A pal of mine absolutely butchered a YT-1300 paint-job and has asked me to fix it, and I had planned on just either using some primer or painting over the top in new colors but he's laid it on really thick in some areas and I was wondering how to strip paint (he used Citadel, I think) without damaging the model - any suggestions would be most welcome!

Depends on what he used and if he varnished it.

A simple acrylic paint job can safely be removed with Purple Power, Simple Green or Super Clean. Let it soak overnight and scrub with a soft toothbrush. There's at least one repainter that's had very results with 97% Isopropyl Alcohol or IPA for short.

If the paint is enamel, Easy Off oven cleaner works well but is caustic and stinks. I'd recommend using a zip lock plastic baggy, put the model in the bag, spray it and then seal the bag. Let sit overnight. Use rubber gloves to remove the model, rinse with cold water and use a soft toothbrush.

A sharpened tooth pick can be used to scrape out the panel wash that ends up getting gooey.

Some people have recommended Dot 3 brake fluid. It's cheap, reusable and readily available. I hesitate to recommend it because I'm not sure what the plastic the ships are made of.

Avoid aromatic hydrocarbons like Acetone, lacquer thinner, MEK, Methylene Chloride etc. These are VERY aggressive solvents and will attack the plastic. There's at least one video on YouTube where the guy used acetone and it softened the detail after a brief immersion. You might get away using it on a cotton swab to clean up the the striping like on an X-wing but use very little. Also most of these solvents are highly flammable not to mention toxic to some degree.

That's about all you need to know in the proverbial nutshell. If you have any questions, feel free to pm me.

Enamels generally coat fairly thinly, so if he's laid it on thick, chances are you're dealing with an acrylic based paint. Stoneface's recommendations should work fine. If the model doesn't completely clean up after the fist attempt, give it another go.

I just have to point out that acetone, MEK, and methylene chloride are not in fact aromatics. They are hydrocarbons and they will destroy most common plastic minis. Aromatic solvents would be benzene or toluene.

Sorry..

I second the warning about acetone! I tried paint on primer to do a Kath Scarlett Firespray, and it ended up too thick to cover. Having taken off magnets with a tiny bit of acetone and seeing it affect the paint job, I figured it'd do the trick. Thankfully, I was swabbing it on and could just stop when I noticed that the details of the ship were getting washed out. I did the rest of the work with a tooth pick (well, many, they kept dulling or breaking).

It's been properly primed with a spray-on primer now, and got its first coat of red patches to good effect. The few nooks and crannies that still had a tiny bit of paint left will be worked into battle scars (their placement works out well for it).

If you must try something new, try it locally first, before dunking your model in

I just have to point out that acetone, MEK, and methylene chloride are not in fact aromatics. They are hydrocarbons and they will destroy most common plastic minis. Aromatic solvents would be benzene or toluene.

Sorry..

No problem.

Acetone ... forget that stuff .

Get yourself some Sterillium , antibacterial hand cleaner , dunno how its called in english .

Dunk the painted ships in for an hour , depends on thickness of the color and wait .

Get a soft brush clean it, flush it with water and maybe repeat that process .

U will get the mini nicely restored without any scratches.

Acetone ... forget that stuff .

Get yourself some Sterillium , antibacterial hand cleaner , dunno how its called in english .

Dunk the painted ships in for an hour , depends on thickness of the color and wait .

Get a soft brush clean it, flush it with water and maybe repeat that process .

U will get the mini nicely restored without any scratches.

Hmm...

Sterillium

Inactive Ingredients

Glycerin, Methylethylketone , Myristyl Alcohol, n-Propyl Alcohol, Water

Butanone , also known as methyl ethyl ketone ( MEK ) ...snip... As butanone dissolves polystyrene and many other plastics...

Ethyl Aicohol from Walgreens

Active Ingredients: Ethyl Alcohol (70%)

Inactive Ingredients: Acetone , Denatonium Benzoate, Methyl Isobutyl Ketone, Water

Isopropyl from same

Active Ingredients: Isopropyl Alcohol (91%)

Inactive Ingredients: Water

So, I'm sure that you've may have gotten good results from Sterillium, but it looks to me like it contains something that would melt plastic. Not sure of the %, may be negligible. Might not. Not sure I would recommend a soak in it.

I just use IPA with decent results. Cheap too, just over a couple bucks from a drug store. IPA, toothbrush, cotton swaps, light elbow grease.

What to say ...

Dude trust me .

I used this liquid for YEARS on very old and rare Warhammer miniatures and i can ensure it will work and not MELT plastic.

How old are we talking? Very old would be metal minis. Even if they were plastic, it's a different, harder, kind of plastic so what worked on your WH minis might mess up X-Wing minis.

Isopropyl Alcohol is the best, safest (relatively speaking) way to get rid of things...

Safe for the plastic. Terrible for your hands. Glove up. Or it will dessicate you. And it is exceedingly painful.

Isopropyl will get through Varnish, and Enamel paints... You should only need a shortish (20 minute) Soak, and then a scrub with an old Toothbrush... Resoak if you have to...

