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Hey guys so I want to strip a Finecast mini, and after one failed attempt with a piece of sprue I now know that nail varnish remover will devolve Finecast. Now i'll be the first to admit that i've never tried stipping anything other than metal miniatures, so im completely in the dark when it comes to resin/plastic.

So I went on a hunt around my house and found all the sprays I could and took photos of them as I have literately no idea if these are even capable of stripping, and I want to see if I have anything in house before I go shopping.

So yeah here are all of the various sprays I have around the house:


















So yeah if you could let me know if any of them will strip, if not what to buy when I next go shopping, thanks.

Try Dettol but try it on a sprue first.

http://www.dettol.co.uk/products-for-your-family-personal-hygiene-liquid

Chloroxylenol is the active ingredient that attacks acrylic paint.

It works nicely on polystyrene models. I don't know about Finecast.

My one experience stripping Finecast was...not so great.

I don't know if it's an intentional reasoning or not, but Simple Green(which is safe to use on resin) softens the model to the point where you remove detail when stripping the paint.

Dettol (which i use to strip plastic/metal) badly softened my finecast too. They seem intentionally difficult to strip, so you have to buy new figures if you want to repaint, but I'm sure GW wouldn't do anything like that on purpose...

I have yet to hear of a successful method for stripping Finecast. Anything aggressive enough to take off the paint seems to affect the resin too much. This said- I've used that vanish spray in an ultrasonic cleaner and it works pretty nicely on metals. Check it on a bit of carved up sprue to see if it softens the stuff though.

Isopropyl alcohol (which is great for stripping plastic, metal and FW resin) wasn't so good for finecast, too. After one day of soaking (which is enough for removing paint from a FW resin piece without softening it much), the Finecast sprue I used for testing turned really really REALLY soggy. And it never returned to its original state (unlike FW resin that might get a little softer but will return to its regular hardness).

Id say give the oxy action stuff ago may not to anything but people use fairy power spray so they could be similar. Not certain what the active ingredient is though.

Maybe test them on a piece of sprue?

I used nail polish remover, but don't let it soak*. Just scrubbed at it with an old toothbrush, no lost detail. Keep rinsing with the remover until the models clean, or as clean as it will get, then dry with some tissue or paper towels.

* soaking turned finecast sprue to rubber, when it dried it became brittle however.

hope this helps

Has anyone tried fairy power spray on it yet?

Acetone (nail polish remover) is a direct solvent for resin so I'd steer clear of that one.

I've used Dettol on a Finecast BUT and the big BUT is that I watched it very closely.

I'd come back every half hour or so and scrub it a bit then soak for a little while more then scrub some more etc.

In the end I did accept a certain amount of left over and used some very careful scraping when it was dry.

Dettol or Isopropyl alcohol are the only things I have found that will strip Citadel paints. I've not tried White Spirit and ammonia doesn't seem to work very well. White Spirt and Ammonia shouldn't hurt resin.

Are you sure it has been painted with Citadel paints?

My tip would be if you are likely to be stripping paints from Finecast either use Tamiya paints, which come off with ammonia (pretty sure it won't hurt resin) or maybe undercoat it with an enamel or perhaps "future" floor polish to protect the mini before you paint.

I usually use brake fluid (for your automobile) to strip my plastics over the past 2 decades. I haven't tried it on finecast, but you could give it a go on a spare piece of finecast sprue.

Just found this:

HandsNFeetFace wrote:Finecast seems to do okay with super clean. The Tyrant went through two sessions of stripping without any weakening of the resin or loss of detail.

Now the question becomes, what's the UK equivelent of SuperClean?

I don't think Superclean has an alternatively named UK equivalent.

Zuul wrote:I don't think Superclean has an alternatively named UK equivalent.

I have no doubt that there's a UK Industrial Cleaner which uses
Sodium Hydroxide (1-5% by weight)
Sodium metasilicate (1-5% by weight)
Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether (1-5% by weight)
Tetrasodium ethelenediaminetetraacetate (.5-1% by weight)

It may be tough to find one that has
Poly(oxy-1,2-ethanediyl), .alpha.-(4-nonylphenyl)-.omega.-hydroxy-,branched

but as that's not in my equally powerful Purple Power, I'm guessing it's not the active ingredient.

Entriprising Dakka Chemists could probably even brew thier own.

Bounty wrote:
Entriprising Dakka Chemists could probably even brew thier own.

Please don't suggest this again...... the last P&M injuries thread was horrific enough without any attempts at alchemy.

Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether

I think that is the chemical you need

Magpie wrote:Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether
I think that is the chemical you need

I think that's anti-freeze.
Prestone Antifreeze lists Ethylene Glycol - 80-96% by weight

I use Graffiti-Go non toxic paint stripper.

Its a gel like substance and will strip paint from models in around 10 min. I got it from Toolstation costs around £8 for 500ml.

Not sure what its like on resin, but its PH neutral and dosnt harm plastics.