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Ok this question has been asked to death but I wanted to start a detailed post with everyone giving their opinions on what works best for them on........

Plastic painted minis

Metal plastic minis

Excess glue traces on the minis

Over lacquered minis

Materials and techniques used (how and why)

I for one am going to start removing the bad paintwork off my eBay purchases and before I start I want the most intel possible to do a good job and not damage anything in the process. I can see on my minis all of the above and need to know where to start

For metal minis I use Carburetor Cleaner. You can normally find it at your local automotive store or lawn mower shops. I just spray it on the model and let it soak for maybe a minute, then rub it with an old tooth brush and its clean. Just be sure to remove any and all plastic first, it may eat it, although I have used it on carbs with a plastic float and it caused no harm to the float.

For plastics I normally use simple green, but in a resent attempt it proved fruitless and was unable to get the primer off some of my minis.

Before I just used a paint remover and a toothbrush , but it always took a lot of time. Now I go to my moms work , they have a ultrasonic thing they use at the lab she works in . I put the models in a metal bin with 1/3 paint remover 2/3 water turn in on for a 30min , after that I just use water to remove any left overs which are very few anyway. Very efficient.

My freind swears by fairly power spray for plastic models, seen it works a treat and designed for ovens to cut greese etc but not harm plastic.

Nail polisher remover , from the supermarket , leave it in it for 2 or 3 minutes and clean them with a tooth brush , Its cleans them as most paint removers but it dos not damage the items ,just make sure that you do not leave then for more that 5 minutes , i once had a lemman russ side in there for half a hour and the aquila edges start to faint and disappear.

I tried simple green for my (mostly) plastic models, and I have to say it was horrible. LA's Totally Awesome, on the other hand, is totally awesome. And cheaper.

For metal models, Nitromorse is great, need to be careful though it's nitric acid. For plastic models I remember seeing a forum years ago what said Dettol was good, having tried it I can say it does work but takes a fair bit of cleaning up after.

Never tried anything before, but have just ordered some Biostrip 20, which is supposed to be really good.

Dettol has worked well for me on metal models - soak them in it, then scrub with a toothbrush. Just don't let pets come into contact with it - apparently it's poisonous to cats.

For metal I use the cheap nail polish remover from the dollar store.

For everything else it's the big bucket of simple green. I haven't been 100% happy with it and will be trying something else next time, epically in light of the rumour that they reformulated it into something that completely fails to strip paint.

I also use a sonic cleaner occasionally.

It was not a "rumor" that Simple Green was reformulated, it was.

Simple Green now works best when heated (slightly...don't heat it too much or it'll be REALLY burntastic for your hands).

Methiston wrote:
For metal models, Nitromorse is great, need to be careful though it's nitric acid.

I just want to recommend against using that, or any acid, on metal models. Metal + acid = chemical reaction. Although I wonder how suitable it would be for plastic.

EZ Off oven cleaner, the foamy spray. Worlds better/quicker than simple green and it doesn't melt plastic like Acetone does.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_How_to_Strip...

That is a good tutorial, but is a little out of date now. Simple green was reformulated in 2013 and now no longer contains the chemical that did most of the work (2-Butoxyethanol).

In UK just use fairy power spray on most things. To clean superglue and greenstuff from metal models use acetone (nail polish remover). There is no real good way to remove greenstuff or superglue from plastic models.

If fairy power doesn't work use Super Clean (or oven degreaser like ez off, they are the same chemicals). If you can't get Super Clean (it is not sold in australia for example), just check the MSDS (sometimes called SDS) of automotive degreasers to find what chemicals they have. You want 5-10% butoxy, and 1-5% sodium hydroxide.

Mistake: Ignore

I was going to say Simple Green, but now that I've read in this thread that it is reformulated, I will have to try something different.

Use purple power for Plastic and Finecast. Me and my brothers have done a Helbrute, 50 SM, 2 Company Masters, and a Librarian, all plastic. We also did Belial and it all came out perfect. leave it in the stuff for 24 hours, scrub with a toothbrush until clean. Purple Power is also re-usable! I bought my 40oz bottle at my local NAPA Auto store, for $5

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
I was going to say Simple Green, but now that I've read in this thread that it is reformulated, I will have to try something different.

It still actually works just fine, but it works best with an ultrasonic cleaner that has a "heated" setting.

I go to the painting and modeling forum, and do a search there, and get back literally hundreds of posts on this exact topic.

Barring that, I use 99% alcohol or purple power.

Battery acid, light them on fire and put them out fast enough.

I've tried Simple Green and wasn't impressed. Tried Easy Off Oven Cleaner last night on an Infinity model and the paint melted right off in about 2 hours, and the plastic base wasn't harmed at all.

 ashcroft wrote:
Dettol has worked well for me on metal models - soak them in it, then scrub with a toothbrush. Just don't let pets come into contact with it - apparently it's poisonous to cats.

This, so far.
I found that to rinse when doing this, don't use water. The paint will gunge up, and sticks to everything. Just use Dettol if you're using Dettol.

Dettol has worked for me and also Dot3 brake fluid.

Both are safe for both metal and plastic models (not tested with resin yet) - I've had some particularly stubborn ebay finds soaking for longer than a week at times in both of these and it hasn't damaged the model.

For plastic models use this stuff


I have tried brake fluid and simple green. Both were pretty poor-mediocre after weeks of sitting and then scrubbing. This stuff took the paint right off with only 1 or 2 swipes of a toothbrush on the model. Worlds of difference, and even cut through multiple layers of paint after only a day or two of sitting. Also has the name "Totally Awesome". You get it for like $5/Gallon so its REALLY cheap.

For metal models you can buy any of a dozen or two different paint strippers at your hardware store. They all work perfectly since that stuff is meant to scrape paint off anything. Most of them melt plastic though.

I never had an issue with Simple Green, but i don't know if there is a new formula. For all metal models, Lacquer remover works. Let sit for about 10-15 secs, wipe off with toothbrush. It will melt plastic on contact, and will burn your hands so use protection.

Simple Green needs to allowed to soak for a few hours. Clean them, and them resoak in fresh Simple Green.

Cheap £1 a bottle nail varnish remover.
Its cheap and strips plastic in a few mins.

Metal models are fine to soak though, so i throw them in it for an hour or 2 at a time.

I think there are about a half-dozen good tutorials on paint stripping on dakka alone, but for your comfort:

Plastics of all kinds --> isopropyl alcohol. (+ultrasonic bath)
metal miniatures --> tetrahydrofurane (+ultrasonic bath).

The Ultrasonic is not strictly necessary but speeds up the process. In any case, you will need a brush to clean the stickier remains of paint from the miniature.
THF is a total killer. Superglue, Paint, Primer... but it will definitely obliterate any plastic you put in it, so metal miniatures only, and don't forget to remove the bases.

Simple green and a sonic clearner. 2 nine minute cycles and the paint and any superglue joints fall apart. Clean off with warm water and a toothbrush. Won't remove primer completely, but removes enough to not degrade details. Will be trying same method with LA Awesome when I run out of Simple Green.

Sounds good so far. My main concern is not to damage them plastics.

So far I've been told for bad glue jobs a really nice Stanley knife for scraping along the areas plus a sharp metal pick for recess areas. For metal I've been told detol for a few mins or longer depends on paint thickness and for plastics a long 1week,soak in water and hand soap. The paint will just peel away with a tooth brush.

How does the above sound as some of your named chemical brands I can't get in my country

1. Soak model in Simple Green for a day or more.
2. Clean models with rotary brush intended to clean lug nuts.

I've only had one model that couldn't be cleaned with this technique. The paint just sloughs off.