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Ahoy Dakka.

Im assuming that this has been answered before but i seem to be too blind to find it.

I have a large amount of models (mostly plastic) that all suffer from my early years of collecting and as such need a hell of a lot of TLC. What would be the best way for me to go about stripping the paint and also loosening up the hold of glue so i can re-pose and whatnot. I've heard good things about Dettol so i have bought some of that, but im coming up short about the glue issue.

Any help would be appreciated!

To be fair to you, the most recent thread on this has a weird name for it;

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/670377.page

Have a read through that.

Dettol is definitely one way, assuming you are happy for your models to smell disgusting for a few months.

Isopropanol is another way, probably about as good as Dettol without the smell (don't buy it from bunnings, their prices are ridiculous - barnes has it cheaper)

Biostrip 20 is apparently amazing, but I am buggered if I can find a local distributor for it here - if you are ordering some, let me know and I will jump on your order and split the shipping with you.

Brake fluid is great for stripping models, but horrible stuff (you can't touch it, and you need to dispose of it properly)


As for the glue, if it is super glue, most of the above methods will kill that while they are stripping - if it is plastic glue, you are pretty much buggered.

From my personal experience:

Stripping: Leave them over night in a bucket of mean green or simple green. The next day, most of the paint will be off. You may have to hit a few spots here and there with a tough toothbrush, but that always gets the rest of it off. Plus its safe to use on plastic as well as metal figs.

De-Glue: Sometimes the mean green will loosen it enough to come right off. But in cases where it doesnt, I freeze them over night. This causes the glue to become brittle enough to just snap apart. But if the glue used in question is the type that melts the plastic together, better get yourself a razor saw. =D

Considering I was 12/13 at the time, razor saw it is haha.
I might give the dettol a shot and then try freezing. Given that they will never see the light of day otherwise, i have nothing to lose.

Freezing will work on super glue easily, plastic glue effectively melts both sides together - if you do it right you will never get them apart - you probably did it wrong at 13, so you might be lucky