A Simple Guide to Stripping Paint Off of Miniatures in Order to Repaint Them

[eatmydarkapostle]

I did the same thing, except with some lemon scented Simple Green. Worked fantastically. Now my models smell like citrus though.

If you want to get the most out of your money, put your models in a mesh bag in a cup with the Simple Green. This way, when you clean up, you only have to pull out the mesh bag and you can reuse the actual cleaner. This is if you're cheap like me

[DavidVC04]

Originally Posted by eatmydarkapostle

I did the same thing, except with some lemon scented Simple Green. Worked fantastically. Now my models smell like citrus though.

If you want to get the most out of your money, put your models in a mesh bag in a cup with the Simple Green. This way, when you clean up, you only have to pull out the mesh bag and you can reuse the actual cleaner. This is if you're cheap like me

That's a good idea. When I soaked the units, the Simple Green was a sloppy mess. It gave me the idea of straining the mess through something to reclaim the cleaning fluid, but your idea would solve the problem upfront.

[The Salmon Thief]

I hate stripping plastic models. Depending on the glue used, everything comes apart... maybe Castrol Super Clean does that, though. That's what I've always used.

Metal is simple, throw 'em in some lacquer thinner for half an hour and rinse them off.

[Dreadnaught101]

Purple stuff is so much better than simple green, strips plastics in a matter of an hour or so, if overly painted only a few hours, just scrub with a stiff bristled brush, usually the paint just falls off and leaves bare plastic, the glue will lose it's bond so be prepared for that, but it's the least painful of all the stripping techniques. Acetone(metals only), Breakfluid(Basically mineral spirits with industrial detergents), Simple green, Fingernail polish remover(acetone based will melt your plastics), Rubbing Alcohol, Oven Cleaner(Danger).

I have a big glass pickle jar I keep the purple stuff in, I drop my minis or tanks in for an hour or so. When it's time to pull it out I just dump it through a metal strainer into a glass bowl, put the purple stuff back in the jar. Take the mini and scrub it with a handful of dish soap under cold running water. I wear rubber gloves, otherwise the detergents in the purple stuff with fry your skin. Keep the waste to a minimum. The strainer catches all the little bits like purity seals and small stuff like that, and it cleans out the old paint out of the cleaner. Only down side to this is that your minis will completely fall apart, glue usually wont hold, which I feel is a good thing since you get to throughly clean your minis.

[Anacron]

I personally use brake fluid to strip my models. Using exactly the same method as Tekore in his OP. It's available all over the world pretty much, so there should not be any issues in finding it - any car accessory shop/garage should sell it.

One important thing to note: it comes in various forms known as DOTs: DOT 3, DOT 4 and DOT 5 are the types you'll probably find. Don't buy DOT5, it doesn't work (it's a different formula to all the rest). DOT 1-4 all strip paint fine though, off both plastic and metal.

[Inquisitor Proiteus]

I can't seem to find any of that stuff, so i get its only avaliable in the US.

Can someone tell me what would be suitable for stripping paint in the UK? (mainly metal components)

[chaosjacob]

Does simple green works on metal mins?

[Tekore]

Originally Posted by chaosjacob

Does simple green works on metal mins?

Yes. In fact, it works best on metal minis.

Tekore

[Zeewulf]

Simple Green is available all over the world, actually; in fact, even the Germans approve it. And the germans are absolutely crazy when it comes to hazardous materials, cleaning supplies and safety. I know, I had to manage a hazmat program there for two years!

And yes, it should work on metal, though with metal you can get away with paint thinner or alcohol or somethin.