"re-painting vehicles" Topic

My wife wants me to repaint her Hanomags to match better with stuff bought second-hand. The Hanomags were painted in acrylics and varnished with army painter dip & matt spray. The new acquisitions have been done with Vallejo German Armour colours; how practical would it be to just paint over the Hanomags? Will the Vallejo paint bind to the varnish?

First off, "my wife wants me to repaint her hanomags…"; how often do you hear that said!! Short of stripping the models I would say at least reprimer them. I think good primer should easily cover the vanish, and it will provide a good surface for the Vallejos to stick to.

Actually I've heard 'want you to re-paint' a few times now. There was also a period of 'improve the bases of my (thousands of)confederates' but I think we've got past that one. Any thoughts on a brush-on primer? I want to keep this project to a minimum due to my hatred of (and utter incompetence at) painting.

I really like the Vallejo surface primer 73.602

It is very fluid and naturally gets into all the small spaces etc with minimum brushing.

Much obliged – the Hanomags in question are Warlord Games plastic models if that makes a difference.

Fairy power spray takes off most things acrylic from plastic in my experience, only done it a couple of times to rescue some kits from a naff spray job, with no problem at all. Spray a bit on leave a few mins then gently scrub off with a tooth brush. Takes things off a layer at a time. Can of Halfords car primer works well for me.
L

Will Easy Off dissolve the glue?

Well, there are worse things for wives to nag about I suppose :)

My wife wants me to repaint her Hanomags

I think the two of you should seriously consider seeing a relationship counsellor to discuss your issues, as this is probably only the tip of the iceberg. And remember, it's not about whose fault it is, it's only about finding solutions.

28mm Fanatik…I can cope.
Some Chicken…first rule of matrimony; it's always the fault of the bloke. Simples.
Advice from Vallejo is that the paint would stick but it's probably worth giving them a gentle rub-down with fine sandpaper first

Acetone (AKA nail polish remover) does the trick for me for removing paint. Get the 100% pure stuff or else your models might smell funny.

Mind you, I've not done that on plastics yet, so I don't know if if will harm them or not.

For plastics and resins, I use Simple Green. Easy Off has been known to melt plastic and resin into gooey messes. Same for acetone.

I have the last batch of minis sitting in Simple Green now to prep for Cold Wars. They will come out tonight, be given a good scrub with a toothbrush and primed with an airbrush.

You have to be careful with acetone and oven cleaner. They are very harmful towards skin and lungs and can burn your fingers. Acetone is corrosive, and oven cleaners are designed to break down organic materials. They also melt plastic, and at the very least will dissolve raised details if not breaking down the entire vehicle if in prolinged contact. You would be safer with using a detergent like Simple Green to strip the paint.

I use Goof Off as a stripper with a toothbrush. You don't even need to soak it (and I wouldn't because it will eat the plastic). I just put it on with a cotton swab, like a Q-tip, scrub it with the toothbrush & rinse.

To my mind the painting is the valuable part. Why not get new models and paint them fresh? Then either sell the old ones or keep them for really big battles. As long as I have more unpainted lead in the pile I'm not repainting anything.

Unless the paint is very thick, do not bother with stripping. It takes forever, you'll need to repair damage, and then you still need to paint the kits. Might start with a new one and save yourself the aggravation.
Paint over the Hanomags. Vallejo paint will stay even over the varnish. And anyway, you will apply a coat of Dullcote afterwards, right?

Acetone (AKA nail polish remover) does the trick for me for removing paint. Get the 100% pure stuff or else your models might smell funny.

Mind you, I've not done that on plastics yet, so I don't know if if will harm them or not.

DO NOT use acetone on a plastic model, it will at least soften if not dissolve the model outright!

DO NOT use latex gloves when working with acetone, mineral turps, toluene, etc. You need nitrile gloves for that. Wearing latex gloves with chemicals that dissolve latex is how I developed a latex allergy. And you do NOT want to get a latex allergy!!!!!

I recommend Simple Green or Purple Power for stripping paint off plastic models.

If you can find it, Castrol Superclean works even better, but requires nitrile gloves (which you can buy at the same car-parts store you found the Superclean).

Soak'em in rubbing alcohol for a few days & brush clean them with the same (using soap & water for the initial cleaning will bond the paint almost permanently to the plastic.)

As for repainting, just paint them covered in "mud". ;-)

For a brush-on primer, I recommend artist's Gesso: white, gray, or black, are all available anywhere they sell acrylic/oil/water-color paints for making artistic paintings on canvas. It is a water-based, acrylic primer for canvas, but it will stick quite well to metal, or plastic figures, as well. It is my only primer any more: no caustic fumes, dries within an hour, water clean-up, easy to use.

