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So I soaked a batch of painted infinity models in isopropyl alcohol overnight and then scrubbed them off with a toothbrush.... 99% of the paint came off effortlessly, but if you are familiar with these models you will know they have a lot of very fine details and quite a lot of paint is stuck in these recesses and the toothbrush doesn't seem to be getting at it no matter how much I scrub away. I've thought about trying to get it out with crafting knife but im worried i may do some damage in the process and this will also take a painfully long time to do. Is there a better brush or something i could use to help with this?


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If i need to resort to the scraping it out method, perhaps some cocktail sticks would work better than a crafting knife as the wood wouldnt damage the metal? Not sure if the tip would be fine enough though hmm...

I am familiar with those models. Although I haven't stripped my Infinity models, they really aren't that different from many of the metal PP minis.

A hobby knife is a bad idea, because it will scuff up the relatively soft metal. Resist the urge. If you're very gentle, an awl (metal pointy tool) is an acceptable tool, as long as you don't press hard. Even that, though, isn't ideal.

Better solution: break the bases off (very important!) and drop them in ACETONE nail polish remover for a couple of days. Have 3 tools: wide nail brush, a toothbrush, and a cheap electric toothbrush (I use an old Sonicare).

Use the wide nail brush first, which will probably remove almost everything. The regular toothbrush will catch most of the crevices. Finally, on those stubborn areas where details still have bits of primer in them, use the electric toothbrush.

Picked up a cheap electric toothbrush from the store and tried that after they soacked a while longer... didnt get into the recesses...actually i dont even know if it will take stuff of the raised surfaces either... maybe I went a little too cheap with my purchase there lol...

What is this nail brush you speak of? Do you mean the kind that you use to scrub dirt from under your finger nails? I think I have one of those in the house somewhere....

I take it the ACETONE stuff melts plastic? I'm a little worried about removing them from the bases as i Use a lot of glue to stick them on and if they break I dont have any replacement bases of that size... hmm....

I'm going to pick up some little wooden cocktail sticks from the store later, see if those can get it out. The problem with these models are the recess are both narrow and quite deep too in some areas....

I strip metals with cellulose thinner. Extremely nasty stuff but it'll remove everything that isn't metal. (Remove bases before stripping - you'll need to rebase anyway).

acetone will undo superglue.

anab0lic wrote:
Picked up a cheap electric toothbrush from the store and tried that after they soacked a while longer... didnt get into the recesses...actually i dont even know if it will take stuff of the raised surfaces either... maybe I went a little too cheap with my purchase there lol...

What is this nail brush you speak of? Do you mean the kind that you use to scrub dirt from under your finger nails? I think I have one of those in the house somewhere....

I take it the ACETONE stuff melts plastic? I'm a little worried about removing them from the bases as i Use a lot of glue to stick them on and if they break I dont have any replacement bases of that size... hmm....

I'm going to pick up some little wooden cocktail sticks from the store later, see if those can get it out. The problem with these models are the recess are both narrow and quite deep too in some areas....

Yeah, nail brush is just a wide brush (2-3 inches) for cleaning out under the nails. I like it because you can slide a few fingers in it and it has a large cleaning surface area. Acetone (aka nail polish remover) destroys acrylic paint. The bases will melt and make a mess.

Infinity bases are just boring 25mm slotabases (though they come with the slots covered). If you put them *right* beside GW bases, you see they are a fraction of a milimeter shorter, but it's so small that nobody would ever notice -- it's like, the height of 2 grains of sand. And God only knows, there are enough 25mm GW bases floating around now

You might want to try Dettol too -- it cleans like a champ and is much less caustic.