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I have some old Space Marine models that I've been trying to strip for the past few days. I've stripped models a few time over the years, always using Simple Green as it seems to work well enough when removing the paint (with some difficulty in recessed areas) but typically I have issues getting the primer to come off on plastic models, with resin and finecast being particularly difficult.

I gave them a soak overnight and, about 24 hours later, had at it. As usual, the surface paint was about 90% removed, but patches of primer remains in various areas, still covering about 50-75% of the model. Some of these models even had their paint already stripped some time ago with the aforementioned primer issue still being present, so when they had been soaked there wasn't any initial layer of paint to be stripped, instead it was just primer.

I got frustrated with Simple Green not doing the job so I decided to do some digging and look for stronger methods of removal. I heard about brake fluid, and decided to give it a shot. Don't worry, I wore all the necessary protection when handling the stuff. I tried a bottle marked " DOT 3 " as I had read that 4 can damage or melt the models. I gave them a soak for a few days after running a test on a few old models and making sure that no harm was done. I'm disappointed to say that after soaking for 3 days, nothing has happened at all. Despite my efforts to remove it with a toothbrush, the primer is still sticking to them, stubborn as ever. If I run the point of a needle file or knife along the surface, it will come off, but this is not exactly ideal. It already takes a fair bit of time just scrubbing with a toothbrush, if I had to " needle " every bit of paint off it would take me a month!

This primer is really proving to be an issue. I would like to be able to use these models again, but I don't want to prime back over them when there's already sporadic patches of primer still on them. I'm not sure what to do! Any thoughts Dakka?

Isopropyl Alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol) should take it off with ease. Try getting a 91% purity or better.

Unless the remaining primer is obscuring detail, just leave it.

I'm having the same issue. I would leave it, but I want to get all the primer off because the person who previously owned the models was bad at getting mold lines off, which the primer is making it hard to see.

I broke down and ordered and ultrasonic cleaner. It should arrive this week and I'll see how that goes.

My cleaner does help. But even with that sometimes some stuff doesn't come off. I take it these are plastic models. I would leave the black on there if it were me. Dry brush themodes over it with a light white and you will see those mold lines again. Clean those, the reprime and go from there. Will be easier in the long run I bet.

 TheCustomLime wrote:
Isopropyl Alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol) should take it off with ease. Try getting a 91% purity or better.

Do you soak them in it, and if so, for how long? And scrub with a toothbrush I assume?

I'll give it a shot some time and see how it goes. Thanks for the advice.

The plastic could just be stained. I stripped some Necrons that happened to, they were forever blackish nothing would take that out short of sanding

Yeah some paints stain the plastic and its permanent unless you sand them off.

and as others have said. unless its obscuring details you may as well leave it on.

not even 99% iso will take all the primer off. especially if its stuck into corners. and definitely wont if its a enamal.

In short, it happens. I've had some paints which just are really stubborn and don't want to come off. Normally I can get "enough" off to prime them over and carry on.

If it was a good shrinking primer (and if it doesn't come off with brake fluid then it probably was a good primer) then it's so thin that it'll disappear when you prime over it.

Do you have access to Dettol antiseptic disinfectant? I soak models in that for a day and the paint comes right off. Give it a scrub with a toothbrush and honestly I've not had one model come out that doesn't look brand new - its that powerful. Maybe that chemical would work for you where the ones before have failed?

Just don't make the noob mistake with dettol.

DO NOT EVER RINSE WITH WATER after using dettol to strip paint. It will just turn the paint into a sticky gluey mess that is impossible to shift.

And dettol is 90% Isopropanol anyway (the other 10% is the colour and antibacterial ingredients)

 chromedog wrote:
Just don't make the noob mistake with dettol.

DO NOT EVER RINSE WITH WATER after using dettol to strip paint. It will just turn the paint into a sticky gluey mess that is impossible to shift.

