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So just tried a new paint stripping method a lot of people have talked up. Acetone free nail polish remover. Even used a test model and a bit of sprue, and they stood up alright.

Yet I still managed to melt 20 Horrors of Tzeentch. Even had to run the jar of gooey horrors outside and into the bin because of the horrible amount of fumes coming off.

You guys ever do such a fail move? Make me feel better here.

Sure it was acetone free?

That's what the bottles said >.<

even acetone free will dissolve plastic mate, if you dont believe, me, try scrubbing with a soft toothbrush (the bristles are a polymer)

 davou wrote:
even acetone free will dissolve plastic mate, if you dont believe, me, try scrubbing with a soft toothbrush (the bristles are a polymer)

O I believe you man, like I said, I have a lump of fused plastic that says "only ever use simple green."

100% Isopropyl alcohol. 100% Chapter Approved.

Won't Melt Ya Minis!..but it might melt your wallet!

I let my friends enthusiastic younger brother try his hand at painting some of my necron warriors.

Never Again.

Simple green plus a motorized scrubber. (I use a rotary tool designed for cleaning lug nuts.) Best solution I know of.

That being said, I once tried to paint a group of Imperial Fists with spray paint. Unwittingly, however, I had bought a can of semi-gloss spray paint. Which was nowhere NEAR the color the cap made it seem.

A friend of mine went to put sealant on some finished minis, only to realize to his horror that the when putting his minis away the last time, he'd put the cap to the varnish on the can to his primer. Tragically, what made him realize this was the nice coat of black primer all over his finished minis!

That help take the sting out?

 Jimsolo wrote:
Simple green plus a motorized scrubber. (I use a rotary tool designed for cleaning lug nuts.) Best solution I know of.

That being said, I once tried to paint a group of Imperial Fists with spray paint. Unwittingly, however, I had bought a can of semi-gloss spray paint. Which was nowhere NEAR the color the cap made it seem.

A friend of mine went to put sealant on some finished minis, only to realize to his horror that the when putting his minis away the last time, he'd put the cap to the varnish on the can to his primer. Tragically, what made him realize this was the nice coat of black primer all over his finished minis!

That help take the sting out?

A bit. Still sore that I need to replace 2 boxes of minis though lol.

Did you ask about using it in the P&M forum here? I learned years ago about Simple Green there, and it works wonders. Sorry for your loss!

 Brother SRM wrote:
Did you ask about using it in the P&M forum here? I learned years ago about Simple Green there, and it works wonders. Sorry for your loss!

I'd seen people recommend it all around, and there's a large thread on it on Warseer. I think grandfather Nurgle is just punishing me for buying Tzeentch units.

 Kr00gZ wrote:
100% Isopropyl alcohol. 100% Chapter Approved.

Won't Melt Ya Minis!..but it might melt your wallet!

any other options for a fellow Aussie?

 captain bloody fists wrote:

 Kr00gZ wrote:
100% Isopropyl alcohol. 100% Chapter Approved.

Won't Melt Ya Minis!..but it might melt your wallet!

any other options for a fellow Aussie?

Dettol. It can become tedious depending on the amount of paint and if you're doing it 3-4 days in a row it starts to take the skin off your hands - but it is far and away the safest option. Resin, plastic, metal - it won't damage anything. Soak it in Dettol, take a toothbrush to it and you can't go wrong.

Oh and @greg0985 - I once catapulted a figure-case containing my new shiny new basilisk across a gaming hall. It took me weeks to build and paint it to a level of satisfaction and it saw a grand total of 2 games. I never fixed it. Actually I think that was the point I started my Black Templars.

Its strange. People get different results from the nail polish remover method. I stripped my whole space wolves army (some resin, some pewter, mostly plastics) with that method and not a single model melted.

Sorry for your loss :(

Book II wrote:

 captain bloody fists wrote:

 Kr00gZ wrote:
100% Isopropyl alcohol. 100% Chapter Approved.

Won't Melt Ya Minis!..but it might melt your wallet!

any other options for a fellow Aussie?

Dettol. It can become tedious depending on the amount of paint and if you're doing it 3-4 days in a row it starts to take the skin off your hands - but it is far and away the safest option. Resin, plastic, metal - it won't damage anything. Soak it in Dettol, take a toothbrush to it and you can't go wrong.

Oh and @greg0985 - I once catapulted a figure-case containing my new shiny new basilisk across a gaming hall. It took me weeks to build and paint it to a level of satisfaction and it saw a grand total of 2 games. I never fixed it. Actually I think that was the point I started my Black Templars.

I assume the "Catapult" was a casual rage quit?

in any case, Book is right. Right now my friend is paint stripping his Tau army (the paint scheme and execution was horrid!) . He hasn't reported a single problem to me, except that you need to wear gloves . Hopefully now he will paint them to a great tabletop standard, like he has done with his DV Chaos set.

