I let the tank sit in castrol super clean for 2 and a half hours. took it out and scrubbed it with a soft bristle toothbrush for about 5 mins. primer came off better than expected, usually it leaves the plastic a really dark gray color like the bit on the left track on the front view pic.

the results:

Good to hear...I will be getting some tanks here soon that I need to strip. For some reason when I striped my minis the black primer that was used on them would not come off and if it did it owuld stain the model back. If I did it on a metal min I had no problems at all. When I get my new minis I will post the progressof my striping.

Did you use that krylon fusion formula paint? It might cause some problems because its supposed to chemically bond itself to the plastic. If you remember the brand plz let me know, so i can steer clear of it lol.

Im not sure what was used...I got th eminis from a friend of mine and he promed them back...After soaking it for 2 days...it still would not come off.

ok guys i just got some skaven from miniwargaming.com from one of their sales and i am here in the usa but i have dettol as well, I use it to put stencils on w/o using speed stick, i know kinda crazy huh but it works. and yes it smells like pinesol gone mad. and u can get it here in the usa and not just in the uk. now i've done metal minis with stuff that would melt plastic but never stripped plastic minis so i'm going to give it a try and i'll let you know how it goes. i put a few skaven in a cup and poured dettol in until it covered them and then put cerain wrap over the top so it wouldnt eveporate too fast. now i'll wait to see who it works and will get back to ya on it

Ok guys I put the minis in at about 8pm last night and it is now two pm the next day not quite 24 hours yet (about 6hours short of 24) but i took the plastic wrap off and looked inside and see where a couple of the minis had a white primer of some sort on them (some had paint and some was kinda primed white but not a full coat dont know what they put on them) but there was flakes of white floating around in the dettol. now this morning when i got to the shop (noon) i had grabbed the cup and swirled it around a couple times to agitate it some and that must of been where the floaties came from. (looked like old paint chips in the soup kinda) but anywho i grabbed one guy out, he was one of the full painted guys and a tooth brush (brand new medium) and went to the sink and other than the strong pinesol smell it looked like what i had thrown into the cup last night. but as soon as the water hit it paint started to come off and what didnt came off with the brush. BUT.......... yes there is a but..... it left a stain on the plastic the same color as the paint was. now it is not paint the paint came off but there is still a stain of the colors that was on it. so back in the cup it goes for a lil bit longer. now i could of re-primed it as the paint was gone and all that was left was a stain but i want to see if that will come off as well. now if it does i'll do a video on it. sound cool guys?????? and i'll keep u updated on what happens next on here

Cool, thanks for the heads up. I didn't know dettol was sold over here, now I'm gonna have to look for it. Did you get it at a cleaning supply or at like walmart or something? If you end up not doing a video I'd still like to see some pics of before and after using dettol

i can do that and i think i got it from one of my tattoo supliers but i'd bet we can find it at like lowes or anywhere they have a good selection of cleaning supplies if not and u want some i can get it for ya from the tattoo supplier i'll just have them ship it right to you that way i dont have to pay shipping 2 times

Brilliant, a vid would be great, can't you get it in... is it walmart over there? sorry we have Tesco's and well any supermarket or chemist sells it here.

You love the smell don't ya

the smell is just like pinesol boosted about ten times so if u like smelling like the inside of a pine tree ur in the house. i cant belive it smells stronger than pinesol but it does

OK guys DO NOT USE DETTOL!!!!!!!!!!!! i repeat do not use dettol do u want me to say it one more time????? ok then i wont but still find something else to use. i went to get them out of the solution today and at first i thought well the white primed guys have the white paint just hanging off it (think of a mummy with half his wraps off and hanging) and when i put it under water it almost all fell off so i thought ok this is gonna work.......WRONG!!!!!! now to be fair i dont know what kind of paint was used on these figs i bought but it looked like normal paint but either it was the paint or the dettol but the painted guys smeared like......well poop!!!! ok maybe not poop but the brown on the skaven did look like runny poop. ok maybe this will describe it better think of a melted crayon melted all over the fig and now my tooth brush. ya the paint looked like smooth peanut butter or poop or some other waxy smeared mess and all it did was go all over. my fingers had this mix on it and to get it off i had to use finger nail polish remover with acetone to get it off, water just beaded up and made it worse and soap didnt make it budge one bit. so now when i get simple green i'll have to get a new tooth brush cause this one has poop smeared into it and it wont come off except on other minis soaked in the dettol. it was a mess beyond messes it was just plain nasty. i just looked at my finger nails ad i got some on them and cant scratch it off it is better than fingernail polish, too bad it is a redish brown poop color. it made the paint turn into a waxy stuff i dont know how to explain it but it was BAD!!!!! i'll go get simple green here soon and tell u guys if that will work any better cause dettol is out of the question with me i just hope the smple green will work on this waxy stuff they turned into. if not i lost a handful of guys to the experiment....poor skaven they didnt do anything wrong to anyone (sniff sniff)

