A useful tip to strip paint from plastic minis.

[Chrysalis]

I've been looking for a way to strip GW-like plastic minis for years, and now I think I've found: domestic alcohol. No, not vodka. I'm talking of the cleaning thing that smells like lemon.

I've just put a whole eldar falcon in this stuff (a whole bottle was needed), and three hours later, I just had to skin the paint with an old toothbrush. Really easy. And the plastic suffered no obvious damage...

Be careful however, I feel like breathing this stuff for too long could give serious headache. It's alcohol after all... :icon_wink:

[Medved]

i use fair power spray and glass jars, leave for at lest 30 minutes (overnight causes no problems) and then push it off with a toothbrush.

likewish you will need ventilation if you're doing serious stripping :icon_wink:

[Dr.Evil]

Got some oven cleaner from work that I have to test on plastic, works great on metal.

[Perv]

Theres several products around nowadays that clean plastic figs pretty well.  For metal figs you cant beat paint stripper, the clue is in the name :)  I still use Bruenors secret of Dettol for plastics as its works out the cheapest and easiest of them all and I can leave them to soak for weeks if lacking motivation.....

I tried that Fairy Power Spray and its good but Red tin Nitromors is the ultimate for cleaning metal figs but you cant dispose of it down the sink.  Green tin you can so thats the one I use and out of the many hundreds of figs I have stripped I'd say only 2 didnt come out mint condition !!!  These had a black car spray undercoat that apparently only the red tin Nitromors removes.

[Caerban]

I want to recommend a non-toxic stripper I got from Homebase in the UK. This stuff in fact. I used it for the first time the other day. It's kind of like hair gel in texture, and smells faintly of detergent but that's it. I scooped some out with my fingers and rubbed it thickly onto the minis I was stripping then dumped them into an old glass ramekin and added a bit more. It's a thick gel so you don't really need any depth to it, it just sticks to the mini. Then I left them for a few hours, giving them a quick swirl every time I was passing. Then I rinsed them off in the sink with some warm water and in all but the most crevice rich mini that was all that was needed. The rest responded well to an old toothbrush and a bit of warm, soapy water. With the minimum effort they were all pristine and without that annoying tacky residue Dettol sometimes leaves you with in the deepest cracks. All of this said I don't know if it works on plastic, I don't have any (see any and all previous rants on plastic minis :) ) but I can't see why it wouldn't, it seems very mild. Just thought I'd mention it.

[Perv]

I've had that residue on some of my plastic figs I stripped with dettol but think thats down to the paint being used.  All the ones I've painted in GW or Coat d'arm paint come off fine with dettol but the enamel paints were murder for the residue.  I had to coat figs in washing up liquid and scrub again with toothbrush to get that stuff off.

That gel stuff sounds like a degreaser.  I've heard of people using this b4 but never seen it myself.  £8 for 400 ml sounds expensive, how far does it go on numbers of figs?  I am all for non-toxic stuff but so far havent found anything that compares with paint stripper on metal figs.  I only got into cleaning plastic figs fairly recently as like Caerban I cant stand the things either !!!