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After flicking through IA: Masterclass II I've decided to have a go at re-doing my Reaver Titan. It's served me well over the years but now my painting's improved I feel the titan could be improved likewise. I'm hoping to repaint it at least, with the possibility of a partial disassembly, so I can have a proper go over the insides.

This brings me to the question of how to go about removing the paint from the Reaver? It's just standard Citadel colours with an 'Ardcoat layer on top. What products (must be available in the UK) would be able to remove the paint without damaging any detail, and if they dissolve superglue then that's an added bonus. I'm not prepared to let anything near it until I'm certain that it won't ruin the detail.

Thanks

I seem to remember reading that Simple Green works on FW resin safely. You can buy it from www.simplegreen.co.uk

Dettol (the brown stuff) works fine. On resin too. You'll probably need to buy a fair bit though.

Will Dettol have any effect on the superglue as well?

If you leave the items sitting in the solution long enough it will break down the super glue bonds allowing you to pull apart the model. I pulled apart a land raider in this manner to re assemble it.

TheMostWize wrote:If you leave the items sitting in the solution long enough it will break down the super glue bonds allowing you to pull apart the model. I pulled apart a land raider in this manner to re assemble it.

Any idea on how long you should leave it?

That's what I was thinking: are we talking about a couple of days or a few weeks in soak?

I go 24 hours at a time. The most i've had something in dettol for was 2 weeks (softens the plastic though)

I've stripped resin with Simple Green and rubbing alcohol, both worked great.

i use superdrug acitone free nail varnish remover {its blue} on my resin stuff takes about 30 mins then i take it out and go over it with a old tooth brush and 99% of the paint comes strait off instantly .

My preferred method is Fairy Powerspray. Spray it all over, leave for half an hour, give it a good going over with my electric toothbrush - I keep the heads that have finished their life actually brushing my teeth for this purpose.

If it's stubborn, or to de-bond superglue, spray again and leave overnight and try again.

I have had resin kits left like this for a week or more with no ill effects to the resin, but it may be hard to treat a whole titan this way. Maybe use nail varnish remover to de-bond the superglue (Acetone would be better, but may attack the resin too) then powerspray the individual components after rinsing the nail varnish remover from the model so it does not react with the powerspray.

Ok I've had a unit of Assault Marines in soak in Dettol for about 3 days now and to be fair, I'm far from impressed. While it's done a good job of taking most of the paint off, some areas still remain heavily stained with the original basecoat, which turns into a thick sludge if it comes into contact with even a miniscule amount of water. This sludge is near-impossible to remove, has burned my hands slightly and can only really be removed by leaving it to soak for a few more hours.
From what I've experienced using Dettol, it seems it'll take a minimum of a few weeks to fully strip a Reaver. Would Simple Green be a better alternative?

Simple Green's a Yankee product isn't it? Dunno how easy it is to get ahold of in our civilised lands.

As mentioned above - there is a UK distributor for simple green.

http://www.encleansols.co.uk/3/

Works good on removing most paints from most surfaces. It is safe with most materials (read - doesn't damage them) and is able to get most the paint off with a little bit of scrubbing.

Sodium Hydroxide based strippers will also work the part. Most handling equipment for it is made out of polyurethane - and it can withstand immersion in high concentrations of it for several days. However, the strongest concentration you will find on the consumer market is likely to be oven cleaner at around 15% or so...which means the polyurethane resins used by Forge World and others stand up to it quite well.

Anywho - that is where I would go. Start with a mild version like Super Clean or Purple Power. Once everything is cleaned up and you just have little bits in the corners, cracks and crevices - use a foaming version like an oven cleaner to get those out. Should be able to strip the entire Titan in a weekend or so (because of the way the chemical attacks the paint - you experience diminishing returns by letting it soak for long periods of time).

Chances are they call the stuff something else on that side of the pond - so just wander on over to your local hardware/grocery store and find the aisle with the cleaners. Check the backs for the ones which have the warning about sodium hydroxide. Oven cleaners should be available for certain - and you should also have something comparable to Super Clean or Purple Power.

There is a product called "LA's totally awesome" that you can get for a dollar at dollar tree that if you let a model soak in overnight it almost completely strips most paints off. It also seems to weaken most glues as I can normally remove heads from my marines.

Scorpiodragon wrote:There is a product called "LA's totally awesome" that you can get for a dollar at dollar tree that if you let a model soak in overnight it almost completely strips most paints off. It also seems to weaken most glues as I can normally remove heads from my marines.

Available in the UK?