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Well not really a life or death situation BUT, whilst stripping my plastic chimeras in Simple Green (over 48 hours of soaking), I have found that I can't actually get any of the basecoat off. This is quite frustrating as I want to get a fresh start on painting them.

The rest of the paint has scrubbed away quite nicely, however the basecoat just does not seem to want to come off. They were basecoated with chaos black citadel spray paint, not even too thickly and so I'm wondering if there are any special ways of getting rid of the sprayed on stuff... Or if there are any articles out there devoted/covering the stripping of basecoat.

I have considered trying something coarse such as steel wool but not sure if this would work. I also live in Australia so only some products that I have previously seen on other stripping posts are not available to me.

Apologies because I do know that stripping articles have been done to death! but I haven't found any that cater to getting rid of the basecoat! If there are any out there then a link to them would be excellent.

Oven Cleaner or Super Clean.

Simple Green, Pine Sol and other polite strippers generally have a hard time with enamels. You need to call in the professionals to deal with them.

Guarantee that you will be able to see bare plastic within an hour with either of them.

The friendly strippers that are strong enough to deal with spray enamels in a reasonable time period have organic solvents in them which will dissolve the plastic and leave you with a puddle of goo.

So - grab your rubber gloves like June Cleaver used to wear. Snag a bottle of Easy Off. Enjoy the wonders of modern chemistry.

Other independent opinions:

http://www.paintingclinic.com/clinic/guestarticles/removingpaint3.htm

http://www.bonediggers.com/1-3/strip/strip.html

Cheers Sean, I'll try easy off oven cleaner if I can

Remember to test on a singular piece first though. If for any reason it buggers up if will only be one mini gone and not half your army.

If you can get hold of dettol in Aus, I find it works best. let your model soak for a hour, then use an old tooth brush and brush under runnig water. It's a good idea to wear some gloves if doing lots, as it will dry your skin badly.

Sean_OBrien wrote:Simple Green, Pine Sol and other polite strippers generally have a hard time with enamels. You need to call in the professionals to deal with them.

Lucien-Alexis wrote: They were basecoated with chaos black citadel spray paint, not even too thickly and so I'm wondering if there are any special ways of getting rid of the sprayed on stuff... Or if there are any articles out there devoted/covering the stripping of basecoat

Didn't know GW Chaos Black from a rattlecan was an enamel, but there you go.

Either way, if you can get it in Oz, I'd recommend "Fairy Powerspray". I've used it myself on all sorts of stuff. It may be slower than some of the other suggestions, but I've never had any trouble with it. I've stripped plastics with it and it seems to prefer the undercoat to the topcoat, so once you've got some way for it to get under the topcoat - it'll do that itself but it takes longer- the undercoat seems to vanish and the topcoat with it. I have stripped resin with it with the same effect. It does not matter if you leave it in longer, it has not damaged any of my models even if left in for a week (Even vinyl). I even managed to remove car paint from a 1:1 scale resin gun, including the grey automotive primer.

What are you using to srub the model? I use an old head for one of those "Oral B" electric toothbrushes, which may be why it seems to come off fairly quickly, and sometimes peel in sections as the bristles get under the paint and help lift it from the surface.
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