stripping old paint.

[A21-29]

Gents,  i was given an airfix 1/48 hawk kit which i am very keen to turn into a RAAF LIF bird.

Now the kit has not been started,but was sprayed with something while still on sprues.i am not sure how long ago this was done but a good soaking over night with Mr Muscle in a sealed container and scrubbing next day with toothbrush did nothing to remove any paint.. The rough surface and slight bubbling the kit had before i attempted to remove is still present..any suggestions,ideas,words of wisdom or guidance to help with this problem ? i can only think to drown a second time in oven cleaner or lightly sand the worst affected areas.   please help haha.i really want to build a nice bird from this kit. Thanks in advance .

 

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by A21-29

[Kurt H.]

What country are you in?  With oven cleaner i have found easy-off in the yellow can works the best.  I do not know if it is available outside of the US. Depending on the paint, oven cleaner may not be effective. You can also try 91% isopropyl alcohol, or testors ELO. Based on the smell i think ELO is a thickened alcohol. The "nuclear" option is automotive brake fluid, but that stuff is really nasty. Regardless of what you use always be sure to wear gloves and eye protection. 

[A21-29]

im in Australia , have read about brake fluid,was under the impression it weakens the plastic ?

[Kurt H.]

I do not know for sure if brake fluid weakens plastic. It has been a long time since I used brake fluid.   If you do end up trying Brake fluid, maybe test it on a piece of sprue?

 

 

[Eric2020]

http://www.fishpond.com.au/Homeware/Mr-muscle-oven-cleaner/5000204890938

 

This is what it looks like. spray it on wit couple of hours and wash it onder handwarm water.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2016 by Eric2020

[A21-29]

it was Mr muscle oven cleaner i used,left over night in a sealed container...did nothing.

[Eric2020]

Only thing I can think of is to sand/polish the paint off with scotchbrite.

 

 

[Atlant]

Try any home-improvement store Laquer Thinner. This stuff removes everything!

[Bob Beary]

My go-to solution for this is ELO (easy lift off) which is a hobby item. It works very well.

 

In the past I have used Pine Sol, which is labeled as an all purpose cleaner. If left in the solution too long it may craze the plastic.

 

I don't know how widespread your problem is, but if only on the part that is pictured, maybe just sand it down as best you can.

 

I would not use lacquer thinner from the hardware store. Yeah, it removes everything...including the kit plastic, or ruining the surface beyond any easy repairing.

 

Bob

[silva963]

I have used Brake fluid, it makes the plastic supper brittle... If you have any option, Soda blasting with sodium bicarbonate, cheap and fast if you have an air compressor!!  works great.... 

 

Thats my two cents worth!! 

 

Good luck, enjoy!!

[dsahling]

I used to lather on Mr. Color thinner over either lacquer or acrylic paint and leave it there for about 5-10 minutes then I used lots of q-tips soaked in thinner to start scrubbing off the paint, takes a while but it doesn't harm the plastic and then a little sanding afterwards and you should be good to go.

[Don923]

I have used DOT 3 brake fluid, it worked geat, since then They have changed US cars over to another type brake fluid, not sure about the new stuff, that was over 30 years ago I used DOT 3.

 

[Hawk10]

DOT 3 brake fluid is still available at most automotive supply shops around here (at least it was 4 months ago when I bought a can to fill and bleed the brakes of my 94 Chevy PU).  It's my favorite stripper for paint on plastic and I've never noticed any problems with it making the plastic brittle.

[SBARC]

On 12/16/2016 at 9:36 AM, Atlant said:

Try any home-improvement store Laquer Thinner. This stuff removes everything!

 

it also melts styrene plastic.

[SBARC]

here's some how to articles.

 

http://www.arcair.com/TnT-archives/Striping-Paint/01.shtm

[A21-29]

2 hours ago, SBARC said:

here's some how to articles.

 

http://www.arcair.com/TnT-archives/Striping-Paint/01.shtm

thanks for the link.

 

[Eric2020]

Did you get the paint off A21? If so how did you do it??

[A21-29]

no.not yet..i put on hold for now..not sure how im going to go about it.

 

[scotthldr]

Looking at the picture is it paint, it looks like a defect in the actual plastic?

Edited December 21, 2016 by scotthldr

[SBARC]

3 hours ago, A21-29 said:

no.not yet..i put on hold for now..not sure how im going to go about it.

 

 

This article walks you through the process step by step with photos using the cheapest and most common and safest technique.

 

http://www.arcair.com/tnt1/001-100/TNT038-Paint-Stripping/00.shtm

[is it windy yet?]

On December 16, 2016 at 0:57 AM, Kurt H. said:

What country are you in?  With oven cleaner i have found easy-off in the yellow can works the best.  I do not know if it is available outside of the US. Depending on the paint, oven cleaner may not be effective. You can also try 91% isopropyl alcohol, or testors ELO. Based on the smell i think ELO is a thickened alcohol. The "nuclear" option is automotive brake fluid, but that stuff is really nasty. Regardless of what you use always be sure to wear gloves and eye protection. 

 

ELO, is brake fluid.  I use brake fluid for all my paint removal. Never had any issues with crazing or making plastic brittle. In fact I have used it on clear parts with no problems. 

 

Do do not use hardware store lacquer thinner.  If used carefully Tamiya or mr hobby lacquer thinner may be used as others have discribed above, but why. It works and it is really expensive. Brake fluid is cheap, store it in a re-usable dunk tank and you can use it over and over again. 

 

 

[A21-29]

6 hours ago, scotthldr said:

Looking at the picture is it paint, it looks like a defect in the actual plastic?

its paint.boxed it back up and put back in the stash..i cant be bothered with it for now.have plenty of others to build and enjoy in the meantime .

thanks for all the suggestions,links and advice gang. /thread.

[Mizar]

 

Got various 2nd hand kits for cheap partially painted with humbrol and some other unknown paints,I'm using some sort of blue-ish product that we used to clear pavements and it's light years away from newer sissy EU rules which messed up paints too,that thing makes blood stains and whatever vanish like nothing sadly Tamiya and generic acrylic paint seems to be unaffected by it,people was telling me to use 2-propanol but I can't find anywhere,have some cars which I messed up with paintjob on hold since ever due this

Edited December 22, 2016 by Mizar

[balls47]

Hey A21-29, 

     This sounds like what I went through about a year ago.  I wanted to strip the paint off of a model that was pre-painted in China.  I tried everything imaginable. I was out in the garage, tearing my hair out when I saw my container of Rain-X on my workbench in the garage.  I had nothing to lose, so I put a little bit of Rain-X on a cloth and wiped across a wing.   That paint came off so easy that I almost fell over laughing.  I took a piece of unpainted sprue and scrubbed it with the Rain-X, then let it set in a small puddle of Rain-X.  The Rain-X had no ill effects at all with the plastic.  This was a 1/44 scale F-106, so I put all of the prepainted parts into a small container and covered them with Rain-X.  Immediately I could see the paint start blistering off.  In about 15 minutes, I took the pieces out and wiped them clean of paint.  I e-mailed all of my friends who had trouble getting the paint off of their F-Toys 1/144 scale kits.   

Edited January 2, 2017 by balls47