Help with cleaning up Pre-Paints please!

[Major_Gilbear]

As the topic title suggests, I would very much appreciate any and all help/suggestions on cleaning up Pre-Painted models for a decent new paintjob.

I have never purchased Pre-Paints before (I don't like them, nor do do I even like plastic models in general much either...), but there didn't seem to much choice if I wanted some Star Wars figs. Furthermore, I saw Agis' excellent efforts and they spurred me on to buy some of these bendy plastic figs for the first time.

I wasn't expecting miracles of sculpture in the first place, but sadly the paint is really too thick in some areas of the models (eyes/faces in particular) to do much with.

I was hoping that there might be some nifty trick for cleaning or stripping (at least some of) the paint from them? Even if the strip was limited to specific areas like the faces, it would help enormously.

I would prefer not to go down the road of headswaps etc if possible though - as if this sort of surgery is required, then I may as well have just kitbashed the models from something else in the first place...

So I'm in your hands for helpful advice people! Please help me with this! 

[YIU]

The best way to remove paint on plastic or resin miniatures is to use Glanzer. Hope you could find it where you live.

http://www.lavagedevitres.lu/store/30-78-large/http-wwwlavagedevitreslu-idproduct-html.jpg

[Grimmnar]

The best way to remove paint on plastic or resin miniatures is to use Glanzer. Hope you could find it where you live.

http://www.lavagedevitres.lu/store/30-78-large/http-wwwlavagedevitreslu-idproduct-html.jpg

Grrrr Eric, English. I cant read those fancy words on the bottle. What does Decapant Wasoplosser mean?  :-)

Grimm

[YIU]

Yes it's a stripper used to wash tiles and you should find the same kind of thing in UK or USA.

[wellender]

Are you trying to strip off the paint from Star Wars plastics?  I haven't tried any of those.  I have done it with Heroclix and the only thing I have had luck with is acetone and, to a lesser extent, nail polish remover.  It's 99% acetone I think.

You have to be very careful with the acetone.  Aside from being bad for you, it can really eat the figures if you're not careful.  It makes the plastic very soft.  Star Wars miniatures are an even softer plastic than Heroclix so I am not sure how safe it would be for them.

I wore gloves when I did mine.  Next time I'll wear a mask too.  I  briefly dipped the figure in the acetone and used a soft brush on the paint.  I also found that a sponge soaked in the acetone and wiped on the figure worked very well.  I used old Chessex case cut-outs.  Be very carful with the figure.  The plastic can become soft enough to bend and will even take a finger print.  You can also lose details if it is exposed too much to the acetone.

[Svennn]

The few Marvel Heroclix I have re-painted were just done over the existing after a quick wash and dry

[alone_withmyaxe]

I have heard it said that you can use, and please don't think me too mental, but brake fluid to remove paint from plastics. I have yet to try it but by accounts from others it does seem to work without damage to the plastic figures. Although they were referring to the harder plastics

I think the wash and rinse process afterwards would have to be very thorough to make sure you remove all the fluid before repainting. If I ever try it I will feedback.

I have used nail varnish remover, but that has destroyed plastics for me in the past if you are not very careful with the timings.

[FramFramson]

I can second the call for pure acetone, with clix figures, having stripped a few Mage Knight minis in my time.

But I can't say it was all that great: I couldn't just dunk the figures in acetone, or that would have just been too much and caused the figures to start to dissolve (even swabbing, I still had a little disintegration where I was overzealous), so I had to swab the stuff on for a long time with ear swabs I dipped in acetone, which is no fun (oh god the fumes - use good ventilation!) AND didn't get in every last crack.

You need copious amounts of acetone BUT not too much AND you need to be able to wipe it off with enough pressure to take paint off BUT not so much pressure that the figure starts to break down.

 

[Heldrak]

While I appreciate that some members may have achieved satisfactory results using acetone, etc. It seems the height of madness to me to use any stripper that is in danger of dissolving the figure along with the paint...! 

I've done quite a few Heroclix repaints now and the best results have been with simply priming them over the factory paint job. If you find that you've lost too much detail, you can always compensate with careful detail painting and/or exaggerated highlighting and shading.

[Dolmot]

I wouldn't dare to use acetone on plastics. Some of the actual details will be almost certainly gone. Brake fluid may be OK, but it also softens or dissolves some plastics. Requires careful testing first. It's nasty to store, handle and dispose of too. Not recommended for living quarters.

Nowadays I'd try FPS first. It's mostly harmless to all common miniature materials and doesn't cause major injuries or environmental catastrophes. It it doesn't work, move on to heavier solutions.

[Heldrak]

Just a quick note- I have found both Easy-off Oven Cleaner and Simple Green fairly useless when it comes to stripping 'clix. Neither harmed the figures, but neither did anything to the paint, either (although I have found both useful in stripping GW-style plastics).

[wellender]

I tried Simple Green too.  Just ended up with a really clean figure.

Acetone, in my expeirence, is not that hard to use.  A quick dip, less then 30 seconds, is enough to start it.  Then just wipe and rinse.  Rinsing is important.  I have not lost details on any I have done this way.  I did stop doing it though.  It's just way too time consuming.  Now I just rebase and live with the paint job.  Maybe a wash to bring out the details.

[bandit86]

I just started to do some of those also.  So far the ones I had done I did not need to strip just a primer and paint, but there are some that just lack detail and striping is not really going to help.

[Major_Gilbear]

Hmm, well from your replies so far, it doesn't look like good news does it? 

I do actually already strip acrylic paint off plastic models with brake fluid. I've had stuff soaking in there for over a year to get very stubborn paint out of deep crevices on models, and so far the models have been totally unharmed whilst the paint comes off readily.

However, I don't think that the paint used on the Pre-Paints is acrylic. I think (from reading around a little) that it might be vinyl paint. Furthermore, the plastic of the Pre-Paint models is clearly not the hard styrene that us commonly used in plastic model kits.

I therefore don't think that the usual suspects like Fairy Power Spray, brake fluid, Simple Green and such will shift the paint... And the acetone sounds too risky really; I don't want to dissolve the model in the process! 

Painting the detail in was kinda 'Plan B', because the detail on the faces is really heavily concealed by the factory paintjobs and there are almost no relief details apart from the noses.

So is there any way to remove the vinyl paint without damaging the model then? 

[Malebolgia]

While I appreciate that some members may have achieved satisfactory results using acetone, etc. It seems the height of madness to me to use any stripper that is in danger of dissolving the figure along with the paint...! 

I can say with 100% certainty that pure acetone does not meld the plastic of Wizkids sculpts (Mage Knight, Heroclix, Mechwarrior, Horrorclix). I've used it a lot of times on the plastic.
The plastic will go very soft, but the paint goes off. The plastic will harden again in time, so make sure you bend everything back into shape before it hardens again.
Works really well, but you'll need loads of acetone as the stuff goes mucky very fast and it looses its paint-removing quality quickly.