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So I wanted to start over on a marine and remove everything down to the spray paint enamel base coat (flat black heat resistant BBQ spray from HW store)--whats the best chemical to do that? I say chemical because I'm assuming any sort of abrasive method would effect the enamel base coat layer. Alchohol? 409?

Thanks guys

Fairy/ dawn power spray

 soitra wrote:
Fairy/ dawn power spray

THX!

Sorry for the brief reply earlier was on my way to work.
Thinking it shouldn't affect the base coat but can't say for certain as I don't use enamels. This stuff is awesome and I always try and keep some around my painting station. I've even used it watered down to clean my airbrush with great results.

Most of the stripping agents (household cleaners and degreasers, mainly) we use on acrylics will also work on enamels, given enough time. Main trick is to limit the exposure so that the top layers of acrylic come away before the enamel undercoat is affected. To that end, agitation is helpful.

I use rubbing alcohol (regular drug/grocery store fare - 70% isopropyl) on a cotton swab to spot-strip models, when I want to repaint a particular section without scrapping the whole paintjob. If you've used thin layers of paint, even half a dozen of them can be erased with just a few gentle passes. The limited exposure leaves the more resilient spray completely unaffected.

If I wanted to partially strip a whole army, I'd experiment with different solvents and soak times to find one that could strip acrylic without touching enamel, allowing me to treat models en masse. For a single model, I'd just "erase" the paint - more effort per model than a batch soak but much faster, making it the best method, IMO, for one-offs. It's also the only basecoat-safe method I can personally attest to, for what it's worth.

Silly question here - would it not be easier just to strip the whole thing and just re-primer?

 cento wrote:
Silly question here - would it not be easier just to strip the whole thing and just re-primer?

Thats one way--its a little bit of a hassle because I extract the paint from the can then airbrush it on. Then I gotta clean everything with lacquer thinner. Luckily I have my cheapo Harbor Freight siphon feed to do it with, rather than double duty my iwata

Also, I did that once and anything short of soaking in thinner (409, isopA) just wont get spray paint primer off. and the paint thinner started softening the plastic eventually--yikes.

So I just thought I'd throw it out there, hoping maybe there was a magic solution (pun intended) cause im seriously under-experienced painting plastic with acrylics. Im from the old testors enamel and pewter(lead?)miniatures generation. I still have my Mind Flayer from 7th grade--molded almost as badly as it was painted.

And thanks oadie--sage advice

mjp808 wrote:
Im from the old testors enamel and pewter(lead?)miniatures generation. I still have my Mind Flayer from 7th grade--molded almost as badly as it was painted.

Heh, I hear ya - my first GW minis were purchased in... 1988 or 89? Luckily, the local hoby shop diverted me from testors to acrylics around the same time.

And yeah, don't use thinner for the stripping - bad news for plastic indeed. There are lots of tutorials here, but I recommend simple green or brake fluid. I have left a figure in Simple Green for months as an experiment, and it did no real harm to even all the plastic bits, just some discoloration.