Removing Old Paint

[Chrisr]

Would some kind person advise me how to remove old paint from both metal figures and the historex plastic figures? The paint types to be removed are humbrol enamels, oils and acrylics.

many thanks in advance

Cheers
Chris

 

[megroot]

Chris,
For the metal i advise Mr Muscle. This is an ovencleaner.
Put the figure in a plastic back and spray some Mr Muscle in. Let it there for a few hours and clean it with gloves and a soap and brush.
Let it dry, and if not clean enough repaet.

marc

 

[tonydawe]

G'day Chris,

Mr Muscle works really well as Marc said. You have to be careful with soft, hollow plastic figures like Historex as sometimes the chemical reaction caused by the oven cleaner can eat into the plastic itself.

Rather than let the oven cleaner stay on for too long and run the risk of damaging the plastic I suggest you wash off the oven cleaner after an hour or two, scrub the figure with an old toothbrush to remove any loose bits and then spray Mr Muscle on again.

Its safer to do this process over a few times than try to do it in one go, and find later that you've left it on for too long and your figure is ruined.

I have used caustic soda to remove enamel paint from resin figures, but its quite dangerous to use and you need protective gloves and breathing gear if you're doing it indoors.

Hope this helps mate.

Cheers

 

[Tommi]

For metal figures I use Acetone free nail varnish remover. lay the figure in a container and just pour it in to cover the figure, the paint starts to come away in about 30 minutes, just wash with soapy water and a nail brush and it will come up good as new, if you leave the figure in for about 24 hours it will disolve and superglue on any attached parts.
Cheers
Tommi

 

[dannyk01]

Well.. I just recently removed old paint off my metal figure (my thespian hoplite) by soaking it in car break fluid overnight. After waiting over night i scrubbed it down with soapy water and an old toothbrush.. This reacts the same way that tommi said happens with the nail polish.

I just put break fluid into a tall chinese take away container then put my figure in.. The only downside to this is that it wore the superglue away and it well apart but in a sense it made it easier to get into the more difficult spots so i repeated the process. When it came time to taking it all off i had to

 

[Mark S]

G'day Chris,
If none of that works mate just let me know and I'll send you some of my home brew~works in pretty much the same way!

 

[abbo]

Mr muscle for a couple of hours and then a brass bristle brush on metal figures works a treat. [the type of brush you use on suede shoes that is]
Martin

 

[Chrisr]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for the overwhelming response. All of your replies are much appreciated. Thanks for the tip on Historex Tony, I will take especial care with them.

best wishes to all

Chris

 

[cptan]

I've tried stripping Humbrol paint from old kit by dipping the kit into automobile brake oil.... overnight. U can see the old enemal paint peel off by itself like snake skin. Lastly use old tooth brush and soup water to final scrub off the rest if they're still there.

Hope this help
CPTan

 

[Chrisr]

Thank you CPTan.

Cheers
Chris

 

[painter x]

One word AWESOME This is a cleaning soloution mostly found in dollar stores. Let your figure soak in this then rinse the paint comes off with ease.