I’ve started working on the hi-res Barbatos & revisiting my PG 00 Raiser; a kit I assembled and started to paint 5 years ago, but which then ended up shelved because I was too scared of cocking it up. Yes, I realise how irrational it sounds to be afraid to work on a hunk of plastic.
To move forward, I need to strip some of the paint from these kits. The Barbatos has lots of really nice chrome metallic coated parts that have nub marks in inconspicuous places. Now, I can accept that and move on, but, instead I’m going to strip and repaint all the chromed parts. The 00, on the other hand, I sprayed with white acrylic to act as a primer/base coat, however, these days I paint mainly with lacquer (which won’t go smoothly over the existing acrylic paint) so that needs to be stripped too.
Parts this will work on and parts Dettol will eat!
- The Dettol is safe for polystyrene plastic pieces which are used for the external armour. If you look at your manual, it will say PS in the manual. See the bottom of this section.
This is partially safe for ABS plastic,THIS is UNSAFE for ABS. which is usually used for inner frame pieces. I soaked the rear skirt of my PG 00 for four days and it came out of the Dettol with a gooey outer surface. It maintained its overall shape and after soaking it in water most of it re-solidified. There was still a layer of semi-melted plastic but I scraped that off with a knife and sanded it to a satisfactory finish. These parts won’t be visible so this wasn’t a big loss for me, but the connections are loose so it needs glue.The take away here is that you use this method for ABS parts, but I would soak it for a max of two days (I’m testing this)I’ve tested this, DO NOT USE THIS FOR ABS parts, it softens it to a gunk. It will still maintain it’s overall shape (my MG Duel’s frame for example is like this now) and you can apply armour over it, but moving the frame does become difficult and it’s likely to break.- Dettol will soften epoxy putty, so you will need to scrape out the existing putty and re-do it.
- I’m unsure how the Dettol will affect PVC parts, but I’ll test that. Given how it affected the ABS, however, I’d avoid it.
STRIPPING!!
Fortunately stripping paint is really easy; you need a few things: 1. parts to strip, 2. Dettol (everyone’s favourite household disinfectant!), 3. a tub to soak parts in, 4. an old stiff brush, 5. a strainer or plug (so you don’t lose parts down the sink)and, 6. plastic gloves (if you don’t want paint on your hands).
Step 1: Put your parts in the tub and cover with Dettol.
Step 2: Leave it alone overnight.
Step 3: Fish one of the parts out of the tub and brush it to remove the paint. Avoid getting water on the part at this stage as the paint will partially re-solidify. The Dettol will change colour as the paint flakes off, that’s ok.
If the paint isn’t coming off even with brushing, then you just need to let the part soak in Dettol for longer.
Step 4: Once you are happy with the result, you can rinse the parts off with running water. Remember, that watering the piece will re-solidify the paint so be thorough. Make sure you either put the sink plug in or place a strainer over the drain. It would be heart breaking to watch a core piece of your hard work go down the drain.
Before and After
Step 5: Place your parts somewhere they can dry without getting lost.
Recycling the Dettol
The active component in the stripping process is still present so you can reuse your Dettol, however, you will notice bits of paint floating around your Dettol, but worry not, we’re going to strain those out.
Step 7: Strain the dirty Dettol through a coffee filter (where is the picture dude) to remove the paint chunks, into a recycled Dettol storage bottle. Keep this filtered Dettol purely for paint stripping, I don’t know how it affects the other functions it is used for.
Step 8: Celebrate!
Congratulations, you have successfully stripped the paint from your model. Time to re-paint!!