Tutorial - Stripping Your Minis

Stripping Your Mini

At some point or another you’re going to want to strip the paint off of one or more miniatures that you have. There’s a number of ways to go about it. If they’re covered in enamel paints you’re stuffed – good luck getting that off!

The general method involves soaking models in something to stop the paint adhering to them and then scrubbing this off with a toothbrush.

Equipment

Ugly Models

Paint stripper

Sealable container

Gloves

Stiff bristle toothbrush

Water source

Step One – Find a sealable container you don’t mind filling with cleaner and paint! It needs to be tall enough for the models to lie down in and be covered by your stripper.

Step Two – Place in models! Pour/spray on your stripper. Make sure you do this in a ventilated area. Seal your container.

Step Three – Leave overnight (or however long for your particular stripper). Don’t huff the fumes will you wait.

Step Four – Test scrub! Put your gloves on before handling your soaking models at any point. Pick out a random model and give it a test brush. Most of the paint should slough right off. There will be little patches left here and there; these will have to be scrubbed at with a modicum of effort.

If it doesn’t come off just put it back in to soak. If the model doesn’t strip even after being soaked for over 36H then I’d use something else to strip or make sure that’s not enamel paint!

Step Five – Get scrubbing. This is best done outside or in a bath. Be careful not to throw thepaint you’re scrubbing off everywhere with your toothbrush. It’ll settle on what it lands on and need to be scrubbed off all over again! When I cleaned my last set of sisters I spent an hour getting them clean and then 2 hour cleaning the bath I did them in.

I find it’s easiest to hold the models like this;

PHOTO

Don’t squeeze the model or push down excessively hard with the brush and it’s probably the most comfortable way to scrub. I don’t catch my skin or anything when I’m doing it.

Step Six – Admire shiney new models. Give your models a swim in some hot water with something like fairy liquid in to make sure you get all the stripper off them. This ensures they will prime properly next time.

Please please wear gloves when doing this. It doesn’t matter what you’re using – it’s designed to clean not to soak into skin!  

So...

What to use?

 Acetone

The main chemical in nail polish removers; you can either buy it as straight acetone or buy the nail polish remover. Just grab the cheap stuff.  Readily available anywhere you go, pretty much. Good god do not pour acetone down the sink!

Acetone is good for stripping metal models but will eat through plastic and

resin ones. Don’t leave anything in it too long or you may get softening and so on. In addition you need to use a glass container to soak your minis in – it will destroy a plastic one! You can peel paint off an acetone stripped model, rather than scrubbing it.

 

Castrol Super Clean

A US household cleaner you can grab anywhere (Cleaner-degreaser). Very good for stripping minis with apparently no risk of damaging plastics over time. Biodegradable as well. Inexpensive for the volumes you get.

  

Dettol

A primarily UK distributed disinfectant. Strips minis well; if you leave them in it for more than a few days it doesn’t seem to damage them, but you only need them in there a day to get stripping! Will make everything in a mile radius smell like antiseptic though - use a sealable container.

 Fairy Power Spray

Another UK based product – this is awesome for stripping minis. You can just dump them in and forget about them without a worry. Scrubbing them off can be a nightmare though, especially if you don’t leave them in long enough. But it is possibly the fastest working thing out there – makes models strippable within an hour. It can get horrendously fumey though, especially while scrubbing stuff off. This WILL make metal models go soft. It won’t affect them otherwise, so just be careful not to bend them or squidge them about. I have some deformed models now with wonky swords.  

Simple Green

A household cleaner readily available in America. It can be found in some Wilkinsons in the UK. Simple green is labeled non-toxic and biodegradable, but when disposing of it make sure you pour it away in a light stream with a tap running on full. If you buy the non-concentrate version of simple green you don’t need to dilute it. If you buy the concentrate you do – just follow the instructions on the bottle.

Metal models you can just dump in simple green and leave them overnight. Left in much longer and you may end up with discolouration on the surface. Plastic models you can soak for over a year without damaging them!

Pinesol, Oven Cleaner, Gasoline, Brake Fluid

Are all unsafe! There is no reason to use these over other products. They are fumey, bad for the environment, and highly flammable! Also prone to damaging models. Then again if you’re the kindof person who’s willing to crack these out to strip some tiny models you’re also probably the kindof person who’ll drink it so you have bigger issues than whether it’ll melt things.

Reusing Stripper

Grab some coffee filter paper and pour your stripper fluid through it back into your container. It can be reused a few times – most can be reused quite a few.

Disposing of Stripper

So you need to dispose of a stripper... The first thing I'll say is don't panic - this happens to everyone at some point in their lives. Wait? Not that kindof stripper? Oh, ahem! Woops. Most of the things you’ll use to strip will say they are biodegradable or so on. Don’t just pour anything down the sink. Look up what you’re using and see how to properly dispose of it! At the very least it should be poured away a bit at a time with a tap on full.

Disassembling Models

Acetone, Castrol Super Cleaner, and a few others can dissolve/damage green stuff and break the bonds of superglue and make it all squidgy. Double check what it’ll do to them before picking up your stripper.

Sometimes you want to be able to repose a model. Or you want to be able to fix the terrible abuse of super glue someone else (you) have wrought upon the tiny angry man crowd. If it’s a plastic glue holding that plastic model together you’re out of luck: plastic glue melts the points it contacts to form a bond. You can saw it apart and file it down again though.

Superglue joins can be broken in a couple of ways.

Freeze ‘em

Pop your gluey model carefully in a freezer drawer overnight. When you take it out it should be a cinch to pop the join apart. As they cool the glue and metals contract inwardly on themselves, pulling away from each other. The glue also becomes brittle. Shouldn’t take too much effort to break it.

Heat ‘em

Run some steaming hot water into a bowl. Pop in your models. Fish them out after 10 minutes. Run them under freezing water. Same principle as freezing them.

Acetone

Acetone can be used on metal models. It will dissolve the glue. Obviously don’t use on plastic models!

Twisting

Don’t try and pull superglued parts – twist them.