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Paint Stripping

Here are my tips on stripping.

Stinky Paint Strippers: Just Say No

More Virgin Plastic, Unpainted, Undecorated shells: YES!!

Andy
Now for those times when you have to strip paint here are some ideas:
I must also point out that PINE-SOL means genuine PINE-SOL brand original formula cleaner - may not be available outside of the US... not sure. Horror stories abound from people using a house brand "pine cleaner" that contain other solvents. In addition, the various "flavored" Pine-Sols should not be used; they may contain other junk and may be less effective.

1. Mr. Muscle oven cleaner is the safest and most effective stripper, for those paints it's effective on... which is fewer and fewer these days. It won't touch Kato paint... after a week under the "snow", the shell rinsed clean and could have passed for new factory paint... didn't even fade the lettering. Mr. Muscle is totally plastic safe (may watermark clear styrene though), and it works on old-fashioned paints pretty well. It eats Scalecoat II for breakfast, and will strip any Bowser plastic body (painted with ScII) in 30 minutes to look like a virgin undec shell. It works that well, and leaves NO pitting, no etching, no leeching... occasionally a sub-surface stain but from the paint, not the stripper. Oven cleaner works best on Scalecoat II, and traditional Testors/Model Master enamels, and pretty well on Scalecoat I and Floquil. It doesn't work at all on acrylics; it's a complete waste of time.

2. Chameleon is the only commercial "paint stripper" I've found to be Kato-safe, and 48 hours ought to be enough to test that theory. Unfortunately it's a) not available anymore, and b) not super-effective. It left a lot behind.

3. Scalecoat and UnPaint brand strippers are hard-core, and safe only on hard styrene a la Athearn, even so you want to minimize exposure time. I would never under any circumstances recommend these products on any type of ABS plastic (Atlas, Kato, Stewart, Bachmann).

4. Nasty solvent strippers, like Red Devil furniture stripper, etc. will eat plastic instantly, it's like dropping it in a vat of glue. They do burn the paint off brass and pot metal real fast though!

5. Pure alcohol works in some instances but takes forever, and still leeches plastic especially ABS.

6. Acetone (nail polish remover) is not plastic safe. In fact, it makes a good plastic cement.

7. Brake fluid seems to have similar active ingredients to the Scalecoat and UnPaint strippers, so I'd use the same rules of application. I've never like using brake fluid, because the formula is not consistent from one type to the next.

8. Pine-Sol is a usable, but very slow acting stripper that is effective on Kato stuff. Example: in 14 days, it stripped an NS and a Conrail GP35 shell reasonably well... about as well as the Chameleon did in 2 days. I've heard stories of Pine Sol munching other brands of shells (like Atlas and Model Power). Not sure about this. All experience, and recommendations are for PINE SOL BRAND cleaner, original blend/scent, no spin-offs, no generic "pine cleaner", etc. Many of these smell alike pine cleaners contain other crap that is very plastic-unfriendly.

9. The number one rule of stripping is: don't do it unless you have to. Get your undecorateds when you can. When undecs vanish like the dogwood blossoms after spring is over, write to manufacturers and encourage them to increase supply of UNPAINTED (not primed, in ANY color) shells. Express to manufacturers the importance of making virgin plastic parts and shells available to modelers. Discourage stuff like Intermountain's reported "low priority" undecs; discourage Life-Like P2K's primer-gray painted "undecs". The only way to do it right is to start with bare plastic.

10. Sandblasting is a viable, and more civilized alternative to chemical stripping when practical. I've got a Paasche air eraser, which believe it or not is brand new in the box... needs to be used outdoors, and I've just never felt the need to hook it up and give it a try. You can use cornstarch as blasting powder and it wont rip up the plastic, but it's probably rather time consuming to do a whole shell. Aluminum oxide can also be used but is probably much too heavy an abrasive for safe use on plastic (especially ABS).

11. Never mix different brands of strippers or different cleaners in an attempt to make a better stripper. Chemical interactions can make all sorts of interesting and noxious gasses... the classic example, if ammonia is mixed with chlorine bleach (or commercial products containing these ingredients are mixed), the ammonia is very attractive to the bleach molecules and in some process I don't understand, produces lots of free atoms of chlorine gas... you know, the stuff the evacuate 10 square miles when a tanker of it derails? I figure there are enough bad side effects just from handling all these chemicals that makes modeling possible in the first place, there is no need creating new poisons to kill you even quicker! I mention this because there is one popular stripping formula for acrylics that involves mixing ammonia with a commercial cleaner... get the wrong cleaner and you could be in big trouble! Before someone else asks, no it is no safe to use your combined cleaner in a paint booth, as the chemicals will just be outside your door.

Here's the updated stripping suggestion list, including corrections and additions since early January. The degree of results often varies with the color. In most or all cases, sandblasting is a good (and sometimes better) alternative. For strippers to avoid, most cases it is due to damage to the shells. In some cases, the stripper doesn't do anything. Andy Harman made a suggestion of rating the effectiveness of the strippers. I'm looking into that and hope this posting will be a way to get more suggestions and corrections.

The links under the Manufacturer column will take you to page with some thoughts on actually paint stripping the models.

Go to your local autobody supply, there you can get acrylic enamel reducers for 1/10 th of the hobby shop costs... Usually sold in 1 qt. / Liter cans or 4 qt / liter cans

I have found that cheaper no-name brands of non-caustic oven cleaner is better. There is no fumes (by comparison to other stuff), it doesn't eat your hands, and it's much cheaper. OK, the downside is that it isn't as strong but it is just as effective if given a bit more time (acrylics come off just as easy).

As another tip, try using a large jar to strip your parts in. Spray them with oven cleaner and put them in the jar. Then spray some extra into the jar and put the lid on.

Once the parts have been removed and cleaned you still have oven cleaner in the jar (it might settle into a liquid) which is still effective and good for a couple more uses.

BTW, it also allows me to move the parts out of the laundry sink (which I use) so my better half doesn't get upset if she wants to use the sink.

The Raven