A Random Note: Stripping Paint

[Inquisitor Dionzi]

Hi All,

As I am currently in the midst of attempting to get back into WH40K via a small and highly points-intensive Space Marine army, I thought I'd bring to your attention a couple of discoveries I've made in the tricky art of paint-stripping minis.

For instance, I have an original Sergeant Centurious (1997 Games Day) and, as of today, an amateurishly painted Marneus Calgar (in termie armour) and retinue. Centurious I have stripped once before (cruddy paint job) and have stripped 'im again - better (but still cruddy and 7-year-old) paint job, but I have a new army....and better painting skillz than once I did!

What you'll need are these 3 things:

1) a stainless steel 3 oz container (I got 3 at Home Hardware [a Canadian DYI store])
2) UNDILUTED Pinsol general purpose cleaner (at least 10% pine oil)
3) a used, soft toothbrush.

Soak the mini (this works for plastics as well as white metal, but I don't know about resin) in the PineSol for a couple days. If the model was properly spray-undercoated and properly varnished, this will take longer.  If, as in the case of this Marneus Calgar model, the paint was globbed on, it takes less time, but frequent submersions in the PineSol will be necessary.

Once you can scrape the paint away easily with a sculpting tool (it should come off in a single layer from the model), use hot water to loosen everything, and then use a pointy tool and the toothbrush to remove the rest of the paint. If you still have paint in the fine detail, submerge the mini again and use the toothbrush until the remnants of the paint/undercoat are gone.

I use Testor's Flat Black spray paint and Citadel Miniature's Chaos Black spray paint to undercoat my minis, and they all have come away pristine after this process. 

One caveat: some metals are of poor purity, or the castings are of abnormal porosity. In either case, you may have a stained miniature, but this is generally just fine, and won't harm your next paint job.

As a last note, before you start painting your stripped mini, make sure to remove ALL traces of the PineSol. Sure it smells nice, but it'll make painting virtually impossible.

I have tried this with another product called Circa 1850 (a furniture stripper), but I invariably got stained minis, and because it disolves urethane, Citadel plastics simply melted. Pinesol (or equivilent) should be quite safe...it has been in my experience, anyhow.

Best,

/Dio

[traveller]

Allow me to add to that, nitromors works great on metal (15 mins, paint flakes off, wear gloves), but in the name of all the gods, keep it away from plastic unless you want to come back to some greyish goo and no models

[Dolnikan]

I like using dettol, it has to soak for a while but most paint will come off. Even on my old models which had layers of paint millimeters thick.