And dettol is 90% Isopropanol anyway (the other 10% is the colour and antibacterial ingredients)

Yes that is a very important point to know!

 Desubot wrote:
Yeah some paints stain the plastic and its permanent unless you sand them off.

and as others have said. unless its obscuring details you may as well leave it on.

not even 99% iso will take all the primer off. especially if its stuck into corners. and definitely wont if its a enamal.

This. Though getting all of the primer off is unnecessary in most cases. A little left over primer here and there won't hurt the overall finish of the model.

Okay, so my Ultrasonic Cleaner showed up today and I have a mixed bag of results. I'm using Simple Green vs what amounts to GW black primer laid on pretty thick. They've been soaking for over a week in Simple Green as well.

For plastic, it strips, but it's slow going. After a 8 minute cycle (max on my non-industrial cheapy UC), maybe 10% of surface cleaning, at best. Disappointing to say the least, especially given the instructions mention the machine shouldn't be run continuously for more than 15min.

For metal, big difference! After 8 minutes it was bubbling right off. A quick scrub with a toothbrush in the sink got 60% off easily, then I put it back in for 4 minutes and the gunk in the crevices is coming out nicely. Probably a few more cycles to get it fully stripped, but far, far better results than with plastic.

I didn't try any resin. Tomorrow I may try a primed, painted, varnished metal miniature to see how it does on un-soaked, finished metal minis.

If you're stripping plastic, it seems to be not worth it if Isopropyl Alcohol works well. I'll try that soon. For metal, it definitely seems worth it. It gets paint out of even the crevices with basically very little manual effort.

If you can get this in the great white north, swap out the simple green with LA's Totally Awesome. Its a cleaner you can get here at walmart and any dollar store. All natural blah blah blah. I made a tutorial on it forever ago. That stuff works far better than simple green.


Sooo all you need is the hope that its available in Canada lol

 KingCracker wrote:
If you can get this in the great white north, swap out the simple green with LA's Totally Awesome. Its a cleaner you can get here at walmart and any dollar store. All natural blah blah blah. I made a tutorial on it forever ago. That stuff works far better than simple green.


Sooo all you need is the hope that its available in Canada lol

Sadly, it doesn't seem to be available up here. I could get it off Amazon for some insane price, but if Isopropyl Alcohol works it'll be fine.

Yeah, Simple Green changed their formula a while back to make it more eco-friendly and the stripping capability went down - how old is the stuff you're using?

Have you considered a genuine automotive degreaser such as "Super Clean" (by Castrol I think) or Wal-Mart's version "Purple Power"?

PS: Your sonic cleaner won't do anything in 8 minutes. Models I use them on have to sit through about 45-60 minutes at least (running it in spurts or all at once and risking the machine).

It's probably new formula Simple Green, then. And I've been running the UC in 8 minute spurts every hour or so, and yes, I'm seeing progressive results - some plastic models are now half-stripped.

I'm suspecting the UC has some pretty localized effects - ultrasonic 'hot-spots', if you will. I probably have too many miniatures in there as well. It's become something of a science project for me at this point.

 Elbows wrote:
In short, it happens. I've had some paints which just are really stubborn and don't want to come off. Normally I can get "enough" off to prime them over and carry on.

Yes, this. If it was a secondhand purchase, consider that it's possible they used Krylon Fusion or something like that, which is really never going to come off.

 Elbows wrote:
Yeah, Simple Green changed their formula a while back to make it more eco-friendly and the stripping capability went down - how old is the stuff you're using?

Have you considered a genuine automotive degreaser such as "Super Clean" (by Castrol I think) or Wal-Mart's version "Purple Power"?

PS: Your sonic cleaner won't do anything in 8 minutes. Models I use them on have to sit through about 45-60 minutes at least (running it in spurts or all at once and risking the machine).

I will second the walmart purple power, you can also find that readily at autoparts stores like Autozone and the like. It works incredibly well, probably better than LAs totally awesome but it costs more than the torally awesome, so I just go the route of cheapest.

