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Hello I am new and got a badly painted chaos warrior from my brother and just got simple green and am letting it sit for a day or 2, is it really gonna strip the paint as well as people say?

Really depends on what the badly painted model was painted with.

I've had it struggle with certain paints that ethanol would just strip effortlessly - and other paints that required a more aggressive solvent to shift.

because the cape on this thing is as hard as a fudging rock

Maybe maybe not.

I have heard that they changed formula.

BUT really the god of stripping paint i find i just iysoproponal alcohol.

works like a charm every time.

And where the heck can i get that

Couple things to consider from a veteran Simple Green user, organize your models in squads and put them in sandwich bags, then pour simply green(purple color concentrated version from Home Depot) in so you don't lose parts.

Another option is 91% rubbing alcohol, works very well on plastic and make resin rubbery; though you will need a sealed container to keep it from evaporating.

 spartan117 wrote:
And where the heck can i get that

It's just rubbing alcohol. Should be able to find it at (at the very least) a pharmacist. We can find it in supermarkets and chain stores, here, too.

something i have heard works amazing! but you need to be very careful when using it, and i mean very careful is break fluid

++++++READ THIS +++++++
If you do decide to use break fluid, only use it on metal models, wear gloves, dont breath in, and rise it with soap and water.

Break fluid can be highly toxic to you, but it will strip the paint from metals like a charm. afterwards you are going to need to let the model sit for like a few days once its washed clean to let the fumes dissipate

Brake fluid is fine on resin and plastic too.

Biostrip is the best I've ever seen though, way better than iso or brake fluid

kb_lock wrote:
Brake fluid is fine on resin and plastic too.

Dot 3 Brake Fluid is, as far as I've been able to determine, safe on plastic and resin.

Some other brake fluids have been reported to eat plastic.


The toxicity and the difficulty disposing of it afterwards make it a less attractive option than some others out there these days, though.

Absolutely, brake fluid is horrible stuff.

I just received 10L of biostrip though

Purple Power. Buy it at Target, in the automotive section.

 Breotan wrote:
Purple Power. Buy it at Target, in the automotive section.

Purple Power is my choice too. Can buy at Walmart and i've found it more effective than simple green (which I used for years as well)

Both products are useful, just simplegreen I find takes days and days to work. Both products are also biofriendly for what its worth.

RE: purple power & Simple green

both good, simple green can take a long time, we're talking like WEEKS on older paint jobs/models - stuff off ebay for instance with a horrible paint job (or three) - may need to scrub with toothbrush, rinse off, chuck back into the rubbermaid container whatever it's in, for more time.

I've had good luck with purple power as well - haven't tried it on really horrid jobs since I ran out (of it, not the horrid jobs )

both are reuseable however - so don't throw it out once you're done. Just save it in a container to use again and again. Until it's really completely well used. Especially with small models it's silly to go through so much when you can simply chuck a couple more in the container even though it's a bit dirty.

also good for cleaning your paint palettes I've found

Nope

Desubot wrote:Maybe maybe not.

I have heard that they changed formula.

They have. It no longer contains the 2-butoxethanol that seemed to be the magic ingredient.

Luckily you can still 2-butoxethanol in...

Breotan wrote:Purple Power. Buy it at Target, in the automotive section.

I now use Purple Power. I buy it in 2.5 gallon jugs from the automotomotive shop. It's considerably cheaper than green and works better. It is harsher though, so wear gloves. I recommend the green "Solvex" anti-solvent gloves that cost a couple of bucks at your local hardware shop.

I've stripped a few hundred figures with Purple power. Sometimes it does take a while and it doesn't always get off all oil-based enamels, but it will take care of most.

I swear by Simple Green but at the same time I have had some difficulties with it myself.

It works really well on metal, but it can be hit and miss with plastic. I recently stripped one of my old cannon crews and it all came off fine (although I had to soak it twice to get the paint in the crevasses). On other models I picked up off Ebay it can get the paint off but not the base coat.

