Hello!

I paid a comission painter to paint some miniatures and some of them were not painted as I wanted...after a couple of tries I gave up and took the miniatures home. Now I want to re- paint them myself (something I should have done in the first place and save myself 150 bucks) and I dont know what would be the best option without damaging the miniature. I dont know anything about this. New Painter. Help? I would paint on top but I dont want them all ugly full of paint.

Edit: They would know better than me

Acetone might melt the minis, it's not a real fan of plastic materials. Tes tree oil will remove very low quality paint and things like marker. While Brake fluid will take off stuff like FFG factory paint without hurting the mini.

Any confirmed methoods? Im worried about the plastic.

Do not use acetone. It will melt the plastic. I used dettol to great effect, you can also use simple green. Make a bath for your minis you want to strip, and do not dilute the solution. The paint will come off without ruining your minis.

Acetone is not needed in order to strip the paint.

Ask Sorastro via PM.

He gave me a recommendation and I can't remember it now/

A quick google-fu came to this.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_How_to_Strip...

Good luck be sure to show us your results!

Reading the post above me Simple Green is what I used, I had "Green Stuff" stuck in my mind but now I remember!

Simple Green has always been terrible for me. Takes a long time to soak, still have to scrub with a toothbrush for a long time, stains the plastic black-grey, and noticably weakens the plastic.

I've had the best results using Super Clean. It's a biodegradable automotive degreaser that you can find at most auto parts stores for,pretty cheap. Just soak the minis for 12 to 24 hours and use and old toothbrush and water to clean the paint off, if,you find you're having to scrub hard, soak a bit longer.

Note that I've only tried this on acrylics, never have used it on enamel.

I'll stand by Dettol as my answer. I completed my Vader with varnish and everything, but the varnish went cloudy on me. As I didn't want to cover up the mistake by using olive oil or other methods to "fix" the varnish, I used Dettol and stripped the paint off. Worked perfect and I repainted. No loss of detail.

I'll stand by Dettol as my answer. I completed my Vader with varnish and everything, but the varnish went cloudy on me. As I didn't want to cover up the mistake by using olive oil or other methods to "fix" the varnish, I used Dettol and stripped the paint off. Worked perfect and I repainted. No loss of detail.

By no loss of detail you mean that the miniature was unchanged or that the miniature was affected but with no loss of detail?

If you have a walmart near you. Use super clean in the purple jug. It will take the paint off of the miniatures without melting the plastic. I have used it many of times and it works flawlessly. simply green does not work that well. You have to scrub way to hard to remove the paint. Super clean makes it effortless to remove the paint. You do have to scrub but not that hard as it would with simply green.

By no loss of detail you mean that the miniature was unchanged or that the miniature was affected but with no loss of detail?​

The miniature was unchanged (structurally and cosmetically) and the Dettol removed all the paint.

If you want more info, you can scan the Sorastro thread. We've discussed this at length a couple times on that thread.

Dettol has always worked well for me (removing Citadel paints) but doesn't touch the FFG paint underneath, let along harming the plastic.

Edit: Oh, and we're on the Imperial Assault thread, so there is no FFG paint underneath.

While Brake fluid will take off stuff like FFG factory paint without hurting the mini.

This is interesting! I fancy repainting one of my Armada ships, you reckon brake fluid is the way to go to strip of the original paint?

I use Pine Sol to excellent effect to remove paint from plastic, resin and metal minis. Soak it for about 15 minutes, rinse and use an old soft bristle toothbrush. to get in the nooks and crannies.

After the paint is off, you will want to do a soak in water for about 30 minutes to make sure you dont have any residue left on the model, and then make sure the models are 100% dry before repainting them.

I use the "orange" scented Pine Sol, because then my figs dont smell like trees afterwards.

The miniature was unchanged except for the paint was removed. All detail is the same as it was before the paint was applied.

While Brake fluid will take off stuff like FFG factory paint without hurting the mini.

This is interesting! I fancy repainting one of my Armada ships, you reckon brake fluid is the way to go to strip of the original paint?

It worked for my Ewing but I am no expert on these things

I use Pine Sol to excellent effect to remove paint from plastic, resin and metal minis. Soak it for about 15 minutes, rinse and use an old soft bristle toothbrush. to get in the nooks and crannies.

After the paint is off, you will want to do a soak in water for about 30 minutes to make sure you dont have any residue left on the model, and then make sure the models are 100% dry before repainting them.

I use the "orange" scented Pine Sol, because then my figs dont smell like trees afterwards.

Do not use Pinesol... OMG if you accidently leave it in too long it'll melt figures.

Simple Green 50/50 mixture and lots of scrubbing will work.

Or, just don't accidentally leave it in too long. True for any solvent.

Pinesol works amazingly with very little amount of scrubbing, but if you leave the model in there for several hours, yes, you can risk melting the model.

It's a fine line between stronger solvent/cleaner & less elbow grease or vice versa. In my mind, I'd rather work a little harder and be sure I wouldn't accidentally melt my miniature. To that end, I've been known to leave things soaking in Simple Green a long time, simply because I knew it wouldn't hurt them (pewter minis, in that case). I don't want this to sound like a cop-out, but you'll have to decide for yourself what the best course of action is.

Best of luck, hope it works out for you! By the way, what was the problem with the minis? If they look good, but not to the scheme you wanted, you might consider selling/trading them and starting with a blank canvas, so to speak.

The super clean does not melt the miniatures in any way shape or form. I have left them in it for 2 to 3 days with no damage at all. I was skeptical to use it at first but I made a mistake when spraying the primer on a figure for my doom the board game. I used it on it and it worked flawlessly. I ended up using it on my stormtroopers because the white was not going on in a relatively decent way. I finally found some that worked well. Better than the others but still has somewhat of an issue just not as big. But the super clean did the job like the one forum said it would.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_How_to_Strip...

The link is not the forum that I found out about it but this one should back up what I have been saying. That stuff is a god send for me to remove the paint.

I do recommend you wear gloves when using this stuff. It did dry out my skin when I was cleaning my mini's. That is the only down side to using it.

While Brake fluid will take off stuff like FFG factory paint without hurting the mini.

This is interesting! I fancy repainting one of my Armada ships, you reckon brake fluid is the way to go to strip of the original paint?

It worked for my Ewing but I am no expert on these things

Is brake fluid one of the "don't get it on your skin" ones?

Hmm, it seems a waste buying my own brake fluid when I don't have a car, maybe I could get some out of a car in the car park...

Just adding my 2 cents.

Having never painted a miniature before Imperial Assault my first attempts were pretty awful. I started with the Storm Troopers.

After much searching, I settled on using Super Clean (purple bottle stuff). It works amazing. After about 30 minutes, I can easily get off 95% of the paint/primer. It works amazing.

I have used both dawn power dissolver and simple green. I highly recommend simple green. Soak 'em over night in simple green and scrub the paint right off with a tooth brush.