It also has the advantage of being a product that will get through the ORIGINAL FFG Paintjob, as well, which is generally a Bake-on-Latex based paint.

There are a lot of other solvents, including the Ethyl alcohol, which will WORK, but it comes up on wether it works *safely* or not... BAM Easy Off Oven Cleaner is one that I categorise in that section - it works... But soaking too long can be an issue, and its harder to work with when its in the Spray format... (Talk about concentrating and inhaling from a Plastic bag...... Whoow).

Simple Green (or your Generic Cleaner/Degreaser) is generally good for Acrylic Paints, but won't get through Varnish easily, or make a big difference on Enamels...

So, in the end. Iso. For plastic.

For Metals, well, you can go ABSOLUTELY CRAZY with stuff then........ But Plastics, especially ones that are not easily replaceable - Isopropyl Alcohol, available at your Pharmacy/Chemist, if not at the Hardware Store (some places semi-restrict it)

Isopropyl Alcohol, a wired and unhealthy choice.

Google chemistry ...

I've had really good experiences with few-day soaks in Simple Green. I've stripped acrylics and spray paint just fine off my minis.

Edit: I scrub with an old, medium bristle toothbrush. Some fine crevaces I gotta pick out with wooden toothpicks.

Thank you all - i have purchased some Purple Power and am eager to try it out!

FYI Citadel paints are acrylic. I've been using simple green to clean them off for years. Should work in your case. I've never tried purple power.

Old topic, I know, but relevant to me. I have a couple of ships that had a custom paint job started by someone else, and I would like to see about starting over. When you strip / soak with Simple Green (reason I mention this is I already have some in my garage) does it take off everything, even the base FFG paint? I've ready some conflicting advice as to how long to let the ships soak... any advice would be welcome. Thanks.

It won't touch the original paint job. I think they bake that ish on there.

Drop it in the dip for 30 minutes to an hour and then scrub with an old toothbrush. Some of the paint will start to come off. You'll likely have to do multiple dips. And get into the cracks with a sharp toothpick.

People make it sound like the paint magically comes off but sometimes depending on the paint used, you really have to get in there.

Good luck!

Okay, thanks! Appreciate the help. These are a few "extra" ships I got from a local "getting out of x-wing" purchase, so I figured I would experiment with them. Even with playing Heroes of the Aturi Cluster I don't really need a 15th and 16th TIE Interceptor. But don't tell my wife I actually admitted that...

One major draw back I found with simple green was it being so hard to get rid of the lingering smell from the model.

(also saw varying degrees of success as a stripper)

Found Isopropyl Alcohol far more effective, and less obnoxious to the nose.

I have been using either acetone-free nail polish remover and Revell's Paint Remover.
Neither of these damages the glue or the plastic itself.
You will need to scrape out paint from places like the grills on the front of a Scyk with a pin or a toothpick. A toothbrush should take care of everything else.

With both I just dip them in a small container of the liquid for 1-5 minutes, until the paint starts to flake off, then stick the toothbrush in it and start scrubbing. Occasionally take it out, stick it under hot water, scrub some more, put it back into the remover, repeat.

Wear gloves and an some protective eye wear as scrubbing with a toothbrush has the stuff spraying all over the place.

Gets rid of primers pretty easy as well.

I had some Simple Green already so decided to try that. I soaked and scrubbed and the initial blobs of paint coming off were fairly impressive! I kept putting the ships back in to soak some more though because I wasn't getting all of it. I was particularly annoyed by some stubborn black / dark areas.

Finally I got smart and pulled out one of my original models. The black / dark areas I was scrubbing so hard to remove were the original paint job... So now I have a TIE Advanced that is practically naked. It looks so sad.

But Simple Green clearly worked for me to remove not only the custom paint but a good amount of the factory paint as well. Someone else mentioned the odor left behind. If I handle the ship normally there is no scent. If I examine it closely I do smell a faint odor left from the cleaner. I suspect after I get my new paint job done the odor will be covered up.

Now to come up with a theme. I have a TIE Advanced and an Inquisitor's TIE to repaint. I'm thinking of going with the red / black paint scheme used by the Imperial Aces Interceptor / Imperial Veterans Defender. Will let you know how it goes!

A note for anyone who ventures into this topic again: Simple Green indeed works well.

I had a T-70 repainted as Black One. Since I'm now getting a copy of Heroes of the Resistance, i see no need for two Black Ones, so I stripped the paint off the home made, as I expect its easier to paint over the original light colored hull than over the black one, and I'm thinking that one of my T-70s will soon turn into a Red Squadron ship.

Simply put, I soaked the ship for 30 minutes in Simple Green, scrubbed with a toothbrush what would come off, then soaked some more, scrubbed some more, repeating the cycle as other activities throughout the afternoon would permit, until the ship came clean. My repaint job had layered a few runs of acrylic followed by a Rust-Oleum Matte Clear coat, and Simple Green handily took everything off until I had a ship that looked fresh from the blister pack.