Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

A long time ago, I primed about 40 zombies at the same time with Chaos Black primer from GW. This may have been the first time I ever primed models before painting them, so I think I was pretty young.

I still don't know what caused it (atmospheric conditions?), but the primer coated the models in what can best be described as "dust." It's like black dust. It doesn't just wash off of the models if you run them under water, but it does come off in small amounts on your hands when you handle them and comes off a little bit if you scrub them.

As I didn't know what primer was really supposed to do or look like, I primed one side with dust, then I primed another side with dust, and on my last priming job the paint actually came out as it is supposed to. So, one side of every model is good, but the rest of each model is dusty.

The models were completely assembled at this point, and they're all plastic which means that stripping them is difficult - I tried stripping one with my usual method (soaking with Simple Green for 24 hours and then scrubbing with a toothbrush), but primer is difficult to strip and because the models are assembled it is hard to get my toothbrush into all of the crevasses. Because they're plastic and were glued together with plastic glue, disassembling them is not an option.

So, I was hoping you guys had some advice. Ideally, I would like the models to just have a single layer of normal black primer on them, but I'll take what I can get because right now they're totally unpaintable.

I've just stripped a bunch of plastic space marines with 'Dettol Liquid' and after a day or 2 in the drink a lot of the joints were easy to break apart, I imagine with enough patience you could completely dissassemble your figures and scrub each piece clean.
I can't say for sure that it will remove that old can of primer you used, But It has taken off an airbrushed coat of jet black waterborne paint from my Ravenwing bikers with relative ease (this scrubbed away much slower than the gw acrylics on other areas of the figures)
So just try a long (few days or so) soak in some original Dettol Liquid.
The thread I started titled 'reconditioning my space marines' has a piccy of the bottle to clarify which dettol product exactly if neccessary.

Another good product is "Fairy Powerspray".

No damage to plastic, metal, or resin models even after more than a week, but can remove undercoat with little trouble. I have even used it on old, large models that have been undercoated and sprayed with automotive paint.

One way of increasing your chances of removing old paint is to step up to an electric toothbrush. I use an old head, one that has already done it's time as my toothbrush, for just stripping my models. I use one of the "Oral B" range, and the action of that helps get the bristles underneath the paint and lift it off.

Thanks a ton for the help guys, I haven't been able to get to this as soon as I thought I would.