Question for the group. I've got a handful of minis that I did early in my painting career that I need to redo and I don't want to paint over them. So, what's a good product for stripping acrylic off of these models without damaging the plastic? Don't want to spend tons of money on it either if I don't have to. Thanks for the input.
"Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"
I experimented with half a dozen minis in regards to clear cote finishing. I normally only put one coat on but tried two with these and I'm not really happy with them. Too shiny, especially when next to the others.
Would I have to repaint?
"That's right son, join the navy. Get behind a bloody big gun and knock the hell out of somebody"
"We went out, got our arses kicked, then came back again"
I experimented with half a dozen minis in regards to clear cote finishing. I normally only put one coat on but tried two with these and I'm not really happy with them. Too shiny, especially when next to the others.
Would I have to repaint?
Gaz - to my knowledge there isn't a way to remove only the varnish/clear coat and leave the paint so I'd wager you'll have to re-paint.
I experimented with half a dozen minis in regards to clear cote finishing. I normally only put one coat on but tried two with these and I'm not really happy with them. Too shiny, especially when next to the others.
Would I have to repaint?
Gaz - to my knowledge there isn't a way to remove only the varnish/clear coat and leave the paint so I'd wager you'll have to re-paint.
I generally use multiple coats of varnish. First is a dull coat to seal it up and make one final review of my paint job (easy to paint on matte varnish for touch ups). Second is a gloss coat because it's tougher than matte. Third I go back and use another matte coat to get rid of the shininess! If you're happy with the paint job and the clear cote is just too shiny, I'd recommend getting some matte varnish or even Testor's Dull Cote to take the shine off.
I've used Simple Green before and it's never taken off the factory paint on the War at Sea minis. I've only seen it come off when I was using denatured alcohol to remove some glue someone had used to attach minis to custom bases (I bought a lot off eBay years ago and about 10 were like this).
Finally looking to get round to doing the dozen or so pieces with paint on that I want to get off. Some destroyers I'll try first but some rare cruisers/battleships to do as well.
Just seen when looking a crystal simple green version as well, which is fragrance and colour free. Any difference?
I'm simply coming in at this very much green - pun intended.
"That's right son, join the navy. Get behind a bloody big gun and knock the hell out of somebody"
"We went out, got our arses kicked, then came back again"
I'm a believer in LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner. I watched a YouTube video where a guy compared a bunch of different methods. This was one of the top 2 (they tied) and was cheaper so I bought it from Amazon. I soaked a bunch of painted WaS and AAM vehicles in it for a week. Totally ate most of the paint off (including varnish), but left the original/factory paintjobs. After a quick 30 second brushing with a soft toothbrush, it was..."Totally Awesome".
I'm a believer in LA's Totally Awesome Cleaner. I watched a YouTube video where a guy compared a bunch of different methods. This was one of the top 2 (they tied) and was cheaper so I bought it from Amazon. I soaked a bunch of painted WaS and AAM vehicles in it for a week. Totally ate most of the paint off (including varnish), but left the original/factory paintjobs. After a quick 30 second brushing with a soft toothbrush, it was..."Totally Awesome".
I highly recommend this even over Simple Green...
Thanks for the info! I’ve got several older paint jobs that need to go. I just ordered some from Amazon.
OK, quick update. If the original paint job is exposed, it can be removed with this stuff so be careful. I was cleaning up some V-156Fs and a Junyo I bought years ago that someone had repainted. It turns out they only touched up some areas and now my V-156Fs are down to the plastic and my deck on my Junyo is faded. Lesson learned and something I can repaint so no biggie, but I thought I should post a note here since I recommended it.
It appears if you've completely covered the original paint job, this stuff is great for loosening that secondary paint job after 5-7 days, but it can take up the original, factory paint, if it's exposed, so consider testing it every couple of days or so.
OK, quick update. If the original paint job is exposed, it can be removed with this stuff so be careful. I was cleaning up some V-156Fs and a Junyo I bought years ago that someone had repainted. It turns out they only touched up some areas and now my V-156Fs are down to the plastic and my deck on my Junyo is faded. Lesson learned and something I can repaint so no biggie, but I thought I should post a note here since I recommended it.
It appears if you've completely covered the original paint job, this stuff is great for loosening that secondary paint job after 5-7 days, but it can take up the original, factory paint, if it's exposed, so consider testing it every couple of days or so.
Hope this hasn't screwed up anything for anyone.
I soaked mine for about 12-16 hours and used a toothbrush on them and most of the paint came off no problem. A couple spots where it looks like the factory paint came off too but it's hard to tell if that was imperfections on the original model or not. I had to put some back in for another round before trying to get the last of the paint off. I also used it on a resin model for about 5 hours of soaking and the paint came off very easily without damage to the model.