Tutorial: How to Strip Paint

[Plarz]

I made this mainly to help the weekly "How to strip paint" threads that crop up on various forums.

You can find it on my blog, here.

Comments, suggestions and criticism welcome here or on the blog.

Hope it helps!

[athelu]

Nice. I use simple green on all my plastics/metals. I purchased a plastic bucket from Home depot with a lid on it. I just pour the simple green in there and keep the lid on. The stuff never "goes bad" and with the lid on it does not evaporate. I just drop models in for a overnight soak, and take them out the next day.

As far as scrubbing - Firm toothbrushes are nice, but I use brass brushes (for like welding applications). Harbor freight sells small 1.5" x 1/2" sized ones for $.50 each. They need to be cheap, because they do not last. But the brass is softer than the white metal minis, and will not scratch plastic (unless you go crazy with it). On some metal models, I will even use brass brush drill bits to clean up crevices.

I also scrub my brand new metal models with a brass brush. Metal models should not look dull, they should be shiny. If they are dull, then there is mold release present and will cause problems with your paint adhesion. Clean and scrub them till they gleam - then primer and paint.

For metal models, acetone works nicely. You can do the same thing as the simple green and keep it in a covered bucket, dropping in METAL models when needed. The acetone has the added bonus of breaking down the glue keeping used metal minis together. but you MUST work with gloves with acetone, as it will instantly dry you skin out. I buy it in 1 gallon containers from Home depot.

[Ironhide]

I believe Youngwolf77 did a blog where he tested various brands.

[Plarz]

I use CSC, but that's my preference. I'm not sure what works best, but this stuff works for me. I wish I had a garage so I could just keep a jug and drop models in and out as needed. Sadly, apartment living makes that hard.

[YoungWolf777]

I believe Youngwolf77 did a blog where he tested various brands.

Did you mean this one?

Stripping Products Showdown

[Ironhide]

That's the one!

[GearHead]

Purple Power/SuperClean is, in my book, the LAST word in paint stripping. I've not found anything that cleans better and more consistently. Half the time, the paint just sloughs off while the mini's still sitting in the bath. It's way, WAY more effective than Simple Green, and Purple Power is very inexpensive. Gonna have to look into Dawn Power Dissolver, though.

I just wish that Jasco Green Strip was still around, because while it smelled really bad, it was 1) fantastic at removing paint, and 2) top-notch at dissolving epoxy and CA glue. And nothing that I've found (especially Citristrip's crappy new formulation) does the job.

[YoungWolf777]

I go back and forth. I use the Dawn as the front line stripping agent. Whatever the Dawn doesn't get in the first round I toss the the Purple Power tub for an extended soak. I just had a batch that I pulled out after roughly 4 weeks. Virtually all traces of paint were gone and the ones that weren't brushed off easily with the toothbrush under running water. The added bonus of the pieces falling apart due the superglue bonds being broken doesn't hurt in my book either.

Using the spray-on method with the Dawn does have a drawback. You need to make sure the piece is coated evenly. In addition, after about a week or so it tends to gel and dry out. Once it's hit that stage it's not doing any work for you. Just further testing I've done since that piece was written. I need to write a part 2.