ok guys i found these art's on stripping paint hope they help

The Paint Removal Experiment

by Specialist Blank Dave

Purpose:
The goal of this is to compare the performance of Castrol Super Clean to that of Pinesol, in the task of removing acrylic paint from miniatures.

Method:
I have eight miniatures, seven plastic and one pewter. I will place them in plastic containers, and place equal amounts of each substance in each. Then I will place 4 miniatures into each mix (the pewter figure went into the CSC). I will then observe the effects have on each figure, and will attempt to clean the figures at random times.

Observations:
1 hour. Noticeable lift of paint on the CSC models, slight lifting on the Pinesol figures.

3 hours. No noticeable change from above.

6 hours. First random scrubbing. One figure was selected at random from each container. Neither just washed clean. The CSC figure came mostly clean, leaving paint only in smaller recesses and very hard to reach places. The Pinesol figure came partially clean, leaving several patches untouched, and a lot of paint in the details, like those on the pack. The Pinesol figure also lost his pack and left arm (they became unglued). Figures are returned to their respective solutions.

8 « -9 hours. 2nd scrubbing. CSC figures were cleaned first. Three of the figures saw large parts of their paint removed when just placed under the water flow. The pewter figure was removed almost clean, and when placed under the water flow all but a few small spots were clean. Light scrubbing removed these, and the figure "looked as good as new." The figure that received the 1st scrubbing was found to be "clean enough," in that what little was left wouldn't affect future painting. The other two figures were also like the previous figure, but were returned to the solution "to see how clean they could get." (Note one of those two has heavy staining from previous paintings, it's believed these stains are in the plastic itself)

The Pinesol when initially place under the water flow saw no change. When placed close to the water flow, they saw large parts of the paint fall way, but not to the extent of the CSC figures. Upon scrubbing the majority of the paint was removed, but not to a satisfactory degree. There is still to much paint left on for a repainting. Plus another figure became unglued during scrubbing.

10 hours. 3rd scrubbing. CSC, the two remaining figures in the solution are now in paintable condition, but will remain in the solution to see if the "stains" might come out. One figure, from the CSC group, has now fallen apart during the scrubbing. All four Pinesol figures are near paintable condition, but there are several places which are proving difficult. There areas include around the neck of the marine, and around the abdomen, not the groin. Figures continue to fall
apart in this group. Interesting note on this is that several of the Pinesol figures have had minor conversions preformed upon them, the reconstructed joints haven't given way, it's been the regular joints that have failed.

Now for the overnight soak.

19 « hours. Remaining figures removed from bathe and scrubbed. CSC figures are almost completely clean, with paint only remaining the most difficult spaces (between torso and shoulder pad), even the backs were clean. The one with the stains remains stained. No further "ungluing." The Pinesol figures weren't as fortunate. There was no further "ungluing" in these either, but there was moderate benefits from the extended soak. Some of the figures will require cleaning with the dental pick, and fine details, like the packs, saw little to no improvement.

In a attempt to prove that the paint that remained on the Pinesol figures was not "unstrippable" (as is often the case with stripping miniatures, that not all the paint can be removed), they were immersed in the same CSC solution as was used on the CSC figures. After approximately 9 hours immersed, the figures were again scrubbed, and were found to be satisfactorily clean.

Conclusions:


Both Pinesol and Castrol Super Clean are powerful cleaning agents, and both to varying degrees of satisfaction completed their tasks. CSC, in it's pure form, provided satisfactory results after 6 hours and excellent results after 9 hours, any results after this period of time were negligible. The short comings were: The weakening of some glue bonds, but being 1 of three this is acceptable. The other problem was CSC's tendency to become an opaque black with in 1 hour of immersion. This had no effect on it's ability as a solvent, but does result in difficulty in retrieving small parts placed in the solution.

The Pinesol solution was much slower in working, requiring a minimum of 10 hours immersion, and gaining little from further immersion. The Pinesol though never clouded up, unlike the CSC. All miniatures used in the Pinesol group saw, to various degrees, ungluing, and still required further cleaning.

