once written on the bugmansbrewery
In time every warhammerplayer or collector jumps into the same question. How to remove paint from your mini’s. Removing paint is a hard job, especialy becourse the used paints are of superb quality and most of the time the painter has token all the actions to make sure his paint will not bladder off in years, by degreasing and priming his mini.
Before to start with the great advices so generously written down at the forge, by our experienced dwarfpainters a brief warning is in place.
Most of the liquids you can use to peel off the paint of your mini are chemicals wich are hazardrous for your health. They can cause serious ilness like cancer when absorbed by your body via air (breathing), skin (dripping, moisturing) or eating (eating your food with dirty hands).
Read the Label
Always use gloves, closed yars for soaking (glass made marmelade ones are good with a small nailhole in the lid to prevent pressure building up) Work in open spaces (outside) or in well ventilated rooms. Take care for open fire (mothers cooking oven, candles, fools with cigarettes, etc) Most chemicals have an explosive effect when exposed to high temperatures.
Treat plastic mini’s and metal mini’s separate. Some solvements working great on metal are melting down plastic mini’s at high speed. If you are confused what to use trye some of the stuff on a base. When its melting away don’t use it on plastics.
When you are finished with paintstripping make sure you throw your leftover liquid away in a proper environmental way like you should do with all chemicals.
To remove paint leftovers extended use of toothbrushes is required. Don’t put them back in the famely thoothbrushtin. If they have some hairs left keep them stored somewere els. Start a old thoothbrush collection for you will need a lot of them.
Plastic mini’s (and metal) (and metal converted with greenstuff
Phoenix Precision paints produce a stripper called Super Strip. It's non spectacular on metal models (Elbow grease required, but no more so then any other stripper I've used), but where it really shines is plastics. It doesn't melt or distort the plastic, and it removes the paint (and sometimes glue) to the point where you'd think the model was brand new. I left a 40K model in it overnight, and came back to find the paint floating about 1mm from the surface of the model.
Phoenix is a UK company BTW.
Dettol
It strips both plastic AND metal effortlessly. Leave it overnight, then drain it, and rinse out the container a few times to get some hangy paint off, them scrub them with an old toothbrush.
Be sure to buy a bargain pack of 50 or so though.. It ploughs through toothbrushes fast.
Ordinary ovencleaner:
I have had good results with Easy Off - plus it has a nice lemon scent.
Same deal - put mini's in a container. Spray in oven cleaner. Wait. rinse.
Methalated Spirits
I've found that Methalated Spirits works wonders when stripping the paint off metal *and* plastic miniatures. Soak the minis in the Spirit for 6-8 hours and then scrub with a toothbrush. (hard bristles work best)
Just be sure to use spirits and not Turpentine, as the latter will disolved plastic figures in a matter of minutes. Try testing it out on a expendible miniature if you're not sure.
Rubbing Alcohol
I've soaked the old plastic clansmen in rubbing alcohol for a few hours... it works though the plastic will appear a little bleached. They've been repainted and I've noticed no ill-effects. Just rinse them off while scrubbing them with a toothbrush.
Castrol Super Clean
Used for de-greasing (cleaning) car engines, comes in a pretty purple bottle, you can find it in most North American stores which carry automotive supplies. I've bought mine at Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire, but I've seen it a number of other places.
Castrol Super Clean strips multiple layers of paint off of either plastic or metal and I have left unpainted plastic minis (a goblin and a zombie) in the CSC for a week with no visible damage, although one of the arms on the zombie look like it was starting to soften, it's posed lower than I remember...
T-Röd
For the swedes of the forum, I have succesfully used T-Röd to strip the paint of both metallic and plastic models. I let the models I wanted to strip bathe in T-Röd for about 48 hours, and then I scrubbed the paint off with a toothbrush under a stream of warm (not hot, but warm) water. It worked like a charm.
As I said, stripping plastics works fine with T-Röd as well. I made an experiment once when I let a plastic model lie in the liquid for a whole week, but it wasn't damaged at all
Some bad experiances with T-Röd:
I´d like to comment on the T-röd for the swedes too.
its horrible..Dont bother with it.
I have tried it on several occations and never had any good results.
The best I got after even a full week in the red stuff and a hard scrub with a old toothbrush, was some bleaching and minor (very minor) chipping of the paint I wanted to strip
Pinesol
A substance called Pinesol is fantastic at stripping plastic minatures, you can find it at hardware shops etc, doesnt damage the plastic and has a nice pine-y smell.
Only metal mini’s
Nitromors Green
I've used Nitromors Green to strip metal models before. I plonked a load of metal models that I'd bought off Ebay in an old coffee jar and covered them in Nitromors, then put on the lid and left it for a couple of days. All I need to do then was to gently scrub any stubborn paint away with an old toothbrush. Wash and dry the models thoroughly before you paint them again as any traces of Nitromors makes it bubble up.
You need to be careful with it though as it's got very strong fumes - it's also best not to pour it down the sink or drains either (Not very environmental...)
Acetone, (nail polish remover)
Nail polish remover (containing acetone or not) works wonders on all metal models.
**Be careful when using nail-polish remover. If you're soaking your minis, keep an eye on them, 'cause ive had a few metal models fall apart after forgetting that I was soaking them for a couple of days.
Acetone will melt plastics, or atleast soften them up after even a quick dip.
Brakefluid
If nothing works anymore you can try soaking your mini in brakefluid for some time (24h) Then use the toothbrush and rinse with (hot) water. But becarefull, brakefluid is known as one of the most hazardous stuff and it certainly causes cancer if you spoil it on your skin, etc.