Years ago, I decided to get the paint off an old broadside battlesuit with paint thinner (obviously I didn't know what it'd do to plastic). Won't be doing that again anytime soon.

 Dheneb wrote:
Years ago, I decided to get the paint off an old broadside battlesuit with paint thinner (obviously I didn't know what it'd do to plastic). Won't be doing that again anytime soon.

what happened? [I'm thinking that the thinner did nothing and you wasted a bottle]

 sing your life wrote:

 Dheneb wrote:
Years ago, I decided to get the paint off an old broadside battlesuit with paint thinner (obviously I didn't know what it'd do to plastic). Won't be doing that again anytime soon.

what happened? [I'm thinking that the thinner did nothing and you wasted a bottle]

Quite the opposite, actually. Melted all the plastic (like the OP's story).

General Annoyance wrote:

Book II wrote:

 captain bloody fists wrote:

 Kr00gZ wrote:
100% Isopropyl alcohol. 100% Chapter Approved.

Won't Melt Ya Minis!..but it might melt your wallet!

any other options for a fellow Aussie?

Dettol. It can become tedious depending on the amount of paint and if you're doing it 3-4 days in a row it starts to take the skin off your hands - but it is far and away the safest option. Resin, plastic, metal - it won't damage anything. Soak it in Dettol, take a toothbrush to it and you can't go wrong.

Oh and @greg0985 - I once catapulted a figure-case containing my new shiny new basilisk across a gaming hall. It took me weeks to build and paint it to a level of satisfaction and it saw a grand total of 2 games. I never fixed it. Actually I think that was the point I started my Black Templars.

I assume the "Catapult" was a casual rage quit?

Ha, no. It was balanced precariously on a chair and I moved back to catch a guardsman I'd dropped only to knock the figure case flying. Hindsight tells me I caught the wrong model

I will recommend what i always recommend, go to the $.99 and buy LA Awesome, that stuff works, and its only $1. Seriously, do it now. Ive stripped hundreds of ebay minis; metal, plastic, and finecast and i've never had an issue.

I tried to strip some Finecast minis in break fluid.

Tried it with a bit of sprue, worked good. But then I forgot the minis were in there..

When they came out, the paint came off no problem but the minis had turned all rubbery.

 greg0985 wrote:

You guys ever do such a fail move? Make me feel better here.

I Once got a whole batch of RT marines who were as it turns out only mostly metal, Sadly I melted their fancy cool little backpacks, had to replace em with ones from snap marines. That said Ive also melted off/away some real godawful conversions people have done on some of the metal dudes Ive gotten in the past sometimes the ability to melt plastic aint so bad

I soaked a lot of figures over night in Simple green and the next day the paint just came off with a slight touch. The plastic was completely unharmed. I loved it.

I soak my minis/tanks that i want to strip in Alchohol then i give them to my brother and have him Sand Blast them with fine glass/sand mixture. You would think that would be bad with plastic, nope!

I have 2 Ebay land raiders, 3 raveners, about 40 gants, and 10 deathcompany, and 100's of goblins for fantasy all shiny new for dirt cheap. Go Go Sand Blaster!

Mr Clean with Febreeze. Works good. Cheap, no burning on the hands, smells good. lol

Only problem is, you have to let the minis soak a bit longer, like a day and half instead of a full day. Also you can even pour it down the sink without worries either.

Isopropanol works a treat. The paint just falls off after a day or so but it doesn't dissolve the plastic. Much nicer than Nitromors and other paintstrippers I've used.

I don't know where to buy near pure isopropanol, but most labs will have some.

Dettol, every time. Especially if it involves guard vehicles... gives them that great oily smell

This side of the pond, Fairy liquid power spray works great on plastics.

Sorry to hear that OP, losing 20 is a big loss imo :(

 greg0985 wrote:

 davou wrote:
even acetone free will dissolve plastic mate, if you dont believe, me, try scrubbing with a soft toothbrush (the bristles are a polymer)

O I believe you man, like I said, I have a lump of fused plastic that says "only ever use simple green."

Super clean purple (also purple power, or any engine degreasing purple gak sold at auto parts stores) works a lot better than simple green.

You should wear gloves, definitely, but the kind i get is biodegradeable, and works seriously 4-5 times better than simple green.

I think the stuff i use is called purple power or something like that. I got it at an auto store.


Sorry to hear about your models btw, had the same thing happen to me several years ago with Tau models. :(


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jimsolo wrote:
...plus a motorized scrubber.

THIS!

Though a poor mans substitute would be a vibrating toothbrush. I use one and it works wonders.

To be fair, melted Horrors will still pass as Horrors won't they?

Personally, I use Fairy Power Spray (don't know if there's an equivalent in the UK). Very good at removing paint from plastic and resin, but I just use nail polish remover for metal. A couple of coats of Power Spray will take it right down to the bare plastic, and a bottle will go a long way (just 1 1/2 bottles to strip a Warhound back down to bare resin).