Now considerations must be made towards the price, availability, and resistance to
contamination of these two products. CSC is the more expensive, and harder to find of the two. Also CSC suffers to a greater degree to contamination from it's use as a stripper, losing it's potency quickly with subsequent cleanings. This makes the Pinesol appear to be the preferred choice of cleaners. With one possible exception.

The ability to combine the use of both solvents. This will require a greater outlay of funds, and more time, but this will allow the extension of the CSC. What I'm conjecturing, and is supported by the above findings, is that future figures receive and initial, extended, bath in Pinesol to remove the bulk of the paint. The figures should then receive a through washing, and allowed to dry. Then they should be immersed in CSC for a bath, to remove stubborn spots of paint. As mentioned earlier the figures should be thoroughly cleaned and allowed to dry, so that any remnants of the Pinesol are removed, so they may not react to the CSC. This can be seen in the favorable results seen in the Pinesol figures that received a second CSC bath.

another one

Removing Paint

by Specialist Blank Dave

Let's talk stripping. Well first off you'll want a big, old paint brush; a scrub brush (wire tooth is good for metal figures, but a toothbrush or vegetable scrub brush are good for all purposes); a dental pick for those hard to reach and stubborn spots; a container (from a specimen cup, to a
margarine tub, to a peanut butter jar, to a plastic garbage can); rubber gloves; and finally a solvent. I'll get to the solvents last.

Before I forget there's a couple of warnings. Most solvents aren't skin friendly, that's what the gloves are for. A lot of solvents have fumes, stripping in a well ventilated area is a good idea. Stripping can get a lot messier than painting, what with the scrubbing and all that. Most solvents will also soften or outright dissolve your glue.

There's several things that will influence how fast you can strip paint off a figure. Amongst those are such things as type, age and thickness of the paint; type and dilution of your solvent; and the method you use of applying the solvent.

There's three ways to use solvent on a figure: painting, dunking, and soaking. Painting, you use your brush to slop on the solvent (there's no real need to be tidy here), and then let the figure sit. The problem with painting is most solvents are thin, so they'll be inclined to run off, and the solvent will evaporate before it's had enough time to really work. Painting is best for thicker, or very powerful, solvents.

Dunking, you take the figure and...well...dunk it in the solvent. It's faster that painting, and it'll get more on the figure. It has most of the same short comings of painting on solvent, plus a lot of solvent containers tops are either too small or are a tight fit to get a figure into it.


Finally you have my preferred method soaking. You get your container, I like margarine tubs, fill it with some solvent, dilute it if you want, and then simply throw the figures in. Now I feel this is best because it will allow the solvent more time to work, making it the fastest of the three methods. Problems of this are such things as most solvents are meant to be painted or sprayed on, and you can forget about your figures (too long in a solvent may result in damage to the figure). One thing I nearly forgot, was since we are soaking figures, we are using more solvent
than really needed, so we should talk about reusing it. The problem with reusing the solvent, though I do recommend it, is contamination. As is the case with most solvents as they become more and more contaminated, they become less powerful. Since many of the solvents I talk about for soaking are relatively expensive I do reuse them, but I will talk about the effects of contamination on each.


Now that you have the solvent on, how do you tell if it's working? The paint will often appear to streak, blister, crack, bubble up and just plain lift off (but in the case of one of my most successful strippings nothing appeared to happen, until the bath when it just rinsed right off), this may take time depending on what you're using. If you see this happening, put on your gloves, grab your scrub brush and head to a wash tub. You'll want a warm soapy bath (I some times skip the soap), and scrub the figure in the bath. Now if you're lucky the paint will just
wash off, but don't count on it, that's why you have the scrub brush. If you find paint really sticking in a hard to reach spot, like between your marine's legs, use the dental pick to carefully pick it out. You'll probably need to repeat the process several time to totally clean your figures. Sometimes you may find that you can't get all the color off your figure, like it's been absorbed
into the material itself, don't worry about it.

Finally we can worry about what to strip our precious little men and women with. I'll start with what you can use on plastic, since it's more delicate than metal. Now I've heard at one time or another that this solvent will damage plastic, and next time it's that solvent, so be careful with what you choose to use.

Most of these solvents can be diluted, usually with water. I wouldn't suggest any greater dilution than 50%. Plus, the more you dilute the solvent the longer it will take.