It will go on thick, but when it dries, it shrinks to a second skin over the surface. Acrylic paints stick to it nicely. Be sure to seal the painted models either in urethane, or with Pledge Floor Shine/Klear (clear acrylic, use full-strength for best protection), follow that with a matte clear coat. Cheers!

I will second the choice of Simple Green to remove paint. But with a caveat -- I have not tried it on plastic models, only soft metal miniatures.

I use it to strip paint from old micro armor. In my experience with a couple hours of soaking it effectively removes acrylic and enamel hobby paints, hobby and automotive primers, and gloss and dull overcoats. It is far more effective than Pine Sol (my prior solution). It does not require brushing so much as just some wiping (though at this scale it's easier to use an old toothbrush to "wipe" in the various recesses).

And … it is bio-degradable and non-toxic, with a relatively inoffensive smell. It also has the side benefit of leaving your tools (tweezers, etc.) and hands cleaner when you are done than they were when you started!

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Acetone works fine as a paint stripper and will not melt or dissolve plastic (nor resin on any of the models I've used it on).

It will however dissolve super glue.

Acetone I don't know about, but that is incorrect with respect to the hard plastic models, I assure you.

Of course they do. Modelers would not be able to build hard plastic kits if they didn't have polystyrene glues that contain solvents like MEK, toluene, and acetone. Those glues are designed and sold because the chemicals in them dissolve plastic to form a weld between different parts. It doesn't have as much effect on other types of plastic, but it melts polystyrene, especially the concentrated acetones that are sold in metal cans.

I will second the choice of Simple Green to remove paint. But with a caveat -- I have not tried it on plastic models, only soft metal miniatures.

It works well with plastic models. Just let them soak for half an hour to an hour, then a tooth brush will get most of the paint off. Rinse and let it dry, and after it is dry then the rest of the paint will come off easily with a metal dental pick. You can find dental picks at hobby supply stores as well as prepper stores and gun shows.

Dude why bother stripping?
I paint over things all the time As long as the orignal coat wasnt crappy
I prefer to paint over matte surfaces.
Why not try just painting over 1?
The army painter dip would be hard to paint over because it is gloss but since it has a varnish it might work

I've never stripped paint off an old model, just slap more paint over the top. They are wargaming pieces after all.

I suppose the odd one might end up looking like it has thick paint on it, but really, life is too short.

Good points Martin & Simon; I'm sold. Life is too short. If they end up look like they've had a few coats of paint I'm going to suggest that's just an indication that they've just survived for one or two campaign seasons!
Also, it's not as if the other/better half was going to do it herself even if she had the time.
Thanks one and all for your help and advice – it'll all come in useful sometime.

If the varnish is matt it will accept the new airbrush coat with ease

Don't have an airbrush – it''ll have to be an old-fashioned brush.

A few things to add to the avoev.

-Skip simple green.
-Purple power is faster and cheaper and just as safe for all model materials. (plastic, resin, metal, etc)
-Avoid Oven cleaners and Acetones as they can hurt plastics
-Almost any degreaser will have an adverse affect on superglue joints. Nothing will bother models assembled with plastic solvent glue.

I've stripped large plastic 40k kits (and hundreds of models) before and purple power works very well. You're going to have alot of scrubbing, but not as much as with simple green which isn't as strong as it was before the reformulation a couple years back when they dropped 2-butoxethanol and that was when I switched to purple.

From experience, I'd seriously consider other options (such as selling the old ones, accepting that 'real' vehicles varied enormously, or just doing minimal repainting and/ or weathering to match the old and new models), as stripping plastics is messy, smelly, time consuming and unpredictable, with small pieces breaking off and disappearing in the sludge. Plus you have to factor in the cost of whatever product you'll use as stripper. I've stripped hundreds of Lord of the Rings plastics, and it was painful. The best product I found was a water soluble, bio paint stripper. Dettol/ Simple Green works, but smells bad and can leave a very sticky sludge in details. I'd buy new models or paint over the top of existing coats with a primer and thin coats.

If they are 15mm, just buy PSC new ones. Saves a lot of time, effort and if you sell the old ones, you will break even.

Kudos to your wife!

Also thanks to Tango 2 3 Ditto for the suggestion.

I've used the oven cleaner method on plastic figures several times and never had any problems. Exactly as Tango 2 3 describes except that I use cheap sandwich bags instead of ziplock bags!

Mind you, they were mostly old Airfix figures from the 70s and there was no glue involved!