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I wanted to strip some plastic miniatures down. I had heard that Dettol was good for this – is it the chloroxylenol that does the stripping (in which case anything with this would work) or it is it the combination of chemicals?

Was keen to see if I could get some generic stuff (rather than the more expensive Dettol).

Isopropyl alcohol - works better, smells less.

That said, I just got some Biostrip 20 after numerous recommendations here. Holy emperor this stuff is amazing, melted through multiple layers of paints from a trade I did on here - absolutely amazing. I am probably going to start distributing it here as no-one stocks it

What does that stuff do to finecast?

Iso can make finecast and some resin floppy, I will test out some pieces in biostrip and see what it does, I am 99% sure that it will be fine.

I've got a box coming to you this week too MSRC, just waiting for the varnish to cure fully.

Awesome! I didn't look who had posted that. I would have sent you an email lol

What about plastic ogres from GW - would Iso make the plastic go funny?

Nah, GW plastics love iso, no problems at all

What about methylated spirits? Can you use this (cheaper than rubbing alcohol)? Also I was wondering whether some of the stain removers for diapers/nappies could be used (have a baby and so have heaps of this stuff at home).

You are rapidly approaching the "test it and see" territory

Mitre 10 usually sells 1l of iso for ~$9

I haven't tested baby products on any of it, but I seriously doubt any of it would work

hasdrubalsbrother wrote:
What about methylated spirits? Can you use this (cheaper than rubbing alcohol)? Also I was wondering whether some of the stain removers for diapers/nappies could be used (have a baby and so have heaps of this stuff at home).

Yes, methylated spirits can take off acrylic paints from plastic models. Don't use it on clear parts - you WILL fog them.
I doubt the wipes would do much. Anything that is suitable for a sensitive baby's skin wouldn't be active enough to strip paint.

hasdrubalsbrother wrote:
What about methylated spirits? Can you use this (cheaper than rubbing alcohol)? Also I was wondering whether some of the stain removers for diapers/nappies could be used (have a baby and so have heaps of this stuff at home).

I used metho years ago and while it worked I would have to say I wasn't wowed by the results. Still had so much scraping and digging to get it even close to clean. I would recommend looking at the other suggestions here

I'm new to stripping miniatures so I did have some quick questions on Isopropanol and Biostrip 20 (as I have both).

I stripped some older pewter miniatures with Biostrip and it worked really well. I mean REALLY well. No effort to scrub off with an old toothbrush and no specks of paint left left. There were a couple of side effects. It weakened the superglue so they fell apart which was a welcome surprise. It also melted the plastic bases though which has made me nervous to use it on my old marines which have plastic parts. Was it the length of soak time or the type of plastic? I left overnight to soak which I know isn't necessary.

When I'm stripping plastic minis would it be safer to use Isopropanol? Should I just shorten the soak time?

Well congratulations, you scared the crap out of me!

I put about 20 minis in a tub of biostrip about 3 days ago, and just ran down the stairs at midnight to check them.

They're fine, still hard, no detail loss, paint utterly falling off them - there is also 3 layers on these things apparently, and the base layer looks like the actual plastic is stained green (probably army painter primer). Even THAT is coming off.

Why your bases died, I have no idea, but I cannot reproduce those results. I imagine your problem was the type of plastic, were they standard GW bases?

I only used Isopropanol alcohol for stripping so far, because suggested stuff like Simple Green etc. is not available in my country. I have to brush the minis inside the alcohol, otherwise the alcohol dried up too quickly and the paint wasn't coming off. Therefore, I suggest you get some gloves.
Paint came off quite easily after that, superglue was weakened and easy to break apart. GW white primer came off as easy as paint, had some metal models from Ebay orimed black, it was very hard to get the primer off. And one plastic mini from Ebay, primed black. It's soaking a year now, still not coming off.
Testwise, I threw some hardened Green Stuff in there, it seems to have desintegrated or just can't find it in all the paint residue at the bottom of the container.

Plastic and metal were not damaged, haven't tried it with Finecast or any kind of resin.