The stuff of choice for me is Castrol Super Clean. You will find it around the automotive section in most department stores. There's also stuff called Simple Green (or Simply Green I always forget), that I'm told works just as well. Both are called Professional Cleaner/Degreasers.
It evaporates quickly, and takes a while to work so I recommend using it to soak your figures in. You can dilute it with plain water, and at $7 Can. a bottle you will want to. You'll generally get results between 6 and 24 hours, but in as little as 1 hour up to 1 week. (You can use it for other tasks too, I removed grass stains from my mower with it.) One other "interesting" note, that I have observed, is that for some reason CSC turns black when used on Games Workshop paints (and I was stripping red miniatures!). This seems to be the easiest of all the strippers to
contaminate, it loses it's potency fast, and you will see a nearly exponential increase in stripping time. (I cleaned one squad in about 6 hour, the next squad to use the same bath took closer to 12)

Now something that gets touted regularly, but I've never had luck with, is Pinesol. Found in nearly any store's cleaning section, this detergent comes in both pine and lemon scent. Now I've seen debate rage over if other pine based disinfectants work too. So all I can say is if you use Pinesol, use the pine scent, I think the key ingredient is the pine oil here. Like the CSC, Pinesol takes a while to work, so it's best used by soaking the figure. From what I've been told it also
takes between 6 and 24 hours to work. (As for myself, I used it for a week solid, with no dilution and got no results...but that was just me) In a recent experiment, I've found that it's "not bad." Judging by the looks of it, it takes a bit to contaminate Pinesol, and the removed fragments of paint weren't suspended in the Pinesol. It also doesn't appear to change color with use.

Easy Off oven clean works fairly well. I've only used it a little myself. You can find it in the cleaning section of nearly any store, in either an aerosol or pump bottle. I've tried the aerosol, and got fairly quick results, in about 30 to 60 minutes. I think if you bought the pump bottle you could then use it to soak the figures in. I was rather impressed with it when I used it. Now the down side is it's fumes, they can be very strong and it's recommended that you don't breath them.
There is a certain concerns about it generating heat while it works, which is something I don't know about. Since I haven't used this with the soaking method, I can't comment on how easily it handles contamination, or what effects use has on it.

Finally we come to a solvent that was actually meant for paint removal, Polly S Easy Lift Off (ELO) Paint and Decal Remover. It can only be found in hobby stores, and comes in a little bottle similar to water bottles. They recommend painting it on, but I found better results through soaking. It will yield result between 1 to 24 hours, I suggest frequent check ups when using this product as it will damage plastics. It's "immediate" damage results in a softening of the plastic, so careful when scrubbing, it can also cause the plastic to become brittle. After the figure's been washed and allowed to dry these problems seem to clear up. My biggest problem with this stuff is it's dangerous. It comes with a warning label as long as your arm, including such doozies as "may cause nervous damage." Use it out of doors. It handles contamination very well, in that it doesn't seem to lose very much potency through use. As you use it, it will go from clear to a transparent yellow.

One other that I've used was rubbing alcohol. I painted that on, and got alright results.

Other possible solutions, that I haven't tried, but have seen on the Gremlins in the Garage mailing list include: brake fluid, acetone, lighter fluid, and nail polish remover. I, personally, don't recommend these, as I've been told by many sources (during my search for paint removers), because they will probably cause damage to the plastic. If you feel the need to experiment with these try them on metal figures first.

(Editor's Note: I have personally tried brake fluid on both metal and plastic and it will not damage either if left soaking for less than a week. - Doc Faust)

Now that we've seen what works on plastic, we can look at what to use on lead or pewter. Well right off, all of the above works on metal figures just as well as on plastic. The following strippers will damage plastic, so unless you want a mess don't use them on plastic figures.

LePage's Poly Super Strippa would be the best for this. You can find it around the paint department of most stores. Because of it's thickness, and relative speed you can paint it on. You can see results almost immediately, usually in the form of the paint streaking, bit for it to work properly you'll need about 5 to 60 minutes. Don't try dunking the figures in it's can, because of the small hole if you drop it in you probably won't be getting them back. This will cause plastic to melt. It can be expensive, but it lasts a long time.

Good ol' Varsol also can fill the ticket. I haven't used it much, so I can't really comment on how well it works

and another one

Ever Insane's Paint Stripping

By Assistant Doc Haywire

All the talk about paint removers is starting to make me wonder. I have heard some being tried and never believed them, I have also heard of some and tried them and got no results whatsoever.

I had a bunch a Necromunda Goliaths and some other minis that need to be stripped but I do not need all of them so I am not afraid of losing a few as sacrifices. I plan to do some testing over a weekend and will post the results over a 24 hour period.

