"The OFFICIAL TMP Best Paint Stripper Topic" Topic

No worries, I'm not going to completely emulate Smokey and post a rambling exhortation about some sports team – or their groupies with a fetish for removing latex paint. That will have a more subtle title. Instead, this is an effort to pre-emptively answer the next batch of questions regarding removing paint from lead, plastic and etc.

Anyways, I have the answer to which product is best for removing nearly any type of paint from an item without damaging it (paper not withstanding).

Short answer: Simple Green.

Slightly longer answer: Simple Green All-Purpose Cleaner 1 gallon (3.79 Liter) jug picture

The much longer explanation:
On Saturday, I put two each OH-6 helicopter models and Cessna O-2 Skymaster aircraft, a pair of vintage Aurora aircraft, two German 4.5 ton trucks and a couple of old lead minis into a quart container filled with Simple Green.

The OH-6 were painted in an unknown paint some time within the past 30 years. The Skymasters, possibly Aurora aircraft, were from the same job lot and had the same monotone paint job – including silver-painted windows.

The Aurora aircraft – an Aero Commander picture and a Beechcraft Super 18 picture (photo of real aircraft) both had gloss black enamel paint jobs hand-painted by my father some 50 years ago.

The minis were a pair of old pre-slotta GW figures that I painted first with enamel and later with acrylic 15 years ago.

The German 4.5 ton trucks are by Wiking and Roco which were just subjected to a bad chemical reaction between the paint thinner and the Humbrol paint I was using.

The models went in on Saturday night and paint was sloughing off the next morning. None of the underlying material was affected – metal nor plastic. It took a little work with a toothbrush to get the paint out of creases and grooves, but if I refreshed the solution, I'm certain that wouldn't have been needed nearly as much.

The nice thing is that the stuff is biodegradable, won't eat your flesh if it gets on you (brake cleaner) and doesn't stink up the place so you can soak models inside. The gallon jug runs about $8 USD at Home Depot or Lowes.

Wyatt

It IS good stuff. I've even started to use it on the household paint brushes after I've done some "scenic-ing" for the missus.

Hmm, that was an interesting bug. I edited for style and came up with completely different text – and it was stuff that would've been bleeped.

Wyatt

I agree. On Wyatt's recommendation, I used it for some microarmor and, though some figs required a second soaking due to thick coats of paint, it came right off most of them and did a better job with removing both paint and white glue than Pine Sol. The Pine Sol softened it too much and it was a real pain taking it off. With Simple Green, it just 'unstuck' it so it could be pulled off easily in big chunks.

So, Wyatt, time to come clean…did you create the stuff? Or do you just own stock in the company…? ;oP

I use Jasco. Works fine on metal but you wouldn't want to put it on anything plastic. I'll have to try the Simple Green some time.

Steve

I use simple green for everything. Cleaning plastic b4 priming, taking old paint off ebay figs. It's the only stuff I bother with, anymore.

Simple Green is my default setting for any paint stripping hobby task as well. Great stuff.

yet another article started here link

Cleaning plastic b4 priming

That hadn't occured to me, brilliant.

The right answer, ofcourse, is snails:

link

The best paint stripper is actually a girl named Candy in Vegas. She works just off the strip at this little club called…

Oh, paint stripper, yes Simple Green works for Norscaman as well.

I use Dettol for everything and it works wonders.

I have never seen nor heard of SimpleGreen so cant comment on it however the guys over on SteveDeans forum have used both Dettol and SimpleGreen and reckon Dettol does a much better job.

link

And for those in the UK you can get this (its great for cleaning shower stalls of soap as well you know) by mail order at simplegreen.co.uk (shop is here simplegreen.co.uk/buy.htm ) but at £44.00 GBP for 5 liters (about 1.3 US gallons) it is a bit more expensive.

It also comes in three colours over here – do you heavy users find any difference between them?

Andrew
blog.kings-sleep.me.uk

Hmm, just bought Dettol at weekend less than GBP5 for 2 litres but as ever YMMV.

Bx – that was my thought. Simple Green appears to be the messiah of paint strippers (although I notice most paint stripping refers to enamles on metals), so I will be really interested to see how you got on with the Dettol.

There is just no way I am paying £44.00 GBP for SG.

I have used Dettol on plastics, used it to strip GW stuff bought on ebay, after an overnight soak the paint softens like a skin.

The paint doesn't dissolve so much as comes loose, the mistake some people make is to expect the paint to be dissolved and then rinse off in water.

Once water gets involved the paint turns into a glob with all the properties super glue.

To remove it you then need a tootbrush, dipped in pure dettol and lightly scrub/rinse the mini clean.

The key things is to keep the mini soaked with Dettol and don't put it anywhere near water until you have the paint removed.

It takes a matter of seconds to remove all the paint, and it leaves the minis clean most of the time.

Nobody looks at old Workbench articles, I guess.

TMP link

The only thing I find weird with Simple Green, is that it discolors the actual Lead or Pewter.

Not that its a big deal, since I am gunna re-primer it anyway. I am just saying that its kinda weird…

OH, and I have had much better success with Simple Green that I ever had with Brake Fliud or Brake Cleaner…

HUMMMM…. I think Sundance is right. I just looked into Simple Green stocks, and it looks like Wyatt has some stock… I am smelling a …

Just kidding Waytt…

My wife says that we are becoming "Sustainable Leaders for our communities". That means a responsible Green gamer. I guess we need a new category for the Message board.
Green Gaming.

I've used Simple Green and Pine Sol in the past. They're OK but they have their limitations. I use brake cleaning fluid now. The toxic stuff just works better.

I have succesfully used Dettol in the UK, but have encountered the gloopy skin on some miniatures.
I have remedied this with a couple of quick squirts of Fairy Power Spray (available from all supermarkets in the washing up liquid section – not household cleaners) which emulsifies the gloop. Used in combination with an electric toothbrush (£5.99 – Asda)and a washing up bowl full of water it gets both metal and plastic miniatures squeaky clean.
Fairy Power Spray used on it's own is pretty effective for both metals and plastics – but better when combined with Dettol for plastics.
In my experience Dettol seems to struggle with GW black undercoat but Fairy Power Spray doesn't.

Tried the Simple Green, but it didn't live up to the claims made for it. But I've had great results from denatured alcohol (and it doesn't stink near as bad as SG either…. ;)

"Fairy Power Spray" ROFLMAO – Sorry!!

Based on reading the contents of this thread I thought i'd try the "dettol method" as suggested above

Anyhow I tried it on a metal fig thats been painted with assorted acrylics (but not yet varnished) for over a year – I think it had 72 hours soak – possibly 96

Did as BravoX suggested and used a toothbrush soaked in dettol (the same stuff i'd had the mini soaked in) – a couple of minutes scrubbing at most and 99.999% of the paint came off with no discolouration to the metal underneath

Based on this I think that Dettol will now be my weapon of choice when it comes to removing paint – i'll be retiring my Mr Muscle oven cleaner and brake fluid which dont do the job as well and are a tad more environmentally unfriendly to boot!

Thanks to Wyatt, Bravo6 et al for getting me to try something different and getting a result!

Don't use Strip-eze. Getting that off is worse than the paint.

I use flammable, carcinogenic, Acetone in an unventilated room, ordinarily, though.

JW

The only thing I find weird with Simple Green, is that it discolors the actual Lead or Pewter.

Put the figure in vinegar for a couple min. Seems to remove alot of that.