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I recently was given a secondhand model found at a car boot sale by a friend, unfortunately the model has been sprayed with cheap acrylic spray paint, not designed for models meaning the paint is very patchy and uneven. It has also been glued using superglue. Will dettol be able to strip this off and will it react with the glue in any way? Thanks in advance.

Yes, but it will take 24 hours to fully strip most stuff and may cause some small damage to the plastic or wear it down if it's metal. It should break down the super glue just fine too

Also it'll stink

Dettol is fine, probably the best paint striiper we have in the UK.

Important points to remember:
Do not at any point introduce water into it, it will react with the paint/dettol mixture, and turn it into some sticky gloopy gak that is VERY difficult to get off, and adding more water will just make it worse

Scrub off the paint with a toothbrush, and then rinse that toothbrush in my dettol, only once the model is is pretty much entirely free from paint should you rinse it with water

You could also try Biostrip 20, available in the UK.

Had great results with it.

Biostrip 20 works a treat

A better solution is a bottle of Isopropyl - I've tried it today and have had great success. It's cheap, instantaneous and produces a great result in minutes. And it won't harm your hands so gloves not required. And most importantly, no odour or damage to the plastic!

I did a little tutorial today if you'd like to check it out - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/697164.page

wow, thanks for all the replies folks.
General Annoyance, I will be sure to check out your guide later, thanks for the link.

Is there a off brand / cheaper version of dettol with the same active ingredients ? Or perhaps just the active ingredient ?

 General Annoyance wrote:
Yes, but it will take 24 hours to fully strip most stuff and may cause some small damage to the plastic or wear it down if it's metal. It should break down the super glue just fine too

Also it'll stink

No, no it won't.
Dettol is more harmful to bare skin than anything you can put in it for 24hrs. The idea of Dettol harming metal is bizarre.
The worst I've ever had happen is droopy Finecast after a day. I soaked original FW kits in a bath of Dettol and nothing bad ever happened.

It's inefficient and stinky, but it's readily available and easily stored.
I'd rather use iso, but for gentle work with unknown materials, Dettol is a safe bet.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:


No, no it won't.
Dettol is more harmful to bare skin than anything you can put in it for 24hrs. The idea of Dettol harming metal is bizarre.
The worst I've ever had happen is droopy Finecast after a day. I soaked original FW kits in a bath of Dettol and nothing bad ever happened.

It's inefficient and stinky, but it's readily available and easily stored.
I'd rather use iso, but for gentle work with unknown materials, Dettol is a safe bet.

My friend had a bad experience with Dettol once as it caused the surface of the plastic CSM he was stripping to become scratchy; perhaps he was doing it wrong.

Isopropyl is so unreactive to anything other than paint that it is a very safe bet indeed; I've gotten this stuff on my clothes, on my bed, on my hands - no trace of it even being there after a few seconds. The only thing I do know that it will harm is natural or soft resin (by soft I mean easily malleable), and since most models are neither of those, it's fine to work with

If you are using dettol;
1) Wear rubber gloves as it will literally strip the skin off your fingers
2) Use ONLY in a well ventilated room;be aware that it will stink the whole house
3)Dispose of safely;do not pour it away outside!
4) It is a hazardous chemical so be careful.
5)Alternatively use acetone free nail polish remover!It works better than dettol in my opinion!

It's more likely that your mate's CSM was damaged by accidental overzealous priming. I've had this happen with second hand plastic models - one sprayed chimera now looks like it was made of insulation foam!
I don't know why bad priming causes underlying damage, I suspect it's to do with the propellant.

Dettol's most potent stripping ingredient is Iso alcohol. It's basically a syrupy smelly iso that works gently and can be diluted to a reasonable degree without splitting, as that's what it's designed for - the other ingredients basically sustain the mix for as long as possible.

My main tip for Dettol: Get some hand/skin moisturiser and massage it into your hands after. You will have got some small amount on your skin, and a good err... Slathering.. After.. Really saves your hands from day long dandruff the next morning.

The main stripping ingredient in Dettol is just Isopropyl alcohol, which you can get without the pine scent and anti-bacterial additives. It's just rubbing alcohol.

Seconding the use of gloves when using dettol. IT will seriously dry out your skin (dissolves the oils) and you will need to moisturise afterwards otherwise. Also eye protection, because it will probably splash and you don't want that crap in your eyes.