After having pretty much screwed up my Stormtroopers and ended up with too much paint that made them look like blobs of molten crayons I decided to strip them and just repaint.

The best tip I can give (that I got from Lukes APS on youtube so all credit to him!) is to use what is called "methylated spirits", in Sweden this is usually called "T-sprit" or "T-Röd", the latter a famous and common brand available just about everywhere.

The alcohol will not damage the plastic and will break down the acrylic paint in a matter of minutes!

This stormie was put into the alcohol for less then 5 minutes and then given a gentle brush with an old toothbrush and the paint just came right off of it! Give it a little more time and a better brushjob and the mini will look new and unpainted, large enough bowl and were talking de-painting several units and making them ready for new paint within an hour!

As always, working with chemicals and alcohols you should take care, use gloves and not spill the stuff around. The wastes alcohol is to be disposed at whatever local station you have available and while it doesnt give off a very strong smell, it is always adviced to work outdoors or in a ventilated area!

So there you go, a ruined paintjob isnt the end of the world!

Just to add to the above, these are my units of stormies. Earlier they where covered in rather too thick coats of paint, drybrushed heavily with followup attempts to cover up previous failed attempts and what not...It all just ended in horribly looking models.

15 mins in the alcohol and then a good brushing, then another 15 mins and a quick brush again making sure everything was gone.

An added benefit of the alcohol is that it evaporates quickly and you dont need to clean or wash them with water or anything. When youre done cleaning the models, just place them on a piece of paper or cardboard and within a few minutes they are completely dry, clean and ready to be painted! As opposed to waching them with water which can take some time to dry unless you somehow aid it.

All in all I spent maybe an hour total time with these from sad blobs of paint to ready for repriming! I am superimpressed with this method of stripping and suddenly there is a good few various models in my collection that cant sleep safely anymore!

A great addition is an ultrasonic cleaner, makes paint stripping a whole lot easier.

I've used Dettol to strip some of my Imperial Assault models before. Does anyone know if the same will work for Legion models? I've heard they aren't made from the same type of plastic or something.

3 hours ago, BrotherOrii said:

I've used Dettol to strip some of my Imperial Assault models before. Does anyone know if the same will work for Legion models? I've heard they aren't made from the same type of plastic or something.

They aren’t the same plastic, but you are likely using the same paint. So the same things should work to take it off.

Does Dettol strip primer too? What about varnishes (I.E. Matte varnish, or 'Ardcoat)? I have a unit of stormtroopers painted up as Deathtroopers right now, and when they release actual death troopers, I'll need to strip these and repaint them...

On 4/17/2018 at 1:39 AM, dalarpguy42 said:

Does Dettol strip primer too? What about varnishes (I.E. Matte varnish, or 'Ardcoat)? I have a unit of stormtroopers painted up as Deathtroopers right now, and when they release actual death troopers, I'll need to strip these and repaint them...

I ended up stripping my Luke Skywalker model using Dettol with no issues. Can't speak to matte varnish/'ardcoat but i did use Vallejo's Matt varnish to fill in some gaps (Sorastro's method) and it stripped that with no problems.