Stripping Figures

No need to be nervous, simply scrub figures with a toothbrush or wipe them with paper towels first. If there’s still lots of paint, put them back in the Dettol pot. If not, scrub them with a toothbrush plus washing up liquid and water.

The stripping effectiveness, in my experience, varies. That’s based on the paints used, I assume. Some figures get clean quickly, others need prolonged or repeated soaks.
 

Sjoerdo

Member
Pumpkineater":2waw1fij said:
so after being cleaned, do you let them dry, and then rinse them with water, or no water at all ?
would models require several soakings or just leave the model in the dettol for a longer period of time (ie several days) ?

No I wouldn't le them dry, I soaked the miniatures in a jar then poured the content (minis and Dettol) in a plastic tub (afwas teiltje in Dutch), and then started scrubbing, wetting the brush with some Dettol from time to time. Only after completely cleaned I washed them with water.
 

JonAtron

Member
Gallivantes, as always your a gentleman and a scholar. If I find the holy grail / toxic blend I'll test it and let you know from my hospital bed. Its just the paint left in the grooves of a few parts I just cant get out with any of the strippers or wooden toothpick. The metal is too soft and tricky to use a scalpel. I't needs to come out as its thick to lessen the detail.


Great info and experiences from all of you here thanks.
 
Sjoerdo":9xrazjwo said:
Pumpkineater":9xrazjwo said:
so after being cleaned, do you let them dry, and then rinse them with water, or no water at all ?
would models require several soakings or just leave the model in the dettol for a longer period of time (ie several days) ?

No I wouldn't le them dry, I soaked the miniatures in a jar then poured the content (minis and Dettol) in a plastic tub (afwas teiltje in Dutch), and then started scrubbing, wetting the brush with some Dettol from time to time. Only after completely cleaned I washed them with water.


ah thanks Sjoerdo, smart thinking with the afwas teiltje hahaha, will pick one up at some cheapo dutch store, zeeman :p :)
 
JonAtron":1ey5t822 said:
Its just the paint left in the grooves of a few parts I just cant get out with any of the strippers or wooden toothpick. The metal is too soft and tricky to use a scalpel. I't needs to come out as its thick to lessen the detail.

I don’t know if you saw the suggestions on my Forum of Doom thread for dealing with this? One recommended coating with pva glue, letting it dry, and then pulling it off. Another doing the same sort of thing with super glue. Someone else with blue tac. I’ve not tried any of these personally, but I’d start with the pva option myself.
 

Gallivantes

Member
JonAtron":1bl2xn2f said:
Its just the paint left in the grooves of a few parts I just cant get out with any of the strippers or wooden toothpick. The metal is too soft and tricky to use a scalpel. I't needs to come out as its thick to lessen the detail.

Yes, this was something I couldn't escape either. Perhaps half the models I strip are completely clean after the soak and brush. Half the time there is residue. In my experience you can't deny that the physical removal is, maybe half the time or so, as much the issue as what substance you use for the soak. I would say this because I have sometimes been battling the residue suspecting that the chemical agitation hadn't affected the paint all the way through, only to switch out the scrubbing tool and watch the paint come away rather amicably after all.

Apparently then, the soaking effect HAD degraded the paint enough, it's just that you have to apply the right kind of physical persuasion because the paint really loves to sit in the nooks and doesn't fall out by itself even if it's no longer adhering to the model to a great degree. So I have at times been fighting pain-in-the-ass residue but trying out different scraping tools has made some seemingly impossible jobs if not easy, then at least bearable as there is reasonable progress as you work the model over.

Here's my current toolkit/routine:

Brushing:
- Electric toothbrush. Great preventor of tennis elbow and saviour of morale. Scrubbing away with a manual toothbrush can get very tedious very quickly. The bristles are cropped down short to make them less bendy and scrub better. Got mine at moneysaver hardware outlet discount for a fiver.
- Manual toothbrush #1. An ordinary toothbrush, also with the bristles cropped down short. I use this when the electric gives me dubious results. Lets you put more welly into the scrub job, as I can only put so much pressure on the electric without fear of breaking it's neck.
- Manual toothbrush #2. Bog standard, uncropped bristles. As above, but I only use it when some nook can't be reached with the cropped one or electric due to the short bristles.

Scraping:
- I have a hobby knife with a point that's a bit blunter than your typical X-acto razor blade type knife, and it turns out it's the best "sharp thing" I've found to clean nooks and crannies. To give you some idea of the sharpness I'd say it's not overly blunt, as I actually use it for cutting plastic and metal stuff a lot. But I can jab and slice at my finger with it with enough force that an x-acto blade would draw blood (and this knife doesn't I mean :)). It's a rather fine difference, but seems to make a noticeable difference in cleaning efficacy. I have also tried sharp x-acto blades and I found that the sharpest point/blade tends to mostly slice up the paintjob without removing as much of it. The slightly blunter point does a better job of embedding itself in the residue and rip it away in chunks. And to that I would add that my blunt knife would be sharper and have a finer point than a wooden toothpick, so have a look amongst all your sharp pointy things and experiment. There might be something there that's a lot more effective than what you're using.