These work really well on plastic.

As others had said isopropanol works really well and quickly on plastic. Get some gloves though as it will wreck your skin.

I can also vouch for biostrip 20 since I used to work for the company that makes it . As for supply Im fairly sure theyll ship over seas. They have an amazon shop and they distribute through their own website here https://fuze-products.co.uk/ aswell as here http://www.biostrip.co.uk/biostrip-20-paint-stripper-500ml-tub.html

Also as for the cleaning product suggestions I think one of the only reason why they work is because the vast majority of said cleaners contain isopropanol

I've just had to strip all my Hero Quest miniatures I'd painted over 20 years ago and they were thickly coated in acrylic and *shockingly* Humbrol enamel too.

Letting them sit for a few minutes in nail varnish remover ***NO ACETONE (very important)***, then a quick scrub with an old toothbrush and 95% came off. A little tidying afterwards with something sharp (I used my craft scalpel) to get the last fiddly bits of paint off and now i have a clean set of bare models again!

Beware of leaving the models in the remover for too long - they'll go soft or melt.

I also echo someone else who mentioned Dettol which as an antibacterial liquid is great, but as a paint remover is not.

Hope that helps!

kb_lock wrote:
Well congratulations, you scared the crap out of me!

I put about 20 minis in a tub of biostrip about 3 days ago, and just ran down the stairs at midnight to check them.

They're fine, still hard, no detail loss, paint utterly falling off them - there is also 3 layers on these things apparently, and the base layer looks like the actual plastic is stained green (probably army painter primer). Even THAT is coming off.

Why your bases died, I have no idea, but I cannot reproduce those results. I imagine your problem was the type of plastic, were they standard GW bases?

Haha! Sorry KB!

Two things I can think of:

1) they were very old black bases. They will have been GW but they could have been from the original WH40K box which seemed to have very low grade plastic models. Maybe they were soft/different plastic to start with
2) as I left them overnight I sealed the container. Possible that a lack of air caused a slightly different chemical reaction.

I can agree with you on the paint falling off though. I had one mini from the early days where I had caked on the paint and a good thick layer of gloss varnish and the paint just slid off...

It's fine, they were in ordinary shape anyway.

Mine are also soaking in a sealed container, must have been your bases

I ought to get my Biostrip 20 blurb on a permanent C&P as I havent't the energy to type out my recommendation in full over and over again, but it is WAY better than Dettol of isopropyl alcohol.

Best way to test things out guys if your worried is cut some holes into some spru...we all got eough of that crap and test it yourself.

 Fifty wrote:
I ought to get my Biostrip 20 blurb on a permanent C&P as I havent't the energy to type out my recommendation in full over and over again, but it is WAY better than Dettol of isopropyl alcohol.

Yeah, I'm a convert.

I quite liked isopropyl alcohol, really liked dot3 brake fluid (aside from the cancer).

Biostrip is easily better than both, it's the miracle potion i was hoping for. $0.10 ebay turd marines, here i come

kb_lock wrote:

 Fifty wrote:
I ought to get my Biostrip 20 blurb on a permanent C&P as I havent't the energy to type out my recommendation in full over and over again, but it is WAY better than Dettol of isopropyl alcohol.

Yeah, I'm a convert.

I quite liked isopropyl alcohol, really liked dot3 brake fluid (aside from the cancer).

Biostrip is easily better than both, it's the miracle potion i was hoping for. $0.10 ebay turd marines, here i come

Do you find that biostrip swells the paint and makes it come off in layers and flakes as opposed to dissolving it like isopropanol does? I actually did R+D for Biostrip while I was working there but never tested it on acrylics used for painting models. It worked really well on polyurethanes and general household decorative paints but found that it tended to swell the paint and cause it lift from the subrstate as opposed to dissolving it like other paint strippers. Handy thing about that is you could sift out the flakes and keep using the biostrip for a very long time since it's not volatile.

I will have to confirm when I look at it again tonight, but it generally seems to separate the paint from the mini, I think you could absolutely strain it to keep going