This thread discusses the Content article: How to Strip the Paint from your Minis

Sir Agravaine,

I've found that both hydraulic brake fluid and oven cleaner are both very effective at stripping paint from metal miniatures, as well as plastic ones, although the surface of the plastic can be very slightly and adversely affected by the chemical interaction with hydraulic fluid.
I also discovered that these methods have been successfully tried in the following item http://www.paintingclinic.com/clinic/guestarticles/removingpaint3.htm

Incidentally, as a child I had a severe reaction to Dettol and suffered terrible dermetitis if I had any contact with it.
So whatever Dettol contains, your advice about wearing protective latex gloves should be well heeded.

Sir Guy

Funny enough, I've been looking for a good stripping solution this last month! Had some success with acetone on lead, but I fear that might not work so well with the partially (and badly) painted pile of knights from the old set box discovered in the attic recently... I've heard of Simple Green before, but it seems you can only mail order it in the UK..

I managed to find a small bottle of Dettol a block away in my local chemist.

So after a rather Nurgle-Tastic experience clearing out an old jam jar, I've put a few plastic and lead bits in, and am eagerly anticipating the results.

Cheers for the article, will report on my newbie experiences later

Well, after a fun night of dipping things into jam jars, it seems like even a novitiate like me can get stuff stripped in a night's work! I kept thinking 'it can't be as easy as I think it is, I must be missing something', but I've managed to get 10+ figures done in a few hours..

SirAgravaine, you have my sincere thanks for posting this article, thanks to you I now have another 20 odd knights to pledge to the Lady! (and goodness knows how many more things I can salvage...)

5 star rating from me, since apparently I can't push beer through the darn monitor - when will technology catch up?

2 words: Comet Cleanser.

Mix some of that with water, let sit overnight, and presto! Even enamel paint and primer slide right off with light brushing from an old toothbrush.

For stripping I use a cleaner called "Simple Green". It works great isnt a havey chemical and is not very expensive.

I just put a little in an old cup or container put the models and let them soak for a little while then run them under some hot water and give them a light scrub with an old tooth brush.

The paint will come right off no problems.

I use Simple Green too. I wrote up a brief article on stripping miniatures using Simple Green and it is in the current issue of Skavenblight Gazette.

For those who cant get simply green (i live in australia) here is the method i recommend. It has worked on my old escher models who wore thier old paint job for over a decade (there was nothing wrong with the paint job, in fact of all my models i was most proud of them, but they've become severely chipped with heavy use over the years). Remember to wear gloves when handling the chemicals or models coated in them and i've removed any plastic . i don't know what you'd do for plastic, but i leave that up to you to discover.

Spray model with oven cleaner until the foam completely covers the model. Then place the model in a suitable container (something deeper than the model but it can be quite shallow. i use the lid to a coffee jar) and spray further oven cleaner until the model can no longer be seen. Leave this for twice as long as the oven cleaner recommends. Remove the model and rinse under running water. Using an old toothbrush give the model a good scrub and get rid of any paint which is already happy to come off. Spray the model, place in lid and cover with foam again, and wait twice as long as can says again. Rinse model again, but this time place in a jar of mineral turps and put the lid on the jar. Now comes the hardest part of all and the place where most people fail. Leave them alone for AT LEAST 48 hours. i personally being the patient chess player that i am wait 72 hours. Then remove from turps and scrub again. you will get almost all paint like this. Finally get yourself a pin and remove all the apint hiding in the fine detail of your model. After the turps wash the paint should come off the model like silicone comes of glass. If you're scraping at paint with the pin, you've done something wrong. It should not be attached to the metal anymore, but rather is stuck in grooves due to the slight expansion it will have gone through during the turps wash, so the pin is just a small lever not a scrubbing brush.

The models i have done this to have all come up with 99.99% to 100% of the paint removed with no damage to the fine details. The 99.99% model has a bit of paint stuck in a spot where even the pin wont go (damned if i know how i managed to paint in there in the first place). Like i said this wont work on plastic, but both mineral turps and oven cleaner are cheap and readily available world-wide.

Good luck and happy painting.

hi my name is carty from stoke on trent uk!!!ive been reading about castrol super clean or super clean,,,is there a uk equivelent,,like halfords engine degreser plaes could you help,,,also ive used dettol its vey goo,,,also for stripping plastic models fairy poer spray is awsome get results after a hour its has good has dettol and you dont havre to soak has long also you can have problems with dettol if you leave bits of paint on whemn you clean it.

If you going down the motor fluids then i heard dot 3 brake fluid is good and safe on plastics

A 50% mix of pine cleaner (the more pine oil in the cleaner, the better it seems to work) and water works fine for me. Let the mini soak overnight then break out the old toothbrush.