Removing paint from a bit mess up

[Tetz]

Okay quick summary. I made a bone headed mistake and quickly realized that I am still new to the painting game :p

I ended up painting my marines, everything was fine then I went to put my clear coat on them to protect them and all went well until the clear coat dried. Once I saw the outcome I took a look at my clear coat and realized I bought enamel instead of acrylic. Whoops... yeah seriously you would think I would have paid more attention, I guess I need to take the same advice I give my kids.

Anyways, now I'm stuck with this group of marines and my terminator lord and they look frosty. They're still playable but is there any way I could remove all of the paint and clear coat from these plastic models, but still keep the models from being ruined? Then I could just repaint them and all would be well.

Here's a couple of pictures so you can see how a new guy looks without the clear coat, and then the guy on the left with the clear coat.

Thanks.

http://www.rawkdesign.com/warhammer/100_1275.jpg

http://www.rawkdesign.com/warhammer/100_1277.jpg

[Lore]

I've found nail varnish remover is great for stripping paint without damaging the plastic. White spirits on the other hand can soften and warp the plastic. I lost a SM Commander that way. :(

[Aenir]

maybe its just that picture, but i think the grainy/frosty look goes well for chaos marines IMO :)

simple green usually works well

[Tetz]

Ha just realized my title was a "bit" mess up instead of a big mess up. Oh well.

Nail polish remover and simple green huh. I will give them both a shot. I'll raid my wife's cabinets for some nail polish remover and hit the store for simple green.

Should I just soak the model, do you just soak it overnight or is it really a "depends" sort of thing?

[Lore]

What I did is get a toothbrush and dip in the nail varnish remover and lightly scrubbed the model. A cloth might also work too as the toothbrush tends to cause a little spray. Best to do it in a well ventilated area as well, nail varnish remover is pretty fumy.

[sukigod]

Frost Marines? Spray the rest with the same varnish?

I know....

[Dia]

If you're going to use nail polish remover make sure it's acetone-free. Otherwise it might eat your plastic.

Personally I use Simple Green because it's what I have (was using it to clean before I knew it could strip paint). Usually I'll allow a model to soak in it overnight and the next day the paint scrubs mostly free with just a toothbrush.

However, I hear that Purple Power and Awesome Orange are superior in the paint removal dept.

[ssylyss]

Personally I use Simple Green because it's what I have (was using it to clean before I knew it could strip paint). Usually I'll allow a model to soak in it overnight and the next day the paint scrubs mostly free with just a toothbrush.

I've had poor results with simple green, maybe it was just the kind of paint the previous owner used. I use the same technique soak and then scrub with a toothbrush. Nothing happend after the first day, waited a few more and still minimal paint removal. I tried soaking it for 3 weeks but most of the simple green had evaporated. The paint still did not remove very well from the model.

[Dia]

I've had poor results with simple green, maybe it was just the kind of paint the previous owner used. I use the same technique soak and then scrub with a toothbrush. Nothing happend after the first day, waited a few more and still minimal paint removal. I tried soaking it for 3 weeks but most of the simple green had evaporated. The paint still did not remove very well from the model.

Holy cow. Three weeks? I think I would've switched to something else after one or two days.

What do you use now and what kind of treatment and results do you acheive?

[vman]

simple green works well on standard GW paints

If enamels have been used (for example most Tamiya sprays) then yer it will take WEEKS for the simple green to work and LOTS of scrubbing

Im not too sure on clearcotes but im guessing varnish will add a significant time to the simple green doing its thing

[Fantomex]

Tetz, somewhere, within my last week of surfing, I have a link to the perfect stuff, it's some form of clear resin liquid which basically removes the shiny frosted effect.
For the life of me though, I can't find the damn thing, could even have been linked from here, it was someones blog and showed how they'd accidentally frosted a Blood Raven squad..
Soon as I find it, I'll post.
Good luck!:D

[Súil Dubh]

You still might be able to take off the worst of the enamel without having to strip the whole model.

