Removing paint from miniatures

[5urieal]

Hey guys I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents here. I have had great success using the product above 'Simple Green' it doesn't smell to bad, in fact my wife kind of liked the peppermint sent, and it doesn't hurt miniatures at all. I bought a full warhammer army of dwarfs ant they were not painted the best, I just placed them in a bucket and covered them with simple green and after a day or two they were all clean. it is also a plus that I ran the extra through a coffee filter and have been using the same bottle of cleaner for like 2 years.

[Sjeng]

Yup, Simple Green is the US variant of Dettol. EU doesn't have simple green, and US doesn't have Dettol. Both do the same job, only Dettol smells bad

[chaoticprime]

Hey guys I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents here. I have had great success using the product above 'Simple Green' it doesn't smell to bad, in fact my wife kind of liked the peppermint sent, and it doesn't hurt miniatures at all. I bought a full warhammer army of dwarfs ant they were not painted the best, I just placed them in a bucket and covered them with simple green and after a day or two they were all clean. it is also a plus that I ran the extra through a coffee filter and have been using the same bottle of cleaner for like 2 years.

Simple Green and pine-sol work at about the exact same effectiveness on metals. Neither works that well on plastics, however. Particularly plastics that had been primed.

The best thing to remove paint from anything, are products designed to do exactly that. The only reasons ever to use Simple Green or Pine Sol, is that they are safe, simple, and easy to use. You don't even have to wash your hands. However, if you want to strip off any paint practically immediately, while wearing hand and eye protection, this is your product: http://www.micromark.com/easy-lift-off- ... ,7270.html

Pretty much any plastic-safe paint remover will do the job, but you seriously cannot mess around when it comes to using them. I realize most people here are adults, and know how to survive the basic tenets of existence by this point--but humor my pedagogy, anyway. The only times you ever need to be careful, is when you simply are not safe. If you're up to stripping dozens of minis while having to take your time, go for it. If you just want *lemony goodness* done (like not waiting overnight for Simple Green to work) do it the gloves and goggles way.

[Daedalus]

The best thing to remove paint from anything, are products designed to do exactly that. The only reasons ever to use Simple Green or Pine Sol, is that they are safe, simple, and easy to use. You don't even have to wash your hands. However, if you want to strip off any paint practically immediately, while wearing hand and eye protection, this is your product: http://www.micromark.com/easy-lift-off- ... ,7270.html

Thanks for the useful link--options are great. Beyond the wife-friendly scent (lemony goodness), I can think of a few other reasons to go with Simple Green--if you can spare the wait time. First, according to the manufacurer, it is readily biodegradable.

Second, the cost of a 2 oz. sample bottle of Simple Green is .67 cents. Four of them equal a like amout of Polly S ELO, which costs $12.75 for 8 oz. For just $2.68 you have a like amount of product. That's a significant savings of $10.07.

Finally, the wife will be happy to have a useful cleaner in the house (mine already used up my supply). You can easily justify a larger purchase to a spouse. A 2 liter bottle can be gotten for $7.63--quite a value. A lot of miniatures can be cleaned at once with this quantity, with more to spare.

[chaoticprime]

What actually does the paint-stripping in Simple Green is its 5% ethoxylated alcohol content, which is a surfactant (disperses surface tension in liquids). Regular alcohol works just as well. What you need to be cautious about, is the Tetrasodium N, which is an acid. Its totally harmless to people, but pewter miniatures hate it (all acids). Plastic, white metal, etc will all be fine. Old lead-pewter miniatures will first lose all their metallic sheen and turn dark grey to black. Once this happens, they can actually crumble into pieces.

Simple Green is absolutely first-rate at cleaning up motor oil, though.

[Daedalus]

Good to know. Is there a known time limit over 2 days for the crumble effect?

[chaoticprime]

I would consider not leaving them over night, ever. I would remove them and scrub off what will come away every six hours or so. Pine Sol will do mostoly the same damage, plus it permanently scents plastics.

[Daedalus]

Lemony goodness ! That's a juxtaposition I'd never have guessed. That Grak--what a jerk...but he did smell nice, I gotta give him that.

Has anyone here noticed this effect after painting a figure stripped in Simple Green/Dettol? What I want to know is, does a layer of paint seal the scent in? What about a glue/dip?

[chaoticprime]

Painting them gets rid of the smell, regardless.

[Decipher]

Everyone at the Warhammer shop told me to use Pinesol to get the paint of mini's. I tried this on my spare elf which was painted by the previous owner. Oh and let me tell you, Do NOT use Pinesol on HQ mini's! My elf is now a light red/dark pink. Somehow it made the plastic softer so I guess it came close to melting it. But the paint came off.