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Author Topic: dettol, a guide to stripping Plastic minis  (Read 2922 times)

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Offline Zany Reaper

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dettol, a guide to stripping Plastic minis
« on: October 16, 2005, 05:38:51 PM »
Ok, I'm sure you know who I am.  I've been testing Lockmaster's theorem on Dettol antiseptic disinfectant as a paint stripper, & these are my results.

This is primarily for those who have poor access to Simple green.  For example - us in Britain would have to pay about £10 RRp for some Simple Green.

I decided to use some Dettol on some crudely painted ultramarines from eBay.  All the terminators had lumps of acrylic paint on them, as if they had 5 paint jobs, & some of the power armour marines were 'infested' too.  I got a small container, a plastic pot of stock for example, & poured iin enough Dettol ot flood a typical marine on it's back.
I plan to sell a bunch of marines (which I lost interest in as i've found Eldar & necrons much better game-wise) to some people out there.  Unfortunately, all are badly painted!  Yuk.  I'm therefore stripping them to attract customers.

I threw in 2 marines & one terminator.  One marine wasn't 'infested,' but I wanted to see how much paint would spill off this one compared to the other 2.



When it came to removing the paint, within an hour, the paint had already weakened, & was beginning to soften & fall off the mini.  Some previous termies that I'd treated (see 2nd pic) were left for just over a day, & the paint was literally drifting yet clinging onto the mini, like seaweed in water.  Some of the strips had even been removed without any added work by me!

As you can see, the terminator has already been half cleaned.  I used an old brush (a large cheap drybrush would do nicely) to clean off the paint (or should I say goo), as a blast of hot water wouldn't simply remove the softened paint.  Unfortunately for me, the goo clogged up the brush, as it was still sticky, even though it was soft. 
To combat this the 'easy way' (instead of hand picking off the gooey ex-paint) I got a small amount of methylated spirits (about 10% methanol, the rest ethanol I think) & put it in a small cup to dissolve the goo on the brush.  I also used this instead of water, & virtually all the paint was removed (on the previous termies) with little hassle.
Please wear gloves when handling the spirits, as it isn't particularly user friendly, & definately don't drink it!  Methanol is poisonous.



The termies on the left are the ones I cleaned with meth. spirits.  The ones on the right were cleaned with just hot water.

I washed off the methylated spirits with water, both being runny.  It still smelt of the crap, but it doesn't matter (unless you enjoy solvent abuse & sniffing) if you sniff it infrequently (this is getting slightly retarded, moving on...).

There!  Job done.  Only in 30 hours!  Most of which is waiting.

I bought a bottle of Dettol in Tescos for less than £2 (though it may vary in other areas across the world).  750 mls of it.  Not a bad price, & that's Tescos!
It contains about 5% chloroxylenol, which may be to blame for the stripping of paint.  it's a disinfectant, so I recommend that you read these guidelines before use - http://www.medicinenet.com/hydrocortisone-pramoxine-chloroxylenol-otic_drops/article.htm

Edit - I've also been able to re-use the dettol over & over again.  I'll chuck it away when it becomes ineffective, & will replace it.

Hope this helps, ZR
« Last Edit: October 17, 2005, 04:09:02 PM by Zany Reaper »
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Offline Grimnar

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Re: dettol, a guide to stripping Plastic minis
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2005, 06:34:01 PM »
looks good. safe on lastics too. thats nice

Offline Cortex_Killer

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Re: dettol, a guide to stripping Plastic minis
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2005, 03:20:27 PM »
Nice one, mate!  ;)

Will be strippin some of my old plastics now....well soon.
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Offline Zany Reaper

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Re: dettol, a guide to stripping Plastic minis
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2005, 04:06:52 PM »
By the way, I haven't tested them on any models I painted personally.  I assume that they were acrylic paints that the dodgy paint job had, as Lockmaster strips his plastic minis with dettol.

I don't know if it works on metal.  Only tried it on plastics.
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Cuteness.  Why do some of us hate it? 

I don't!  Send me something cute!  Gah!  I may drool at it!

 


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