DanWW2 | 05 Jun 2014 3:00 a.m. PST |
I'm in the UK so this question refers to using (brown) Dettol, it may apply to other products such as Simple Green etc. I've used brand new brown Dettol in a sealed plastic container to strip paint from plastic and metal miniatures. After about two days soaking, the first batch had a lot of 'gunk' stuck in the recesses that made a real mess when trying to rinse the figures. I used some Fairy Liquid detergent in warm water to try to prevent this gunk sticking to everything, but to no avail. The next time, I left the miniatures completely submerged in the Dettol for several days, jiggling them about every day to help the Dettol penetrate. There is still a lot of residual gunk that's near impossible to remove as soon as it contacts water- any tips on how to avoid this? The figures are worth quite a lot but were very badly painted by their previous owner, so they're worth stripping, but the mess and ruined sieves/ toothbrushes is getting frustrating. |
Two Owl Bob | 05 Jun 2014 3:07 a.m. PST |
I find it easiest to use an old toothbrush to brush the surface detritus off twice a day. Don't use water, just brush it off onto a sheet of newspaper and then put it back in the dettol to remove the next layer. Once it hits water it seems to turn into a greasy/gummy substance which just smears around the miniature. I can get a 28mm figure down to shiny metal in about two days this way. Cleaning the toothbrush requires boiling water, fairy liquid and lots of scrubbing though. |
Cerdic | 05 Jun 2014 3:22 a.m. PST |
I've used oven cleaner in the past. The sort you spray on and it foams up. Put the figures in a plastic bag. Spray the oven cleaner all over them and close the bag. Leave overnight. Next day tip the contents into a sink and scrub the figures with a toothbrush under running water. Removes about 99% of the old paint. The only residue was in the worst nooks and crannies. That was on old enamel paint so it should work just as well for acrylics. I didn't bother cleaning the toothbrush. You can get cheap ones that are about 50p for a pack of two. For that price I just threw it away afterwards! |
miniatureMOJO | 05 Jun 2014 3:39 a.m. PST |
I do the same as Badvoc Multiple soaks are the answer. As well as the toothbrush, cocktail sticks will get the grunge out of nooks and crannies. Once it starts to smear with the toothbrush, back in it goes overnight. Btw, I found a way that seems to get rid of the post-stripping dettol smell. I put the minis in a sealed bag for a couple of months with a handful of flour. No idea if it harms the metal but the odour goes. |
Yesthatphil | 05 Jun 2014 3:58 a.m. PST |
I have had very good results using Dettol (certainly a real surprise to me)
and little trouble. Yes to a toothbrush and occasionally I speeded up the process with a cocktail stick. I was cleaning up some old flats and they came up literally as good as new ones. It may be that you can't quite get as much splodge on a flat as a 28, it may be down to the type of paint used (the flats will likely have been enamel and oils)
Once the figures were clean and allowed to dry, I rinsed them off in warm detergenty water which worked fine and got rid of most of the smell. The figures have been painted and painted up normally
(Dettol cleaned flats after repainting and staging) Phil |
Fizzypickles | 05 Jun 2014 4:13 a.m. PST |
Dan, I think everybody has touched upon your 'mistake' Do not rinse under water. I have just stripped some horses that had a coat of primer and had been painted twice, so in effect, 6 layers of paint and 4 layers of varnish on them. Left in Dettol overnight, then scrubbed with a toothbrush. I would say that 99.9% of the paint came off at this point. Then I give them another go with some fairy liquid on a toothbrush and rinse. |
Maddaz111 | 05 Jun 2014 5:14 a.m. PST |
I know Dettol works, and I know cheaper substances work, but to me they seem a lot of mess. The official safe paint stripper sold by lesleys bit box in the UK (I have a bottle downstairs, but the label isn't on it anymore so I cant tell you what it is called. It works a dream, I have stripped 200 figures down to bare metal in a 3rd of a bottle of the stuff, no gunking, no mess, no effort. It might be slightly more expensive than Tesco pine or Dettol brown, but for ease of use! – Priceless! |
jeffreyw3 | 05 Jun 2014 6:01 a.m. PST |
Agreed with badvoc and mojo--I'm currently in mid-process now. I find that round wooden toothpicks are great for getting into the nooks and crannies and don't damage the figure. And cheap. |
Warpaint Figures | 05 Jun 2014 7:40 a.m. PST |
I tend to dilute the Dettol slightly (It goes white). Then in warm water and soda crystals (Wear gloves!) and use an old electric toothbrush on them. Followed by washing up liquid and water after clean to get rid of the smell. If they gunk then pull worst off with the toothbrush bristles and then resoak. It all depends what they were under coated with and how many times they were painted and with what paints. Some come off like a dream others can be a bit of a pain, especially plastic figures. Stew |
John the OFM | 05 Jun 2014 8:29 a.m. PST |
The residue in the nooks and crannies is often dependent on what the original primer and paints were. I ended up getting some fiber wheels for my Dremel to clean them out. This was one of the main reasons I gave up on stripping figures. the time spent was just not worth it. |
Abwehrschlacht | 05 Jun 2014 2:24 p.m. PST |
Ditto everyone else, don't use water! After cleaning in successive clean Dettol washes, I find that you can pick any remaining paint off with the sharp end of a scalpel or even a toothpick (less damaging) when they are dried. |
jeffreyw3 | 05 Jun 2014 6:01 p.m. PST |
Agreed with John
the only reason I did this last batch was that I thought gesso would be easy to take off. |
Paint Pig | 06 Jun 2014 7:39 a.m. PST |
Do not dilute dettol with water, also as mentioned do not try and wash the dettol'd figure of with water it just makes the whole process even messier and the gunky paint more gunky and less inclined to come off. I wont explain the dettol and water thing
.. I forget the long winded and possibly touching on chemistry reason truth be known, but I hold by it If you have a lot of mucky gunk use a paper towel or tissue and dab it against the gunky munk, more often than not it will stick to the paper of your choice and pull away (simple but effective). Repeat dettol process if need be, surprisingly if you keep water out of the equation the snotty looking paint will, for the most part, bush off easily enough. This may be viewed as a repeat of what is already written by others here I consider it reinforcement, or possibly re-hash By the way Dettol poo poo's all over simple green as a paint stripper. regards dave Having repeated |
DanWW2 | 16 Jun 2014 12:37 p.m. PST |
Thanks- I got rid of the gunk from metal figures with a water- soluble degreaser sold for cleaning oily car parts etc, but the metal figures did come out dull looking, if otherwise unaffected. I've also tried Biostrip 20, which worked very well on metals but wasn't the miracle I'd hoped for with plastics. |
GeneralRetreat | 24 Jul 2014 4:27 a.m. PST |
I left the figures in the dettol for a week then got a toothbrush and small bowl of washing up liquid. then dipped the toothbrush in the washing up liquid, and rubbed all over, then rinsed under a tap. then repeat with the toothbrush and washing up liquid until all the paint was gone. took about 1 minute per figure but it got all the paint off ok. then use washing up liquid to get all the gunky paint bits off the sink. A friend at work who introduced me to using dettol said that he lets the figures soak in dettol then puts them in the freezer and then gets the paint off after its frozen but I have not tried this. |
Claypole | 24 Jul 2014 1:46 p.m. PST |
In the UK try Fairy Power Spray instead of Dettol. I tried Dettol but it is terribly messy. The FPS is much better and you don't smell like a hospital for a week. |