il let you know how it goes.