Two weeks ago I sprayed dull coat on a Black Templar. I was using a proper spray-on dull coat, but it was the end of the can, and a really humid day. The can ended up farting out uneven clumps of dull coat all over the miniature, and the once-black armor turned grey and spotty.

I grabbed some brush-on paint remover, watered it down, and then gently brushed small amounts of that over the figure. I was able to get most of the dull coat off, and the parts I couldn't get completely clean I touched up.

So before you soak any of the figures, try a watered down mix of paint remover.

[Tetz]

Thanks everyone for the responses. Paint remover or nail polish may be the best bets considering if they work they should work somewhat quickly and I can apply them in select areas. I did a good long look at most of my models that got frosty and there are really only 3 that are bad. Those 3 aren't all frosty, mostly the blacks look the worst, you can tell where some areas got more than the rest.

I will give those two ideas a shot and hopefully I can clean up the legs and just move on and learn my lesson. Thankfully it happened on some basic models. The biggest ouch wasn't even my chaos marines, I did the same thing to my terminator lord too, so that was more frustrating than the troops.

[Alvena]

you might also try some "glanzer" + toothbrush for safe stripping plastic, (easier to find in europe than simple green), and for your terminator lord if it's metal acetone is wonderfull.

[Cappy]

Glad I saw this post. Messed up some paint jobs yesterday and need to remove some paint from plastic.

[Skeletay]

I've found nail varnish remover is great for stripping paint without damaging the plastic. White spirits on the other hand can soften and warp the plastic. I lost a SM Commander that way. :(

Be careful with nail polish remover. I used to melt G.I. Joes with it when i was a kid.

[MajorSoB]

I echo the concerns using nail polish remover or brake fluid. They remove the paint and most of the plastic too. I would recommend Simple Green. Also there is a purple automotive product called Super Clean that works well.

Before you strip everything I have a possible solution. Take one mini and spray it with a gloss sealer. You could do this in a few coats, then once it dries use Testors Dull Coat on it. See if that will save your work before you have to go back to square one.

[Denzark]

Painting looks fine to me mate as does the frosty look - my eyes are drawn straight to the massive flash line down the horn of mister frosty - try some files or gentle trimming with craft knife.

[Hades Alpha]

I don't know about simple green products. It look like their's many product with that name. :confused:

Which product is the good one? Do they all do the job?

Thanks.

[Tetz]

Painting looks fine to me mate as does the frosty look - my eyes are drawn straight to the massive flash line down the horn of mister frosty - try some files or gentle trimming with craft knife.

Yeah that was actually my first group of models I built and I realized after it was done I needed to spend a little more time on cleaning up the models.

After a lot of careful consideration and discussion with some of the warhammer people locally I am likely going to keep them as is. There are only 3 that are very frosty looking. The rest simply have a little bit of a haze and a texture to them, not the end of the world.

Going forward, I will be much more careful on my paints. Learned my lesson with the enamel there and not watching what I buy.

[MaltonNecromancer]

Dettol strips GW acrylics in proper quick time (doesn't hurt the plastic in the slightest); it'll take your clear coat off, but by removing the actual paint job. If you don't mind re-painting them, that's how I'd do it.

Of course, you could just apply a thin layer of matt varnish over the top...

[ssylyss]

Holy cow. Three weeks? I think I would've switched to something else after one or two days.

What do you use now and what kind of treatment and results do you acheive?

I wasnt in a hurry to do anything with the mini, I just wanted to practice some paint stripping ideas to see what worked. Someone gave me a hand full of terribly/heavily painted marines.

I still have no good idea for stripping plastic minis, but again it might be the paint. I even put one of these minis in brake fluid for about 10 days, still cant strip the majority of paint off of it. The brake fluid did not appear to damage the plastic.

I have had great success with metal models and brake fluid though.