THE TEST GROUP:

Lizardmen Skinks, Lizardmen Saurus, Orlocks, and Goliath volunteers dared to be volunteers for this experiment in hopes of a fresh start at life and renewed vigor. All volunteers had their weapons checked at the door and were tested for their specific skin afflictions (Citadel, Polly S, Testors).

THE EXPERIMENT:

In a specially ventilated room, their were placed several foil containers, each containing a specific chemical bath

For each test bath, 2 Lizardmen Skinks, 2 Lizardmen Saurus, an Oarlock, and a Goliath volunteers were placed in a chemical bath. At each time interval, a volunteer was removed from each bath and sent to the scrubbing facility. Each individual was then told to take a shower and be scrubbed down with a Oral B electric toothbrush.

RESULTS:

Here is the list of chemical baths and the results I have seen:
Chemical Product Price 30 Min 1 Hr 2 Hrs 3 Hrs 6 Hrs1 12 Hrs 24 Hrs Damage to Plastic Main Ingredients
Easy-Off oven cleaner (Sprayed) $3.50/16oz bottle VG A A --- --- --- --- none sodium hydroxide
Easy-Off oven cleaner (Soaked)2 P F F P E --- --- aluminum foil and E-O do not mix... sodium hydroxide
Simply Green (Sprayed) $3.99/24oz bottle F F G --- --- --- --- none 2-butoxethanol (undiluted)
Simply Green (Soaked) G G-VG G-VG VG-E SP?? E E none 2-butoxethanol (undiluted)
409 (Sprayed) $2.50/22 oz bottle NP NP NP --- --- --- --- none isopropanol, 2-butoxethanol
409 (Soaked) NP NP NP NP NP NP P none isopropanol, 2-butoxethanol
Pine Sol/Pine Oils $1.99/28 oz bottle VG G-VG VG VG E no data melted started to melt after 12 hours pine oil
Brake fluid (linseed oil) $ G G E G VG E E none polyalkylene glycol ethers
Isopropyl alcohol $.99/16 oz bottle NP P P F NP NP NP none alcohol
Castrol Super Clean $6.99/gallon VG VG E VG-E E VG VG aluminum foil and CSC do not mix 2-butoxethanol, sodium metasilicate, sodium hydroxide
Efferdent $ NP NP NP NP NP NP NP none H2O
Water (Control) FREE NP NP NP NP NP SP SP none H20 hydrogen dioxide

LEGEND

1. The 6 hour test was a test of paints other than Acrylics, mainly Testors Model Master and Pollys S Paints.

2. This was diluted with 8 Oz water which is why there are discrepancies. I will have to retest this after I find a better container.

(sprayed) - Item was sprayed with a covering of chemical

A - awesome... washed off or needed very little brushing

E - excellent... needs brushing but all comes off

VG - very good... needs a lot of brushing/scraping

G - good... good amounts coming off

F - fair... shows signs/splotches of paint removal

P - progress... shows signs of paint removing

NP - no progress

CONCLUSIONS

The Big winner is definitely the Easy-Off oven cleaner with CSC and Simply Green following in for second and third place. The Sodium Hydroxide must be the main ingredient that causes this to work so well.

Many Goliaths and Orlocks drowned in the chemical baths (they never learned to swim), and some had strange color changes as their skin mixed with the chemicals.

The test group for the Pine Sol complained about a strange burning sensations. One Saurus, the only fatality among their ilk, was so deformed by the chemical, decided it was better to hide among the scavenged wastes or try to find a job ringing bells in a cathedral church somewhere... maybe even write opera... alas, he felt suicide was best.

Otherwise all the other Skinks and Saurus liked the baths quite well and would like another go at it. They believe it added in their skin shedding and got most of the little bits off. Also the scrubbing was very relaxing.

Others I have heard but will need to find or have not tested:

Acetone

nail polish remover (non-acetone)

Chameleon model paint stripper from Custom Hobbyist, Inc

Coca-Cola (canned)

Lighter Fluid

Floquil/Polly S Dio-Sol

Methylene Chloride

Poxy Scum

Dettol, the pharmaceutical cleaner

Bix Paint Stripper

If you know of, or have tried others with some success, email me and I will give it a try and post the comparative results.

dettol does have oils in it and gets little oil droplets if you dilute it, maybe try hitting those skaven with some grease fighting dish soap like dawn or whatever after soaking in dettol?