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I have some models that I bought off of eBay that I want to repaint. How would I go about stripping them? I believe they were primed before they were painted.

Dettol always dettol strips off both. Soak overnight scrub with toothbrush , then after dip in warm water scrub a little more band presto your done. Down side they smell for awhile.
I have heard of people using break fluid and such but it's more dangerous.

Brake fluid is more dangerous, but it does work.
(NOTE: NOT brake cleaner, which is a corrosive and much more dangerous liquid.)

Dettol is mostly isopropyl alcohol anyway (as well as colour, scent, and anti-bacterial), so you're pretty much always better off using neat Iso.

Plain isopropanol will also smell better (and not like a koala's buttcrack).

Primer is used on most models and comes off with the typical paint stripping methods as described above. In fact primer is so often used its generally accepted that if a model is painted, then it was primed first. As a result most tutorials/guides won't even mention primer when talking about paint stripping methods.

Try Isopropyl first, since if that fails you won't have done any potential damage to the models by using something a lot stronger.

Tutorial here: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/697164.page

G.A

I've had primer still on after stripping. If it's stuck on that well and it's a nice thin coat play on.

Go to the local Dollar Store, look for "LAs Totally Awesome" cleaner. Soak metal, resin, plastic - paint comes right off. Make sure its the standard regular, yellow version.

I just stripped a metal marine and a metal/resin conversion of a Necron Lord overnight (I like to let mine soak). No damage to the minis, though, as with any strip, glue attachments might weaken.

 Cruentus wrote:
Go to the local Dollar Store, look for "LAs Totally Awesome" cleaner. Soak metal, resin, plastic - paint comes right off. Make sure its the standard regular, yellow version.

I just stripped a metal marine and a metal/resin conversion of a Necron Lord overnight (I like to let mine soak). No damage to the minis, though, as with any strip, glue attachments might weaken.

I'm with Cruentus, best stuff to use, and cheap to boot. I left some plastic marines in over two months, all it did was loosen the super glue that they had used. Stripped them of paint to include primer. Won't get 100% clean, but will get most of it off, though you can always soak them, clean them and soak again. Isopropyl Alcohol will also work well, and isn't expensive either.

Super clean is similarly effective (24hr soak for metal, 48hr soak for plastic using pure Super clean). With some brushing and soapy water for clean-up and you'll be good.

Totally Awesome, Simply Clean and Simple Green I would try in that order.
I would strongly recommend using a rotary tooth-brush to flay off the loosened paint.

My friend made an entire Mechanized Company of space marines (yes, 1000) of "reclaimed" space marine models.
The more messed up the model, the better he liked it: he stripped them down to parts and rebuilt up again.
He used the Simply Clean (purple bottle cleaner) and just soaked hordes of them in Tupperware containers till they were ready.
They are all painted a nice eye-gouging Teal.

PS: You should see his Ork army, it is bigger.

Isopropyl alcohol can remove paint and primer fairly easily in my experience. The model is still tinted from whatever paint was on if it's HIPS plastic it but it won't affect the actual finish. HIPS plastic soaks in some of the paint you put on it.

For metals Iso alcohol can restore it to factory finish. It works wonders! The only downside is that it's relatively expensive per volume to get in pure form as opposed to more commercial cleaners like LA's Totally Awesome. It also is a skin irritant so I recommend wearing gloves while using it. I've cleaned with it bare handed and most of the time I'm fine but it can dry out your skin after prolonged exposure. Especially if you aren't running it under a tap.

I would say choosing a stripper is dependent on location and availability of products.
I have heard people mentioning dettol and simply green and such, but product names don't necessarily cross borders.
To me iso propyl is the easiest (and actually cheapest by a long shot) to get a hold of.

It has however been an issue with many of these paint stripping threads that many don't seem to understand the dangers of working with a solvent like iso propyl.
I've been in the aircraft technical business for over 10 years and seen the effects of prolonged exposure, be it do "pure" products and diluted variants.
Take all handling of chemicals serious.

Proper gloves. Thin nitril gloves should keep you safe for maybe 15-20 minutes (remember to check!) but the longer nitril type similar to dishwashing gloves will keep you safe for at least 30 minutes of constant exposure.
Good ventilation, or at least a proper gas mask.

Just had to get that off my back

OJJ

Just an added note onto isopropyl safety, since I got a lot of... I wouldn't say flak... warnings about it towards what I said in my own tutorial.

Prolonged exposure will cause a lot of irritation. That is, if you're putting your whole hand into the isopropyl to clean your model like an absolute clot; I submerge models in it before scooping them out with the toothbrush I use to clean them onto a tea towel, then scrub, at most handling the model with the tips of my fingers. The tea towel also lets me wipe off excess on my hands if needs be.

I also clean out airsoft weapons using isopropyl. That's a much messier job, but again, approaching the task in a fashion where contact with isopropyl is minimal can be achieved; there is no need to be dipping your fingers directly into this stuff, nor should you be doing that.

Of course, everyone's different, and that means everyone's skin will be more or less prone to irritation from various substances. I absolutely recommend wearing gloves if you are unsure about handling even minute quantities, or if you know your skin is prone to rashes and the like (mine can be very irritated even by certain shower products). However, for the most part, protection is not necessary when handling isopropyl with the application of common sense.


Definitely work in somewhere well ventilated though, or keep the containers closed after each time you get some more out. Vapours are real nasty business.

G.A