Biostrip Stripping

[Vindice]

Not sure if this is the right place for it as it's as much a review as a guide, but I got my hands on some Biostrip today. If this post is in the wrong place, feel free to move it. The full details and pictures are on my blog here http://critfailure.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/stripperiffic.html but the basic gist is this:

Biostrip 20 is available more or less everywhere online and I got this pot for a tenner. It's like slightly watery PVA and this single pot will do for an awful lot of minis as you will shortly see.

So, how do you use it? Well, you pretty much just dip the miniature in. For my first test I used the Orc Bloodbowl team and a lovely Saruman which I picked up at a car boot sale slathered in paint.

You dip the minis in and leave them to stand for an hour. Within a few minutes the pigment starts to slip off and after half an hour or so, the paint starts to crackle and lift. Give them a scrub and rinse and the miniatures are pretty much as good as new. Very little residue.

The metal Saruman proved to be an interesting test case: it turned out there were three layers of paint - the bottom one enamels. Three dips left it as bare metal with very little residue. So, the bottom line: this is exactly the product I've been waiting for. It makes stripping paint a minor job rather than a major chore, something you can set away while you're painting something else.

As you're simply dipping the miniatures in fairly thick liquid, this one pot would easily be enough to conveniently strip a normally painted warhammer/40k/saga/lion rampant sized force with a fair bit left over. And for a tenner, that's hard to beat.

[magokiron]

Sounds and looks IMPRESSIVE!

I'll check if something like this is available in Mexico (but I doubt it) 

Thanks for sharing.

[Drunkendwarf]

I tried to order it from the Netherlands but didn't succeed.....

DJ

[Vindice]

This seems to be a new formulation; water based. So if biostrip itself isn't available in your area I can't believe that someone isn't working hard on something very similar.

[Drunkendwarf]

I tried to order it from the Netherlands but didn't succeed.....

DJ

Through Google I found a similar product from the Netherlands; I ordered a can and tested it on an old plastic figure.

http://www.verftechnieken.nl/gronden-primen-ontvetten/abbondanza-bio-strip.html

My test figure; an Uruk-Hai from my bitsbox:


Applied the bio-strip with a brush:


After 5 minutes results are already showing:


After 20 minutes I cleaned it up with a toothbrush:


It doesn't really show on the last picture but only on his head and shoulders there is some paint left; maybe if I waited a bit longer all would have come of. The dark "spots" on the foto are shadows; the plastic is completely clean!

DJ

[Hu Rhu]

Does this work with plastic miniatures?

[Drunkendwarf]

Does this work with plastic miniatures?

The Uruk-Hai I tested is a plastic miniature; Vindice tried it on a plastic Bloodbowl Orc so both products are plastic safe.

DJ

[Hu Rhu]

Thanks.  I will look into getting some.

[Ste long 1971]

Where did you buy the biostrip from?

[Grimmnar]

Ha everytime i see the word "biostrip" i get a bit unnerved. Kind of like Soylent Green.

Grimm

[Argonor]

If someone locates this - or an equivalent product - in Europe, please give a heads-up!

I am currently using an ulttrasonic cleaner with 'brown soap', but it would speed up the process a whole lot to get hold of this.

[Drunkendwarf]

If someone locates this - or an equivalent product - in Europe, please give a heads-up!

I am currently using an ulttrasonic cleaner with 'brown soap', but it would speed up the process a whole lot to get hold of this.

You could try this one: http://www.verftechnieken.nl/gronden-primen-ontvetten/abbondanza-bio-strip.html

This is the one I have used (the Uruk-Hai warrior above) and they are situated in the Netherlands.

DJ

[Elk101]

This looks like the product I have been looking for! (for my internal staircase,  not for miniatures, but it would be rude not to try it out).

[robh]

Anyone had more experience with the Biostrip yet?

l managed to get hold of a small pot to test and found a problem with a (presumably) spray black undercoat. Using the Biostrip cleaned unprimed plastic figures perfectly, but on the primed ones the undercoat turned into a really sticky gel, almost chewing gum consistency, that stubbornly refuses to come off even after a 2nd application.

Figures are scrap 2nd hand from an eBay job lot so l don't know the undercoat used.

Any ideas?

edit; this stuff also removes superglue. The join comes apart and the dead glue can be picked off.

[Quendil]

I never got on that well with it and went back to using dettol as it was cheaper and did a better job. The worst undercoat I find is the gw black one not sure if they have changed the formula now but it used to be a pig to get off