So I tried a 24 hours soak in 99% isopropyl alcohol. While I was able to get some of the paint off with a toothbrush, it didn't seem to be any better than Simple Green - enough effort is required that it would be easy to break delicate parts, so that's a no-go. The person who had these minis put them together with superglue, not plastic glue, so stuff is snapping off if I brush too hard.. I can't really trial the UC with alcohol because it's not completely sealed, and I don't want to fume up the entire house with alcohol fumes.

I keep running the UC with Simple Green intermittently. The 12 Kroot I have in there are about 2/3 stripped, though I've lost track of the 8 minute cycle times I've run. It may be worth moving on to stronger stuff.

Here is Canada I believe the equivalent of the "purple power" is "Super Clean".
I am unsure just how many you want to strip...


Here is a write-up by a model guy cleaning off a car model.
http://importnut.net/models/stripping-paint-with-castrol-degreaser/

It works very well, I have used it many times.
For any paint stripper please make sure you use the gloves and to be safe please ventilate well.

Yeah, I'll probably try that next. It's probably safer to soak the minis in degreaser, then move it into a water/soap filled UC than to run the UC with the more toxic chemicals. How long do you usually soak your stuff?

That Black your seeing left over isn't primer. The plastic just gets stained black by the primer. For some reason Black is the only one that does it (though red will leave your mini pinkish)

Your 4 different methods of stripping have ....very effectively...removed all primer from it so you can now prime over that mini now and it'll be fine.

 John Prins wrote:
Yeah, I'll probably try that next. It's probably safer to soak the minis in degreaser, then move it into a water/soap filled UC than to run the UC with the more toxic chemicals. How long do you usually soak your stuff?

It really does depend on what was used and the base material.
I had some metal scouts I got that it took it off easily in an hour soak.
"Stubborn" stuff I found overnight at the most worked.
I have not performed an "endurance test" to see how long I can soak until it damages polystyrene so I am hesitant to recommend longer if needed.

 rayphoton wrote:
That Black your seeing left over isn't primer. The plastic just gets stained black by the primer. For some reason Black is the only one that does it (though red will leave your mini pinkish)

Your 4 different methods of stripping have ....very effectively...removed all primer from it so you can now prime over that mini now and it'll be fine.

I think people can tell the difference between stained plastic and stubborn, intact primer left in crevices. The difference is kind of obvious. Also, I'll point out that the plastic I've put in my Ultrasonic, using Simple Green, are cleaning up without any staining at all, it's just taking a ton of cycles to do it.

Ok, so I've experimented with Super Clean, and this stuff is the cat's meow. After an hour soaking in it the paint was dissolving right off and about 95% came off with a light scrubbing with a toothbrush.

I gave it another hour and got maybe 98% off with a bit more toothbrush work. Nothing left I wouldn't be worried about priming right over. I decided to run it through a ultrasonic cycle in the Simple Green to see if that gets the rest off, but it really doesn't matter.

Note I wouldn't use Super Clean in the ultrasonic, as Super Clean is listed as a metal corrosive, though as a degreaser it's a mild one, you don't want to leave it in contact with metals for extended periods.

Yep, just wear gloves...that Super Clean isn't very good for ya (and the Wal-Mart version of Super Clean is what people mean when they say "Purple Power").

 Elbows wrote:
Yep, just wear gloves...that Super Clean isn't very good for ya (and the Wal-Mart version of Super Clean is what people mean when they say "Purple Power").

Gloves and a face shield is what I"m using. One problem I ran into is that the paint dissolves into the Super Clean. It starts a clear purple, but it quickly turned an opaque black from the primer, which made fishing minis out tricky!

I did notice some minor etching on citadel bases (white discoloration once dried). That might be from the Simple Green as well, though, I can't be sure until I strip minis that I didn't use Simple Green on yet.