PVA glue:
I have also used the PVA glue method to good effect. Only once, in the case of a big fur cloak where the soak and scrub had worn off all the high points of the fur texture and left a good chunk of thick primer in each tiny depression. I knew the paint had lost most of its adherence to the model as I had cleaned it rather easily elsewhere via scraping all over and the residue came off in good sized chunks. The fur cloak was a nightmare however, as there were no longer any chunks but a thousand little separate bits that I struggled to even reach and when I did, I only got one at a time. Then I also had the idea of covering bits in PVA glue and rip it off once dry like a brazilian wax job and hey presto - it worked pretty well! So +1 to that. The good thing with PVA is that it's very susceptible to removal by soaking in plain water, so you don't have to worry much about covering a model in it.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks Gallivantes for those extra tips :)

just scrubbed some models with the dettol, and it was a blast.
should have gotten this stuff way sooner.

thanks for the tips everyone !!! :grin:
 

ogryn

Member
So for all you usa guys, i found this stuff in Dollar General stores called, LA's Totally Awesome. I must say it is totally awesome. Cheap as hell too. $1 for 20oz. I bought the concentrated stuff. Its strips paint better then anything i have ever used before. I can not find Dawn's dissolve stuff. I recommend totally awesome, i have stripped almost two dozen models with it and it strips it down to the metal. Its safe for plastic, 100%. Strips plastic too. One thing it does not do that simple green did was break the bond of super glue.
 

Tanath

Member
This is just my two cents but having been stripping minis recently on buying a lot of painted lead minis I am using Simple Green.

If you are not in a rush and want to avoid all those corrosive smelly dangerous strippers, then I recommend SG. I usually have the minis bath in it for a week or more and then take out the minis, out them into a metal dish and pour boiling hot water on them to soak for about 30 mins. Then scrub them using detergent and an old tooth brush. After that give them a going over with a wire brush which I use as an attachment on my hobby drill.
That helps to remove any stubborn paint and gives them a good polish at the same time.

It has been interesting hearing other peoples suggestions and there are some new products for me to try in the future.

I even clean my airbrush by bathing it in the SG for a week or so. It doesn't seem to damage the rubber seals or anything, and it comes up shinny and new and clean.
 

Berkut666

Member
Recently bought an ultrasonic cleaner. I use it and clean spirit (water based white spirit) couple of cycles in the bath and the paint basically falls off. On some detail it sometimes needs a wee scrub with a tooth brush but apart from that it’s very effective. The only minis I have had issue on are the ones that were primed with Halfords car primer back in the day. Even then a bit of a soak for a day or two and it comes off. It also tends to take glue and filler out too.

If your tempted to try it please bear in mind that generally the ultrasonic cleaners are for jewellery or surgical items so are often very small. Mine can only take about 10 x 28mm minis. Large vehicles need split before going in.

Always remember to degas the fluid first. It’s a separate cycle on the cleaner.

Also, it tends to slightly tarnish metal minis but a bit of scrub and the come up grand.
 

Outsider

Member
I've been having a ton of problems with my ultrasonic cleaner; it seems to be creating instant lead rot in miniatures from all sorts of ages and manufacturers. Recently cast miniatures, old miniatures, from differnet companies, all seem to be coming out with problems; either they've got grey, powdery coatings that are hard to remove and leave pitting or they just seem to crumble.

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It's a 120w power one, which was recommended to me by a friend, so I don't know what's going on with it. I'm cleaning at 30 minute intervals at about 50 degrees c.
 

Berkut666

Member
Will check what power mine is but it’s just a small one. I am also only doing small cycles (2 x 8 min) and that’s normally enough if I have soaked them overnight before hand.

I have had the effect you describe above but it’s seems to just be a residue/coating left behind by the cavitation process. With metal minis I tend to give them a gentle brush with a small wire brush (it’s also quite soft for a wire brush. It’s harder than a toothbrush but softer than a proper wire brush) after that they get a good scrub with washing up liquid and a toothbrush. Ready to go.
 

Outsider

Member
Berkut666":orntl78g said:
Will check what power mine is but it’s just a small one. I am also only doing small cycles (2 x 8 min) and that’s normally enough if I have soaked them overnight before hand.

I have had the effect you describe above but it’s seems to just be a residue/coating left behind by the cavitation process. With metal minis I tend to give them a gentle brush with a small wire brush (it’s also quite soft for a wire brush. It’s harder than a toothbrush but softer than a proper wire brush) after that they get a good scrub with washing up liquid and a toothbrush. Ready to go.

Thanks for that; I'll pick one up and give it a brush to see how it goes.
 

Outsider

Member
I had another go with the ultrasonic today; it's working fine on some miniatures, but my Mirliton halflings really don't like it. Most come out alright, but some just begin to crumble and become pockmarked on one side. I'm going to just strip the rest with the normal methods. Going to try giving the worst afflicted areas a covering of PVA to try and hide the damage before priming.
 
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