Stripping and disassembling "Finecast"

[Ruckus]

I purchased a second hand Thunderfire cannon that is poorly assembled and could use a new paint job.

Does anyone have experience stripping and removing super glue (I am told it was gorilla brand) from Finecast?

The batch (as I have heard GW switched up the formula a few times) of resin appears to be a darkish grey.

Hoping to take it apart without dissolving or softening the resin.

Thanks!

[Path Walker]

I've tried several tests on finecast with all the established stripping methods and none of them worked at all. The paint comes off well enough but for some reason, something happens to the resin, it loses all rigitity and becomes almost floppy.

If its dark grey, its likely not to be finecast though and more likely a recast, all finecast has been very light grey.

Recasters use different resin so stripping depends on what country you're in as to what you can buy to use. If its recast resin the glue will probably not move without shattered the model though, a lot of resins are very brittle.

[Morgrim]

Two options to try and get the glue off. One is to freeze the model overnight, then twist the joint. Superglue is strong in tension (when you pull two parts away from each other) but weak in torsion (when you twist around a pivot like a pin) and starts breaking down in cold conditions. It's one of the easiest ways of separating pinned parts. However I have never tried it with Finecast, so I don't know if the cold will cause the resin to embrittle.

Other method is acetone-based nail polish remover. It'll soften the superglue when applied directly to the glue and allowed to seep in. Again, I'm not sure how Finecast will take it, I'd try on a hidden bit of model and see how it goes. And use a cotton bud to paint it into the join rather than soaking the model. You're looking to make the joint soft and tacky so you can pull it apart, not to completely dissolve the glue. Use a scalpel to scrape the softened glue from the joints once it pops apart, it gets harder once it dries out again.

[Ruckus]

Thanks for these suggestions.

I have tried freezing overnight. The resin has a bit of flex so I'm not overly concerned with it shattering. Have not had success with this method yet.

I will be pretty disappointed if this is a recast, though on the plus side it must be a very high quality one (no detectable defects)

I will try acetone next.

[CoffeeGrunt]

No, not acetone. Do not use acetone. It will melt the resin.

Even Acetone-free nail varnish remover can be a bit dangerous. Resin is a very soft material and is prone to being softened by reactants, especially acetone. Heck, even plastics are melted by acetone. I'm not aware of any chemical that would be able to effectively break down superglue without damaging the resin.