Paint stripper UK

[heniosha]

Hey all,

I needed to strip down a ton of mini's I bought on ebay and tried three methods.

I know this topic has been covered before but I thought Id share my own experiences:

1. Mr Muscle Oven cleaner : Sprayed minis well and left to soak for 48hours in sealed plastic bags (inside a bucket incase the bags leaked). Used rubber gloves as its a pretty aggressive product.
2. Dettol antiseptic: filled a plastic tub with Dettol (neat) and left for 48 hours. Although harmless, the Dettol can have a negative reaction with your skin, so used gloves as well.
3. Tesco own antiseptic : Thought at 59p it was worth trying this as well compared to the Dettol at nearly 4 quid.

The result:

Without a shadow of doubt the neat Dettol is a perfect way to strip paint off minis. After 48hours all the paint easily came off, both metal and plastic with the minimal of scrubbing with an old toothbrush. Its not corrosive on plastic, and didnt affect the glue or the green stuff on the minis, simply took the paint off perfectly.
Mr Muscle oven cleaner was OK, the paint mostly came of some minis but not all of them and you really need to scrub aggressively even after 48 hours.
The Tesco disinfectant didnt work at all.

Hope this is useful.

Heni

 

[Dragonsreach]

Well nicely put quick review, people on here have been recommending Dettol for Years. But the one thing I willing to bet on is that you've thrown the Dettol away after soaking the minis.
I leave the Detoll 24 Hours take the minis out and rince /scrub them under warm water. Toothbrush and CIF dependant on how old /thick the paint was.
After that I pour the Dettol back into the bottle (keep a bottle specifically for Paint use), so £4 can last quite a while.

 

[Donga]

Or just keep the dettol in a plastic container with a sealable lid, I had a container that had pop-corn in it. It was my stripping bucket..

Every now and then I had to collect the paint sludge from the bottom (a hand is used) but one bottle of dettol worked for months of happy stripping.

 

[cassar]

nail polish remover

 

[freakinacage]

i bought dettol for this purpose a while ago but haven't got round to using it yet. most of the minis i have stripped have been metal so i use nitromors

is it any particular dettol?

 

[heniosha]

No particular Dettol freak, just the standard multi-purpose one.

I have actually kept it too, as I have a fair amount off mini's still to strip, I read that it can be used multiple times, and could be passed through a siv into another sealable container for re-use like Donga and Dragonsreach said.

 

[Donga]

nail polish remover

It will also turn GS, plastics and any glue on there into jelly like gunk. Safe for metal only. I do use it for removing GS/Putty from metal figures.

Anything can be stripped with Dettol safely. Conversions/putty, plastics, resin and metal models can all go in there.

Where's Einion? He should be here saying 'do a thread search' OR 'Check the sticky at the top of the forum'

(he he! arty

 

[heniosha]

It will also turn GS, plastics and any glue on there into jelly like gunk. Safe for metal only. I do use it for removing GS/Putty from metal figures.

Anything can be stripped with Dettol safely. Conversions/putty, plastics, resin and metal models can all go in there.

Where's Einion? He should be here saying 'do a thread search' OR 'Check the sticky at the top of the forum'

(he he! arty

ooops didn't see that - newbie - sry

 

[Donga]

Don't worry.

We were all noobs at some point

 

[Chrome]

Besides, in my opinion it is good to talk things like these over. new ideas and concepts can't be covered in a thread from ten years ago (yes, I exaggerated a bit. ) And resurrecting threads over and over is just plain confusing for everyone. better to have a new thread once in a while.

But sure, asking a question where there's already a ton of active threads on the same subject is a bit irritating to those active in the threads. In my humble opinion heniosha did the absolutely right thing. He opened with sharing his own experiences and with no question whatsoever that could provoke the 'search' cultists.

 

[BPI]

Hi Heniosha, did you try any of your 3 tests after only an hour long dip? Until it runs out I'll keep on using my squirty bottle of Fairy Power Spray which I've found good for loosening GW acrylic well enough after an hour to be able to quickly toothbrush it off. Works for me as I can get painting the same day, anything I fancy painting that has to be soaked for 48 hours you can guarantee I'll have lost interest in by time it's clean I should note that all of my figures have had brush on paint undercoats, no sprays or primers which I imagine may be more stubborn? Cheers, B.

 

[cassar]

shush

donga leave it out, "E's" like a little oriental terminator" he absolutely will not stop until you are dead....ever". the E 1000, run away.
apologies i should have been a little more specific i just got confused as i used nail polish remover on a predator with no adverse effects, are they the same as the figures?

 

[Donga]

Your predator is probably luckier than you think. The active ingredient in nail polish remover will dissolve polystyrene as happily as acrylic. It just takes a little longer. Detail will get soft quite quickly and loose its edge.

I theory you could strip plastic with Nitromors, get it wrong though and it will dissolve the plastic. It's just a matter of timing. I wouldn't recommend it though.

With dettol you can dump the item in a bath of dettol, leave it over the weekend (or a fourtnight like some Bretonnian knights I stripped a while back) and there will be no ill effects. Just less paint

Fairy powerspray does the same too as BPI said, thats good too. Brake fluid is good too (the mineral stuff), it's just a little more expensive and leaves a stain.

I'm sure there's a tutorial in the 'tutorial' section.

 

[DannyBoy2k]

For the non-Brittish, Dettol is often used as a transfer fluid for tattoos. So, if you can't find it, try your local tattoo-shop. They might know where you can get it. And for the Swedes out there, send me a PM, for a general tip.

 

[cassar]

donga, i didnt soak the parts in the polish remover i used a cloth and rubbed the paint off, thats maybe how i got away with it what do you think?
http://www.coolminiornot.com/212972

 

[Einion]

Where's Einion? He should be here saying 'do a thread search' OR 'Check the sticky at the top of the forum'

Why? He's presenting his results of a direct head-to-head comparison, not asking which of them is the best stripper.

Einion

 

[Donga]

Why? He's presenting his results of a direct head-to-head comparison, not asking which of them is the best stripper.

Einion

Just pulling your leg...

@cassar: that'll work! I find complete immersion then a firtle with a dental pick is the best way of removal from all those hard to reach places. Easier too, dip, leave, scrub and done

 

[cassar]

those hard to reach places convinced me not to bother re painting just buy a fresh kit lol.. suppose this means i've more money than sense lol.
r e the dental pic does that not leave scratches on the plastic, i used wooden toothpics

 

[Nachtrose]

I am new to all this stuff. Better said, i still think about beginning with miniatures painting. But i play a lot of DnD with WOTCs DnD minis. Some of them are decent paint for game use, but some are really scary, so i thought to begin and train with them. First i need to remove the old paint. Will the DnD minis plastic survive this methods as well? And is this:

the right kind of Dettol to use?

Thanks.

 

[Dragonsreach]

. Will the DnD minis plastic survive this methods as well?
YES, although if memory servers me correctly the paint didn't come off that well of a garbage heroclix I tried.

And is this:

the right kind of Dettol to use?

Thanks.

Again, Yes.