I've tried Isopropyl alcohol and it works but I have had less success with it then with Simple Green.

Simple Green and Purple Power are both great. Purple Power is certainly stronger, in my own experiences.

Neither is the fastest or the surest paint-stripper out there, but they are tops for other reasons.

Compared to many other solvents, they are very safe to use and store. They aren't volatile, like alcohol, nor due they give off a lot of fumes. They can be safely disposed of in the sink, unlike Brake fluid. They are safe for almost all models, and seldom do any damage to any model left soaking for ANY period of time.

Plus, if you don't need all of your SG or PP, you can dilute it to various concentrations and use it for many other cleaning tasks around the house. Many other solvents are something that you might not use otherwise, or are unlikely to use in small, variable quantities (like brake fluid--either you need it or you don't).

Purple Power is a good, relatively inexpensive choice, with few downsides, even though other paint-strippers might outperform it in some way.

 Commodus Leitdorf wrote:
I swear by Simple Green but at the same time I have had some difficulties with it myself.

It works really well on metal, but it can be hit and miss with plastic. I recently stripped one of my old cannon crews and it all came off fine (although I had to soak it twice to get the paint in the crevasses). On other models I picked up off Ebay it can get the paint off but not the base coat.

On plastic models there are many times that you will never get off the base coat entirely. Sometimes this is because of Oil based enamels that just dry to hard but this is especially the case with oil-based spray paints. I could be wrong, but here's what I understand the process to be:

Whether the paint itself and/or part of the propellant, these sprays usually contain VOC's (Volitile Organic Compounds). On metal they simply evaporate as the paint dries, however, on plastic they act as a solvent and melt the plastic ever so slightly fusing the plastic and the paint together. Even when a stripping agent gets most of the paint off you will not get it all off because it is not just stuck to the miniature it is essentially part of the plastic. In this case, any solvent strong enough to get the paint off is probably going to also be strong enough to melt the plastic.

Really though it's not a huge problem. As long as you can get most of the paint off, you can simply re-prime and continue.

Of course with metals if you can't get the paint off you can simply put them in some super toxic solvent like MEK. The paint will usually come right off and the metal will be undamaged. I don't like to use MEK often but I keep it around for the rare occurrence like this and for stripping enamel paint off of die cast metal car bodies. I also use it as plastic solvent glue.

Word of warning on Bisotrip20 (and apologies for minor thread necromancy).

Works brilliantly on metals and plastic. I've recommended it here several times.

Tried it on some Warzone resins last night, and they had a rubbery, soft feel to them this morning when I cleaned the Biostrip off (so about a 12-hour soak). Warzone resin has a bit of give anyway, it's far less brittle than many other types, but not like this.

Left them to dry during the day and they felt a little better this evening, They took a coat of primer just fine - except for one spot on an exposed edge that basically crumbled.

A quick read round the internet reveals that Biostrip does the same thing to resin from Hawk Wargames and Forgeworld, and pretty much dissolves Finecast.

I'll add to the thread if the primed minis give me any more problems.

Yeah I'll second that warning. After about a week it absolutely murdered some old resin pieces. They were trash anyway as i was testing.

Also, wear gloves or you'll exfoliate the hell out of your hands

LA's tottally awesome cleaner used to be my Go to. but they seem to have stopped removing my white primer. But it works great on resin & metal. Im now using LA's totally awesome grill degreaser. It is still having problems removing my white primer. But removes other stuff GREATLY

Another vote here for Purple Power (or the similar, more expensive Super Clean). Particularly when combined with a cheapo $30 ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon.

Zap any metals or plastics for about 30-45 minutes in the ultrasonic and you're golden. Will break up super glue but not plastic glue unless used recently.

Watch out on smaller ultrasonic machines as they have 3-5 minute "stints" and then power off. I sit mine by my painting desk and smack it every 3 minutes when it powers off. An hour later pretty much everything is off with a toothbrush or spray from the sink.

kb_lock wrote:
Yeah I'll second that warning. After about a week it absolutely murdered some old resin pieces. They were trash anyway as i was testing.

