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Anyone here successfully stripped paint off Axis & Allies minis?  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
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Made in us
Using Inks and Washes





San Francisco, CA

I've had three old german panzers from Axis and Allies soaking in undiluted Simple Green for over a day, and I can't even *scratch* the paint on those suckers. It's like it was fused to the plastic...

For those who may not be familiar, A&A minis are 15mm plastic WWII tanks and such. The paint jobs were serviceable, but I wanted to try to spruce up a few. The paint is on there fairly thick. Should I just give it time, and eventually it may start to come off? Or is this a waste of time? What's good against stubborn paint, but won't melt plastic?

Any suggestions? Anyone ever manage to successfully do this? My google fu was weak, I failed to turn up anything helpful.

Thanks in advance!

I play...

Sigh.

Who am I kidding? I only paint these days... 
   
Made in gb
Dakka Veteran






I was going to say try using lacquer/cellulose thinner. But then I read they're plastic. Probably not a good idea.

What type of paint did you use?

You could try using a Q tip and some IPA 99% and having a go at an area and see if that works.

Then if it does switch your Simple Green bath for an IPA bath and scrub the model.

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 2021/04/08 23:57:36


 
   
Made in nz
Fresh-Faced New User





I found that the type of brush you use really makes a massive difference, i went from the hardest bristle toothbrush i could find to a more heavy duty type of brush that had pretty hard thick plastic bristles compared to toothbrush and it made the job like 100% easier and less time consuming, i used regular denatured alcohol, left it soaking in there for about half an hour, started the scrub, then back in for a few mins etc. I got lucky and found this brush among a bunch of house painting tools, i have no idea what the name for it is or where to get it. You should probably to a test scrub on some thing first though just to make sure it wont scratch your model at all.

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2021/04/09 11:19:28


Thousand sons / Black Legion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctqa7kAdAvI 
   
Made in us
Using Inks and Washes





San Francisco, CA

Thanks for the suggestions. I have some 70% isopropyl alcohol I could try; if that doesn't work I can go out and get some higher %age stuff. I do have some thick, plastic bristled looking brushes. I'll give those a try first as they've been in Simple Green now for 2.5 days.

 Rob Lee wrote:

...

What type of paint did you use?

...


These are the pre-paints, right out the box (well, and sitting around in my house for 15-20 years), so probably some kind of toxic house paint, lol. No idea!

 Rob Lee wrote:

...
Then if it does switch your Simple Green bath for an IPA bath and scrub the model.


The only IPA I have lying about is some delicious India Pale Ale, and, my good sir, I would most definitely not be throwing that away even for this noble cause! (Unless of course you meant isopropyl alcohol, which of course you did and I see that now. So. Yea. I won't use beer.)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/04/09 15:27:57


I play...

Sigh.

Who am I kidding? I only paint these days... 
   
Made in gb
Dakka Veteran






 pancakeonions wrote:

These are the pre-paints, right out the box (well, and sitting around in my house for 15-20 years), so probably some kind of toxic house paint, lol. No idea!



Ah. Dunno then, without knowing the type of paint used it's a bit hard to recommend anything. If IPA doesn't work, then anything more effective than IPA, like lacquer thinners, is likely to melt the plastic. You could try some actual paint stripper products designed for plastics, although I can't name one at this time, think Revell do one though but something more industrial rather than hobby related might be in order.

Good luck.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/04/09 15:41:41


 
   
 
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