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I used Army Painter primer for the first time, and I did it wrong. The coat is very granular, probably can notice it from a foot away.

It is the color I want, but not nearly smooth enough. I heard about Simple Green removing paint AND primer - does it remove primer well enough so that I can re-prime and get a smooth coat?

Hi, Yes. Simple green will strip primer. Leave it in a for a day or 2. Also, get a stiff toothbrush. When you pull the model out of the green. (use gloves, SG likes to feast on your flesh). Rinse the model in hot water, brush the model, and put it back in the green. I get clean models in 3-4 days.

Also, what is the space your priming in?

toymaker wrote:Hi, Yes. Simple green will strip primer. Leave it in a for a day or 2. Also, get a stiff toothbrush. When you pull the model out of the green. (use gloves, SG likes to feast on your flesh). Rinse the model in hot water, brush the model, and put it back in the green. I get clean models in 3-4 days.

Also, what is the space your priming in?

Ok, I need to put it in twice. And no gunk stays in the nooks and crannies? Sounds good.

The space I was priming in was outside. It was dry out and above 55 F. I am new at this thing, but I've had no problems with generic black primer. I am not going to blame Army Painter, I am sure I just did it wrong... I thought I stayed within their max spray distance, but maybe I didn't, or maybe I oversprayed or something. It is funny, I got it to save time, now I am taking more! Should have gotten the techinque down on those cheap Black Beach marines I guess.

Thanks for your help!

It could be a bad can. Sometimes the aerosol will do that. I've had several over my wargaming career.

So either I suck, or was unlucky.


At least it is fixable.

Simple Green will strip chrome.
It's works well on primer. You don't always have to double soak it. Soak it for a couple days, sometimes less. Brush IN the green and rinse when it's completely clean. Water will cause paint to recongeal on the surface. A toothpick helps the crannies get hit. If there's anything left then you will need more green. Nothing is perfect.

LA's Totally Awesome sold at Dollar Store, is even better then Simple Green. Give it 24 hours and it will clean that primer right off, and if you used super glue, will break that down as well.

Same rules apply though, wear gloves, and use a hard toothbrush to clean off the stuff.

DarkKnights44 wrote:LA's Totally Awesome sold at Dollar Store, is even better then Simple Green. Give it 24 hours and it will clean that primer right off, and if you used super glue, will break that down as well.

Oh I don't want the models to fall apart, I just want the paint to come off. I used Zap A Gap from a craft store, not sure if that is super glue or not, but I am guessing it will break down in Totally Awesome. Which is too bad, because a product called Totally Awesome is something I would almost buy on name alone.

I've used Simple green for a few years and tried LAs totally awesome because I saw it at the dollar store and remember seeing it on Dakka. It works about the same, maybe a little better since I'm partial to SG and probably biased I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and say it *may* be better. Just the originL though. The orange stiff leave a funky silt in my cleaner that settles on models left in over night.
Both products attack super glue (zap a gap uses the same active ingredient in larger amounts) but I haven't had one fall apart yet, and had to cut apart models I WANTED to break up.

Ok guys. I used the Stuff. Almost everything came off on the first try! Like 95%!

I didn't do the toothpick trick until after they dried, and well it did nothing to the remaining paint. I am guessing they have to be wet for that one to work?

Also, I want to dip them in GS again, but only for a short time, to get the last little bits of paint off. How short a time can I dip them in and still have it work on the primer? I am worried about the GS effecting the glue.

Yet, you want to pull it out of the stripping agent and use the toothpick on the crannies before it dries.

I'm having trouble with getting daemonic yellow off completley... its very stubborn

Just soaked my stuff in rubbing/surgical alchol and it came of much more easily than with simple green

Joe Mama wrote:Also, I want to dip them in GS again, but only for a short time, to get the last little bits of paint off. How short a time can I dip them in and still have it work on the primer? I am worried about the GS effecting the glue.

Since this thread has new activity I can answer my own question!

I soaked them in GS a second time for maybe 5-6 hours, took them out and brushed them again and that last 5% came off.

Did you have to use a toothpick to get the crannies or did brushing along work?

I'm in the middle of repainting an army and stripping off the paint that's on them now is problematic.

I used a hard toothbrush almost the whole time. I did use a toothpick here and there, but not much.

martian_jo wrote:Did you have to use a toothpick to get the crannies or did brushing along work? I'm in the middle of repainting an army and stripping off the paint that's on them now is problematic.

Depends on the paint used (what type and how it was applied, thickness of layer(s), etc.). I've stripped previously painted minis bought second hand using SG and, while it's always worked, it's taken different amounts of effort to get them clean. An old Rhino was left to soak overnight and by the next morning, the paint had bubbled and lifted to the the point that the force of tepid tap water running was peeling most of it off. On the other hand, one Tac Marine I stripped had a rather resilient green primer applied quite thickly, so it took one round of soaking and a thorough toothbrush scrubbing to knock off the bulk, then some attentive toothpick work on the recesses after another night's soak. It still has some discoloration, but it's smooth enough to re-prime.

If you've only tried the bare minimum, just keep at it. If you've given it a decent go (soak, scrub, re-soak, and pick) and you still aren't making significant progress, it's probably time to try a new stripping agent.

Some paints and primers will actually stain the base material of the model.

Simple green and LAs work well, I have had the best results out of Super Clean. Here is a blog post of mine with a write up about it and ultrasonic cleaners. To the best of my knowledge all three will eat superglue if given enough time.


http://warfrog.blogspot.com/2011/08/saving-ebay-finds-part-2.html