Also, wear gloves or you'll exfoliate the hell out of your hands

Biostrip is best used in 45-60min bursts, and then reapplied. I'd never leave it on anything other than metal for more than an hour.
I've successfully stripped forgeworld, Finecast and other resins, but I wasn't treating it like iso or long soaks, I followed the instructions...

Hand cream and moisturizer is a good idea for any stripping. Dettol for example is an absolute nightmare on skin.

 insaniak wrote:

kb_lock wrote:
Brake fluid is fine on resin and plastic too.

Dot 3 Brake Fluid is, as far as I've been able to determine, safe on plastic and resin.

Some other brake fluids have been reported to eat plastic.


The toxicity and the difficulty disposing of it afterwards make it a less attractive option than some others out there these days, though.

Yup Dot3 is magic stuff.

Dot4 however, CAN eat plastics and strip some of the polymer chains out of certain resins (leaving them rubbery).

They have different numbers for good reason - (they aren't all purpose) and paying attention to them helps.

My ultimate paint stripper is MEK - but don't use it if your models aren't metal or ceramic. It will turn them into primordial ooze.

Always wear gloves!

For me, Dettol has been king, requiring almost no time in a bath to easily strip with a toothbrush. If I want to get every shred of paint off quickly, that's my go-to. Like Desubot, though, I like isopropyl alcohol. It's cheap at Costco, doesn't smell too bad, and is useful for other things around the house. Probably 95% of my stripping is with Isopropyl.

Always wear PPE is my #1 rule for stripping paint.

Gloves AND eye protection (most of these compounds you don't want in your eyes, period. Whether it's just painful or blindness inducing - just don't risk it.

(You should be using gloves if using dettol neat anyway. The same goes for isopropanol, let alone other strippers).

Yeah I biostripped 3 layers of skin off my friggin hand the other day, looked like I had leprosy

I only get that stuff on my hands when tidying away after, ironically.
Though Dettol once did eat through the gloves I was using when I did the Aquila, and I was stuck with peeling hands for three days.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Dettol once did eat through the gloves I was using when I did the Aquila

As someone who has stripped many many models this is what I have found.

Simple Green ( The green version ) works alright but requires soaking of up to a week. Haven't been able to get my hands on the Concentrated version.

In my opinion the God of Strip is Dettol. The original Brown Dettol.

I have so far stripped something like 30 models with it, metal and plastic, without issue. Requires soaking of only about 24 hours, and it WILL eat through games workshop's 'Ard Coat varnish with EASE.

I scrub the models with an old tooth brush dipped in the Dettol liquid and it works fine. Afterward, I run it under warm ( not hot ) water and give it another light scrub and it comes out clean.

The only two drawbacks I have found are these :

1) if the model is based , i.e PVA glue and flock added, it gets tricky as the PVA becomes very sticky and if you brush the base with the same brush as the model it will just spread the sticky sludge.

2) I have only stripped 1 resin model, and it seemed to make the resin more plyable and even though as it dried it did improve, it still felt a little more flimsy than it had before ( It was an Eldar swooping hawk, the connections of which to the base are already minimal as it is)


However, I can honestly say that even if the model does come out a little sticky from the base ( Which again I recommend scraping the sludgey pva and flock off with a tooth pick or something before starting the scrub after soaking) you just drop it back in the same solution and it will come out like a charm the second time.

Naturally the more you use the same liquid the less effective it is, but I find generally depending on the amount of paint stripped I can get 3 or so small batches (up to 8 models) with each use of Dettol.

It MUST be the brown original kind as shown below though, as I've never used the other type.

Some stockists price this a little steeply, but recently I found a home hardware store nearby that stocks 750ml bottles of this for about 10 bucks. 750ml goes quite far

NOTE : USE GLOVES ! Whilst it has never actually done any damage to me, the first time I got some on my hands they were just irritated for a while which was gone in a few hours. I just buy a box of 100 disposable gloves from my local shop for like 5 bucks and Its good for 50 runs !