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NOTE: leaving portions of the models un-scrubbed to see how they scrub clean at longer soaking periods.

Wanted to do a bit of a public test of these three readily available cleaners.

The products being tested are Simple Green, Super Clean, and Purple Power.

Now for years I swore by Simple Green, because I could soak my plastic models in it with out fear of causing significant harm (even forgetting models for weeks at a time). It would even soften superglue bonds.

I recently acquired an old Imperial Guard army, and would like to redo the paint job. Before I throw them all into the bath, I want to make sure I find the right cleaner for the job.

So I will be doing a soak test, no agitation or watering down. Every 24 hour period, I will take a basic tooth brush and stiff plastic bristle brush to the walls of the tanks, and see which makes the scrubbing easier.

Now, as these are the old tank sides, they have a lot of hidden air pockets. So they will be soaking face down, and hopefully get a decent result.

Each item will soak until acceptable results are achieved, or a week has passed.

I have also had success with Simple Green, but am very interested in your results.

I've used Super Clean, it is my go-to.

A very special note though.. well three notes:

It will NEVER harm plastic. You can leave it in for weeks. It is chemically non-reactive with polymers.

Super Clean will damage the old lead miniatures. If you just use it to strip and then get it right out and rinsed off you will be fine with just a light phosphate coating. There is a phosphate chemical reaction here. It will etch the lead models,

Super Clean will also damage concrete, so if it spills, clean it up.

Look forward to the results. I heard that Simple Green changed their formula so it's not as good now at paint stripping.

I've had best luck with Super Clean, and I'm currently using Purple Power (all they had at the store) and it seems to work almost as well. I haven't tried Simple Green but have been wary since they apparently changed formulas a year or two ago and the effectiveness has changed a bit.

Same order as above images.
After one day of soaking. Here's the results so far.

I'm starting to get down to the original plastic with Super Clean.
Simple Green has yet to break the black primer they used, but is getting through the top layer of paint. And Purple Power is still breaking down the top layer of paint.

What ever this Hell paint is. It's resilient to say the least.

1. Super Clean. Getting to the old plastic.
2. Simple Green. Making progress.
3. Purple Power. Struggling with this ancient horror.

Science!

You be scrubbing it or just letting it sit? EDIT oh derp its on first post.

kinda surprised about the purple power. its been one of my gotos before i switched to 99% iso

but then i find i leave it in the tub for months to years and forget about it

Super clean has pulled ahead with a clear lead.
Simple Green in second (it's struggling with the red paint).
Purple Power struggling to break some of the paint and primers chemical bond.

Castrol Super Clean is the answer - consistently beat Simple Green for years.

I'm surprised to learn PP isn't repackaged CSC.

What's weird is I have better luck with Purple Power on metal minis, better luck with Simple Green on plastics.

Of course, sometimes I just pour some gasoline in a jar and drop metal minis in there.

Was thinking of doing a metal stripping test next.

 Igenstilch wrote:
Was thinking of doing a metal stripping test next.

Seems almost unnessesary

acetone will take it all off no issue though you lose the base.

 Desubot wrote:

Seems almost unnessesary

acetone will take it all off no issue though you lose the base.

Or mineral spirits, just be ridiculously careful- it'll burn your skin.

Sorry for missing Saturday (free comic book day, hanging out at the local shops).

Did a full scrub. Will leave them to soak one more day. As I have no real way of knowing what paint was used. I can't say for sure how well these cleaners would do in any other model cleaning. Though hopefully you guys will get better results.

(Left) Super Clean did a lot better than I thought. It may be my new go to for model stripping.

(Center) Simple Green still did well.

(Right) Purple Power didn't do as well as i had hoped. Though it may do better VS other paints.

Also, while a cool and fun test - I find brushing obviously increases the paint removal by a large margin (thus revealing earlier paint layers and letting the stripping solution work better) particularly on plastics.

With some brushing all of those should have been more or less finished after 24 hours in a soak.

 Elbows wrote:
Also, while a cool and fun test - I find brushing obviously increases the paint removal by a large margin (thus revealing earlier paint layers and letting the stripping solution work better) particularly on plastics.

With some brushing all of those should have been more or less finished after 24 hours in a soak.

The back section of the side wall was scrubbed clean once a day during the process. So the bottom of the pictures show the portions that were scrubbed daily during the chemical bath. While the top portions were scrubbed once after 6 days of soaking.

Hmmm, odd, but it may just be the paint then. I've had better luck than that stripping plastics with super clean (even sans ultrasonic bath).

Agree - 24h in CSC should get almost all of the paint loosened and easy to remove.

Last day of scrubbing and soaking. Day 7 results pretty close to day 6.

That primer really does not want to.give it up does it

 Flinty wrote:
That primer really does not want to.give it up does it

Yeah, a lot of times if I can get a mini stripped down to that I'll just prime over it. I know it's an example, but it's the broadside of a Russ I don't think there's much risk of obscuring fine detail

This is a great experiment though, I might have to buy some new stripping stuff.

There are certain aggressive primers that attack the underlying plastic for a stronger bond - I think that is what we are seeing there. It cleans and is super-smooth, so no worries re-priming and painting over it

Yep, and sprays are more likely to "stain" plastic. I've stripped plenty of plastic models which return a red or a blue hue from previous painting. As long as the surface is clean, they'll all take good new primer and you won't notice a difference. I'm excited to have a bunch of old metal terminators showing up...going to get the super clean up and running.

Interesting stuff. Myself I use 99% isopropyl but this is neat to watch unfold.

I did this a few months back and my a thread about it. I Tested these products, plus LA Totally Awesome (which wins) and 91% Iso Alcohol, a close 2nd. The alcohol is the ingredient in all 3 of these cleaners that does the stripping.

LA Totally Awesome is $1 for a 32oz bottle; 91% Iso Alcohol is $2.49 at Target for 32oz, this is why LA Totally Awesome one.

P.S. Use a sonic cleaner, it works wonders and can remove the paint in a few hours to the plastic.

Results of a batch of metal models in the Super Clean.
Some parts got extremely tarnished. Different ingots used I assume. (Small arm top right)

 Dynas wrote:
I did this a few months back and my a thread about it. I Tested these products, plus LA Totally Awesome (which wins) and 91% Iso Alcohol, a close 2nd. The alcohol is the ingredient in all 3 of these cleaners that does the stripping.

LA Totally Awesome is $1 for a 32oz bottle; 91% Iso Alcohol is $2.49 at Target for 32oz, this is why LA Totally Awesome one.

P.S. Use a sonic cleaner, it works wonders and can remove the paint in a few hours to the plastic.

I made a stripping thread years ago about LAs totally Awesome. That stuff is just the best. Period.

 Igenstilch wrote:
Results of a batch of metal models in the Super Clean.
Some parts got extremely tarnished. Different ingots used I assume. (Small arm top right)

I warned you about Super Clean and lead earlier. It's a Phosphate etching. When using Super Clean and Lead Alloy miniatures you can only dunk them for short periods or it will damage the lead.