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.

I primed some models with Mephiston Red spray paint and it dried clumpy and wrecked them. So now I'm trying to strip the paint with Simple Green and it seems to have no effect. The models have been floating in it for about 12 hours. Should I use something else?

Are you just not seeing it peeling away or have you pulled them out and scrubbed them?

Take a nail brush, toothbrush, or an electric toothbrush.

It won't just all melt off by itself. After a while, it will begin to peel, but there's no getting around manually scrubbing.

By the way, I just use isopropyl alcohol (because it costs almost nothing, and I use it to clean airbrush parts anyhow), but I leave my models in it for a week or more. Some of them, I've forgotten about for months... until the next time I go to strip something, and then I go... "Oh, that's what happend to that model!". It usually comes off very easily then

I scrubbed them with a toothbrush. Other paint came off of them easily, but not the red primer. It gets down to that and then it won't come off.

I'll scrub again after work tonight and see what happens.

Primer is always more stubborn. One cured, it requires more effort. In the future, remove the primer right away if it's a bad priming job -- isopropyl will work just fine.

The biggest issue will be the recesses, which you need to pick at with an awe if you want it virgin clean.

On the plus side, if you scrub it very well, what's left won't really pose a problem when you prime over it.

It is almost impossible to get primed plastic back to virgin gray but, just like Talys points out, if scrub most of it away it won't matter.

He actually has a point that he might not be aware of.

Simple Green has been diluted slightly, as I've noticed the same thing. I tried it once or twice on just bare pewter with no primer and it took a heck of a lot longer than it should have to remove.

GW changed the primer formula to bond to plastic, C o n s p i are a c y, go here for my post from a few years ago; http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/388729.page
.
After more research, it seems GW primer bonds "into" the plastic, and simple green does not seem to work as it used to.
,
and more instances;
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/527249.page
.
Thank you GW may we have another...

dettol?

Simple green doesn't remove spraypaint, only regular paint.

Some interesting things have occurred since I last posted.

The figures sat in Simple Green for a full 24 hours. The red spray paint still will not come off at all. It's almost like the plastic itself is now red. That brings me to my next observation.

The paint is no longer clumpy (which is the reason I had to strip it in the first place). It appears perfectly even now, like a good spray prime should.

Noticing this, I went ahead and started painting the figures. When it came time to apply a wash something bizarre happened. I used Agrax Earthshade and it turned white on some of the figures (7/10), but not on others. I tossed the bad ones back in the Simple Green.

Did you wash and scrub them in warm soapy water after the Simple Green treatment to remove any residue?

Yup.

Hrm. google says that you might be not shaking the bottle enough or applying too much of it, or watering down too much, or all of the above and more: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?707190-Agrax-Earthshade-Issues-Drying-White

*points to signature*

I tried the same pot of Agrax wash on other figures, after shaking it quite a bit, and it was fine. Then I put some on the cursed figures from hell and it turned white. I opened up a new bottle and tried that and it also turned white, again only on the cursed figures from hell.

So now I'm trying some other things to strip the paint. I left some sprayed bits in separate containers with:

CVS Brand Oven Cleaner
Acetone nail polish remover
Brake fluid

I'm going to sleep now and when I wake up I'll see what effects I got.

If they're all smooth, and there's no detail loss after being stripped, then the plastic itself has likely been stained. Simple green may have found wicked its way into the surface layers (totally guessing). My recommendation? Re-prime. Strip, then re-prime before throwing paint on. If the primer layer looks good, you should be good to go, regardless of what colour the plastic is.

Waitaminnit oven cleaner and plastic? Is that allowed?

Apparently. I let it sit overnight and none of the cleaning products had any effect on the paint or test bits at all. I'm now leaving it for a few days to see what happens.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Update: I checked again and the brake fluid appears to work.

After about 24 hours in the brake fluid, the paint could be scrubbed from the bit I tested, though not easily. There does not appear to be any damage to the plastic.

So if you have trouble stripping new GW spray primer from plastic, try brake fluid.

Science wins again.