A question for sculptors about the effects of stripping

[Dan Morton]

I'm trying to clean up a figure which may have been stripped to remove paint several times. I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that's true. I'm not certain what was used to strip the figure. Before I put anything on it or started cleaning the surfaces of the figure were rubbery in places. Not every place. Some parts were firm.

There was still a lot of acrylic paint remaining, so to progress with paint removal, I've used EZ Off oven cleaner. The active ingredient of EZ Off is Sodium Hydroxide. The good news is that doesn't appear to have made the rubbery surfaces more rubbery. The bad news is that the rubbery bits are still rubbery. The color of the rubbery bits looks wrong for the putty I used also. I used a mix of Kneadatite and natural color Magic Sculpt on most parts of this figure. In some places I used just natural color (grey) Magic Sculpt. The rubbery bits look tan. ??

Before going further, has anybody seen this rubbery reaction before? Did you successfully firm up the surface somehow? I'm wondering if just a modest amount of heat might dry the rubbery bits some.

Help!

All the best,
Dan

 

[valiant]

Hi Dan - I know of a similar discolouration with grey-green Miliput. Often, if stripped of paint it will go a brownish yellow, but the surface stays solid. I would try using a hairdryer on your figure, not too hot, just to see if the heat cures the rubberyness.

Just a thought....!

 

[Blind Pew]

I've had this issue before mate, where a resin figure went all rubbery on me. This was after I left paint/varnish remover on it for too long. I put it to one side and after about week it became alright again. Although it was never quite the same and I'm sure it lost about 5-10% of its definition in terms of the sharpness of the casting.
Basically, rinse it off in water best you can and leave it - I wish you luck.

 

[bogusman53]

I've always used Dettol to strip figures and busts, (when I first started to paint 1/10th busts, stripped my 1st one twice and his head 3 times, I hated painting the faces but now usually paint the face first, especially if it's an all in one bust. ) and never had any rubbery resin so I'd go with that rather than caustic soda. It has on occasion left the resin a slightly darker shade but otherwise no problems.

 

[Dan Morton]

Thanks guys! Much appreciated!

All the best,
Dan