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So I was stripping minis today with my usual weapon of choice, Acetone free nail varnish, and was a little taken aback by what happened.
Now I've used this stuff for years, and never had a problem with it, regardless of how long minis have been submerged.

I will say that this is the fastest that paint has come off, literally within 5 minutes the paint really flew off, to the point that I'd stripped 22 models completely in about half an hour. During the process there were a couple of guns that dropped into the liquid and I left them til last. When I finally removed them they looked a bit 'rough' and as I scraped what I thought was paint away I realised that it was infact plastic.
There is no damage to the figures whatsoever, although as I said the paint was off them within 30 minutes, almost total removal.

Now as I said, I've used this stuff for years (same brand) and never had a problem. In the past I've left plastic minis in the stuff sometimes 24 hours and never had any adverse side effects, so I'm baffled.
Either the brand has changed formula and made it stronger, or maybe GW has changed the plastic?

So, can anyone shed some light on this?

Update[u]; just discovered a shoulderpad that was in the liquid for the same amount of time as the guns that melted. It didn't melt! I think I'll just use the nail varnish remover for cleaning my paint palettes. I've ordered some of Greenstuff World's paint remover to see what that does.

I have tried acetone free this year and found that it softens plastic if left on too long. Can’t say if this is change or not. I just use it for metal minis

Yeah I use acetone for metal too but only for stubborn bits and superglue that wont come off (usually on Ebay rescues)

My go to choice is methylated spirits for plastic, cheap and easy to find.

 Rybrook wrote:

My go to choice is methylated spirits for plastic, cheap and easy to find.

Really? I tried that on some Catachan and while it did get the paint off my Catachan are now purple.

I've also tried straight alcohol, but that only worked so-so. It also stripped off any greenstuff I had. Fortunately I was testing it on some tester models and only lost a practice cape.

I also found Dettol isn't doing it like it used to.

On to Dot 3 brake fluid but it seems super inefficient. It stops working after only a few models.

Definitely, meths strips off the paint in less than 10 mins with agitation of a used toothbrush.

Shouldn't be staining purple unless it's left to soak for too long

 Rybrook wrote:
Definitely, meths strips off the paint in less than 10 mins with agitation of a used toothbrush.

Shouldn't be staining purple unless it's left to soak for too long

I left it for maybe an hour because less time wasn't moving the paint. (Citadel over white primer).

I did leave one for a couple days to see HOW purple it would get

I’ve been getting good results with bio strip 20. You only need to leave it on for 20 minutes and then you scrub it off. Scrubbing it off is the hardest work especially if you have a detailed contoured model like a venom crawlers. Warm soapy water recommended. But it seems like it’s safe for your models and works on all paint. Some models need a second treatment. If you have several layers then you might need that second treatment to get the residue off but nearly all, if not all, of the paint will come off after the first 20 minute treatment.

But the thing I like the most is that it doesn’t smell of chemicals. Even nail varnish remover is a bit over whelming for me. I tried green stuff world remover which was great at its job but made me feel sick.