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So I finally found some in Australia. Problem is I can't find the All Purpose concentrated version which is the one I see in all the stripping tutorials out there.

I could only find the Orange All Purpose Degreaser and I think it was either the Awesome All Purpose Cleaner Lemon Scent OR the Awesome Cleaner With Bleach (It was White that's all I know).

So my questions are;
Has anyone tried these variants and had them work for them?
Do these strip as well (or only slightly worse) than the concentrate?
Which out of these, if they do work, are best?

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I also found the window cleaning one but I doubt that would do much for stripping.


Every time I see a stripping article about the stuff it makes me want to buy some. It seems to work well.
I could not find any here in Australia until I saw some at this really odd $2 shop that seemed to have everything.
I want to know if it's worth going back to buy them.
Probably should have just bought some to try out at I think $3 or $4 each but I'd rather be safe until I know.


Sorry if this has been posted before or can be easily answered with googlefu. I was lazy this time...

Thanks in advance.

I use the LA Total Awesome, but haven't tried any of the ones you are showing. If I was to use any of them I would go with either the orange or lemon scented all purpose cleaners. Not sure if bleach would do anything or not.

I'm sure they are the same formula, just scented is all, and not concentrated, so just might take longer to strip the paint off. I would try it out, worst case is you use it for household cleaning if it doesn't work.

Okay, without checking out the product specs, degreaser means limonene / delimonene which is not a good thing to use on plastic at all.
It will soften acrylic, but it's also the core ingredient in Tamiya's non toxic plastic glue, to give you an idea of what it can do if used on grey plastic.

Use it on metal to your heart's content if it works. Keep it away from plastics.

DarkKnights44 wrote:I use the LA Total Awesome, but haven't tried any of the ones you are showing. If I was to use any of them I would go with either the orange or lemon scented all purpose cleaners. Not sure if bleach would do anything or not.

I'm sure they are the same formula, just scented is all, and not concentrated, so just might take longer to strip the paint off. I would try it out, worst case is you use it for household cleaning if it doesn't work.

Hmmmm, true. I might go back and buy one of each and test it out on some spures or things I'm willing to sacrifice. Worst case scenario is not too bad...

Buttery Commissar wrote:Okay, without checking out the product specs, degreaser means limonene / delimonene which is not a good thing to use on plastic at all.
It will soften acrylic, but it's also the core ingredient in Tamiya's non toxic plastic glue, to give you an idea of what it can do if used on grey plastic.

Use it on metal to your heart's content if it works. Keep it away from plastics.

I've seen other degreasers used for stripping that work, might have a look at the specs and if they contain those things I'll know to stay away.

Is bleach harmful to the plastic though? Will detail be lost?

I already have cheaper, somewhat less effective strippers Simple Green and Pine O Cleen. These take a while and ages of scrubbing, but the results are ok.

Dettol gives the best results but it smells so bad and makes a gunky mess if it gets anywhere near water. (I learnt that the hard way).

What I would like to get a hold of is Fairy Power Spray... but Australia seems to have none of these good strippers.

Doing a few more targeted google searches I found out a couple people claim the orange degreaser works and is safe for plastic and metal and kind of works for resin. I want to hear it from someone here on dakka though. Then I will buy some and try it out and post my results here.

Just get some 99% Isopropyl alcohol.
It's better than Dettol, doesn't leave a mess like Dettol and smells "better".
I tried a lot of different stuff for stripping and Isoprop is just that good.
You have to be carefull with Resin, it softens the Resin after some time.
But it works really fast and i never had problems with Resin, ok i've stripped only 2 Resin minis so far but still ...

Anyone know the long-term effects of:

-LA's Totally Awesome
-Simple Green
-Dettol
-Isopropyl Alcohol


I'm speaking about metals and plastics, but might as well mention effects it has on resin, for the future generations of builders looking back on this forum.

Specifically, I read that post about leaving LA's Totally Awesome away from plastic. I've had some Bretonnians sitting in the stuff for a week, no noticeable damage. They're still outside, should I go empty it out? Or is that warning only for the variants, mine is LA's regular cleaner from the dollar tree.


Also, knall, any word on effect of alcohol on plastics short or long term? What about superglue?

Long term in Dettol is harmless to almost anything apart from Finecast, which gets a bit soft. It stiffens up again after a day or so. Plastics are fine in there. I accidentally left a plastic RT era marine in it for three months and he was fine.

Iso acts a lot faster and also softens resin over time. Some porous plastics don't love it, basically don't totally forget it's there and you should be fine.

Metal is metal and doesn't care.

Barter_Bunker wrote:
the future generations of builders looking back on this forum.

If the current generation doesn't search the last hundred times we discussed this, why would the future ones?

Well, in fairness to future generations, I DID look back through the forum logs.


What I found was that there is no consensus or even standard agreement among people using the SAME chemical, much less different chemicals. Which is why this question is asked over and over; people responding with opinions (I THINK purple power works good, I FEEL like Totally Awesome strips faster, etc), rather than with facts (Totally Awesome strips all paint and does no damage during a 7-day window, at the very least). God forbid someone besides me does an experiment for the benefit of the community


Speaking of which I'm starting that today. Going to go out, buy a ton of chemicals and plastic tubs, and sacrifice a few dozen guardsmen (it's for the good of Mankind, now get in that goop soldier) for the good of the community. And also for the good of myself

I plan to check it once a month for damage, crazing, and its actually effectiveness as a stripper/glue debonder. However, that means it will be at least a year before we have any concrete results. However, once my experiment is done I do plan to leave a detailed list here, on Warseer, Warhammer Forum, Bartertown, and Librarium. Am I forgetting a major forum?


Anyway, that is my reasoning for why this question is asked over and over; because there has yet to be an actual answer. Do we have any Chemists in the audience? I will pay for the chemicals if you're willing to experiment with me. I'll even use up my own models.

There is no consensus, that's part of the problem.

Dot3 brake fluid is amazing, but highly toxic - some people will refuse to use it.

Isopropanol is really good, but there are different strengths, and again, some people don't like it.

Super Green has different formulations in the UK, US and AU.

Dettol has folks that love it, or folks that hate it. For me, it is more expensive iso that smells disgusting.

LAs Totally Awesome doesn't exist outside of murica

Biostrip is an utter pig to get outside of the UK

You are basically asking for a consensus on what is the best type of car, it will never happen. There are people who simply won't try Dot3 brake fluid because they are happy with the performance of Dettol - and if they are happy with it, why change? For them, Dettol is absolutely the best there is.

I am, however, delighted that you're going to run tests on it all - I had the same idea the other day and then realised the huge amount of work it would be and really couldn't invest that time. Kudos, I look forward to seeing what you find.

No problem. It's not so much work as it is waiting. And one thing Warhammer has taught me is patience


But it looks like I'm going with LATA until my tests show conclusive evidence one way or another.