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Hello,

I've been stripping models for a few months now and never seem to get them perfectly 'stripped'. Any kind of primer tends to just stay on there and there's bits of acrylic paint that never seems to come off. I've heard people having great success so clearly I'm doing something wrong.

I bought some really poorly painted Grey Knights a few weeks ago so I'll use them as an example:

Metal models tend to do much better than plastic (though still not perfect):



And while this is a rather extreme case, this is still an example of how plastic models fair:



I've seen many tutorials that have much better results (maybe because the models they stripped didn't have primer?). I use super clean and a hard bristle brush. I'm told that super clean can remove paint from a miniature if left for about 4 hours. Well I've left miniatures for up to two weeks and get about the same result. So I'm wondering if there's an obvious thing I'm doing wrong. Or is stripping paint off a primed model far more difficult? Or perhaps these Grey Knights in particular were so poorly painted that there was no salvaging them?

I got a bunch of FW resin figures stripped clean with Purple Power. It's a degreaser you can find in the automotive section of Target or Walmart.

OP: what you have left after the strip is the paint/glue/green stuff residue, you have to clean off with knife tips/jewelry tools. Especially so if the tub is used multiple times with full of minis.

Breotan wrote:I got a bunch of FW resin figures stripped clean with Purple Power. It's a degreaser you can find in the automotive section of Target or Walmart.

I don't believe Purple Power can be found here in Canada.

Big Mac wrote:OP: what you have left after the strip is the paint/glue/green stuff residue, you have to clean off with knife tips/jewelry tools. Especially so if the tub is used multiple times with full of minis.

Would throwing them back into a fresh batch of super clean help? Don't like taking knives to models if I don't have to.

There's also still the matter of leftover paint flakes (though I suspect just really getting in there with small, hard bristles will fix that) and primer.

Superclean has always worked for me. Like someone said the left over stuff isnt paint, its glue and that has to be removed with tools.

Sometimes on plastic and resin, the primer can stain the plastic/resin so it will never come out perfectly 'clean'

I agree metal models are a dream to strip.

Try repriming them and see if it really makes a difference.

I would say your stripper isn't good enough. Here in the UK we have Biostrip 20, which I'm fairly confident would take that primer off easy. It's probably difficult to get in Canada, but the active ingredient is Benzyl Alcohol, so maybe you could look for that? I also hear good things about Isopropyl Alcohol, but I haven't tried it, I imagine it's probably similar.

Also I recommend clipping the bristles short on your toothbrush, so they actually spring into the recesses rather than flopping over them.

For metal models use Acetone. Pure acetone.

Job done :-)

Plastic is trickier but I recommend Dettol.

Isopropyl alcohol, works better than everything else with one exception, Dot3 brake fluid.

If getting them perfectly back to bare plastic is important to you, like it is to me (because I'm weird), go straight for the good stuff.

Iso is safe to use, but does give off fumes (it dissipates very fast).

Dot3 is carcinogenic, which simply means you don't want to soak your hands in it or tip it down the sink when you're finished.

I strip models frequently because I change my mind or am unhappy with a paint job.

What always works for me, and I mean always.

Soak in simple green, then in isopropyl alcohol. Toothbrush to clear stuff off.

It works on army painter and citadel paints.

Some primers leave the plastic tinted, citadel black for example. Not like what you have, just a slight tint.

You should be able to get simple green in Canada.

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:

Breotan wrote:I got a bunch of FW resin figures stripped clean with Purple Power. It's a degreaser you can find in the automotive section of Target or Walmart.

I don't believe Purple Power can be found here in Canada.

You're in Vancouver. Drive to Blane and buy a case for you and your friends.

@PaulTheFirewoodSalesman - Sure, you can get Purple Power in Canada. ZEP has a version (it's called "Industrial Purple Cleaner") at Home Depot -

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/zep-industrial-purple-cleaner-378l/903415

If you go to an industrial vendor like Applied Industrial Technologies (being in the Vancouver area, there is one at Annacis Island), you can get the name brand stuff, but I it comes in a big jug - I think 8 gallon or 20 gallon or something? It's actually pretty cheap, and this is not a bad thing if you want to strip something really large, like a bunch of big FW models. Put it in a vat in the garage, or outside, forget about it, and come back in a week

All that being said, I think Purple Power is crappy for stripping models. I get almost as much mileage with just isopropyl alcohol and a SonicCare toothbrush (one of the high frequency ones, not the really crappy cheap one). There has never been a model I haven't been able to strip down to the bones, except sometimes plastic remains stained with the primer color (but this doesn't matter; it's perfectly flat).

If you are truly masochistic, use Dettol. It strips acrylic paints and enamel sealers like a champ; a few minutes in a Dettol bath, and a SonicCare will just tear it all off. But seriously, the stuff smells so bad it's not worth it.

If you're working with metal models, **go outside**, crack the plastic or resin base off, and use acetone (nail polish remover), gloves, and some kind of brush. Acetone works better than anything else that's readily available, but it will melt plastic into a gooey lump.

I do a jolly good soak in Dettol, then wash and dry, then a very short go in acetone to get the remaining primer off. More than 5 minutes in the acetone will start to affect the plastic.

Brake fluid work nice.