Tip for Cleaning Paint off A & A Game Pieces

@Rand:

I had painted some Italian models recently but I was very unhappy with how they turned out, I resprayed them with a plastic paint and primer but it bubbled and ruined the models, not to mention it the second coat covered up most of the minor details.

Extremely disappointed, I purchased some ‘Simple Green’ cleaning product and after diluting it with water (about a shot glass of cleaner to a cup of water) and let the game pieces soak for a week. I then took each piece and used a small stiff bristled brush to give a rough initial clean, then a final detailed clean with a toothpick.

Each piece cleaned up very well, and just though I’d share in case another forum member had game pieces they wanted to clean up and repaint.

Cheers, Rand.  Â

Thanks Rand for your tips. I will keep this in mind, if I ever run into this problem. :-)

John

what kind of paint were you using with your unhappy finish coats? most hobby paints are acrylic so its odd you had a reaction priming over them…unless you used a oil base model paint? or you clear coated the pieces with a thinner based lacquer, then primed with a acrylic which could have caused a reaction. That must of sucked doing all that stripping work.  Hopefully they turn out to your liking rnd #2.  Thanks for the paint stripping solution.

I have also used Simple Green to strip paint from my A&A pieces.  It works perfectly - just soak them overnight, and give the pieces a scrubbing with an old toothbrush to remove what’s left from all the little crevices.  For reference, I was using Testors Model Master enamel paint.

Thanks for the tip!

I have soaked some pieces in Dettol for a few days and they cleaned up rather well.

Super Clean, the purple degreaser also works quite well for stripping acrylic paints, about a day or two soak and then use a stiff toothbrush under hot water to clean up the piece. It is also effective to soak the new parts in for an hour or two to clean off any mold release or oil from your fingers before painting.

Oven Cleaner works great and it is fast… just make sure to use eye protection, gloves and work in a well ventilated area.

@peepster:

Oven Cleaner works great and it is fast… just make sure to use eye protection, gloves and work in a well ventilated area.

You do risk melting the plastic however. I would stick to products like Simple Green/Purple Power/Super Clean Degreaser/Brake Fluid (yes … brake fluid, lol).

When I painted my units, I had issues with Britain, I originally made 2 schemes, then decided I only wanted the tan, not green… On my painting, I used a combo of lacquer Enamel and acrylic, it was at the enamel stage, but I soaked them in paint thinner (in all preparation to consider them toast and order new units)… but they came clean, they soaked for 10 min or so, and I used my tooth brush (yes mine lol, bristle’s turned green, and yes, I still use it, the green faded away HAHA) to scrub away the paint film.