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So I sprayed a squad of chosen and left them to dry over the night. The next day I noticed the paint was far to thick and a lot of detail was lost, but the paint's completely dry by now.

Is there a product/way to remove the paint reliably?

People at my club say Dettol is best for that job.

Did you spray with can or airbrush?

Google "paint stripping" along with the material that the models are made of and miniatures or games workshop and you should get a good range of results.

For plastics and metals you just put the model into something like Dettol (the brown original version not the clear spraycan one). Then leave them for a good number of hours; I'd say 24 to really get the paint worked off, but you can do it sooner (basically the longer the easier).

Then you just use a worn old toothbrush and scrub the paint off, keep a dip nearby of dettol to keep your brush washed "clean" in it and to help wash off the material.

Only once you've got all the paint off can you then advance to washing it with water to clean the final residue off - don't clean with water whilst getting the paint off as it will go all goopy.



From what I know resin is a more mixed bag affair depending on the chemical formula; and I recall that you can't paint-strip finecast (or if you can you have to use a very different method to the plastic/metal approaches). Note that resins come in all kinds of formulas so what works for one might not work for the others.

Dettol will work, it pretty safe, but stinks like all hell (forever, I have models I stripped with Dettol about 6 months ago that still smell) and still requires a bit of effort.

Isopropyl alcohol is cheaper, faster, but stinks twice as bad (but the smell goes away quickly), less safe, but a lot less effort - WARNING, all isopropyl alcohols are not equal, some will eat plastic

Brake fluid - extraordinarily dangerous (you can really hurt yourself), amazingly effective

The above is only in regards to plastics, not resins or metals (though should be safe for metals)

I heard a jewelery cleaner machine with purple power in it does wonders.

I bought this one, and I'm waiting for it to arrive.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DKDAVW/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have one of those, they aren't the miracle machine I thought they might be, but I haven't tested it extensively yet.

Today I tried stripping an old, old miniature (elf from - I think - warhammer quest); I had this small container in which I already had denatured alcohol, paint residues (having stripped 7-8 models already) and a pair of model I forgot in for a couple of weeks. Long story short, I drown the painted mini, close the lid (alcohol is volatile, after all ) and wait one hour and a half or two: brushing with an old toothbrush i removed but all the paint layers and the primer.

I use an old professional ultrasonic cleaner that I picked up for a lot of nothing a while back. I also have the one that was posted earlier and it doesn't do anything. It doesn't run long enough. I use a variety of different solutions, depending on the material of the mini, paint used, and primer used. For metals, after an hour, most of the paint/primer comes off after a very quick scrubbing with a toothbrush. Plastics will generally clean themselves and it isn't uncommon for me to pull them out after three cycles of one hour each with little to no paint left on them at all. If you have a lot of minis to clean or are going to get into the trading aspect of the hobby then I recommend a real ultrasonic cleaner and regular household cleaners.

Simple green (Undiluted) in a cup. Drop the model in, let it soak, scrub with tooth brush. Rinse. VIOLA

 Glorywarrior wrote:
Simple green (Undiluted) in a cup. Drop the model in, let it soak, scrub with tooth brush. Rinse. VIOLA

This is what I use- how thick the paint is will determine how long it needs to soak. If the paint doesn't come off easily, let it soak more.

If you can find SuperClean where you are it works even better than Simple Green!

Purple Power has been my stripper of choice. Sometimes has problems with fine spray primer on plastic, but the amount it removes effectively leaves it paint- or primer-ready.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=255907482

Fairy Powerspray. Takes the paint off, doesn't damage metal, resin, vinyl, nor plastic. Smells better than Detol and is easier to clean off, not hazardous to dispose of like brake fluid.

Spray on, preferably into a plastic container like a lunch box, leave for 5 mins, remove paint with an old toothbrush, rinse off residues. Done.

Warning. Do NOT get neat onto anything you want to keep the paint on, like your car or garage door! It strips paint in less than a minute.

I use Super Clean, you can get huge jugs of it at Auto Zone for like $11 and it takes the paint off of anything easily. It comes in a big purple plastic tub and one jug of it will last you nearly forever. I stripped my whole 4000pt Tyranid army and that same jug is still going strong stripping secondhand Tau models.

doesn't isopropanol chew through paint?

 Conrad Turner wrote:
http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Product/Details/?id=255907482

Fairy Powerspray. Takes the paint off, doesn't damage metal, resin, vinyl, nor plastic. Smells better than Detol and is easier to clean off, not hazardous to dispose of like brake fluid.

Spray on, preferably into a plastic container like a lunch box, leave for 5 mins, remove paint with an old toothbrush, rinse off residues. Done.

Warning. Do NOT get neat onto anything you want to keep the paint on, like your car or garage door! It strips paint in less than a minute.

Powerspray formula has changed. If using this, make sure it's the old bottle with the red circular flash on the label. The new stuff with the mainly green label and a small straight yellow flash and Fresh citrus is no good at all.