Question Point - How to Strip Models

Dettol kills 99.9% of germs.

That 0.1% germ is a Legend.

Dettol

Hey Caesurians, thanks for tuning in last week for the first birthday party of The Art of Caesura!

After much reflection in preparation for last week post, I found that one of my most popular entries from last year was the one where I showed how I made my Silver Tower bases. So this year I've decided to have an irregular series demonstrating other techniques. Now, I know that tutorials exist elsewhere on the internet, but as I have just recently learned these techniques myself I thought I might have a bit of insight for others who are just trying them for the first time. 

My first of these such articles is today!

Question Point: How to strip paint off old models. 

I lived in Australia about two years ago. One of the many delights I enjoyed whilst over there (not least of which were the people, weather and goon) was perfect weather to spray paint the undercoat (or primer) for models. 

When I moved back to Ireland, with its lush humidity and chilly climes, I began having issues with the spray paint I was using. It seemed to go on thick and gritty. I do acknowledge some responsibility, because it always seemed to be windy whenever I was trying to undercoat models, so at times I was likely spraying too close. 

Anyway I went from getting nice smooth results like:

to crappy results like this:

I just lived with it for a while; some of the first models on this blog (especially the World of Smog ones)  were painted on this rough undercoat. But eventually I said "enough is enough!" I was tired of my crappy undercoat obscuring detail and coarsening surfaces. 

So I did a bunch of research and found that the savior (over here in Europe and the UK anyway) is an antiseptic called Dettol!

Now, I cannot emphasize enough that you CANNOT use the nice smelling varieties. The first one I found and tried was this one: 

Not this one!

It smelled nice...and did diddly squat!

What we need is its industrial cousin:

Now we're talking!

Once you have the right Dettol, just chuck the model in, wait a few hours and then BLAZAAM! DONE! (and by "done" I mean carefully take them out (rubber gloves are your friend!) and give them a good scrub with an old aeroplane toothbrush (using more Dettol to rinse them off before setting them aside to AIR DRY!)

Important Notes:

• You can add as many minis to the jar as will fit so long as you ensure that they are completely covered in Dettol.
• This will work on metal, plastic or resin* models. (I have used it on all three with no problems at all although I have read of some people have had issues where resin models warped - they recommended not leaving resins in Dettol for more than an hour (though I regularly do it for over 24 hours).
• Dettol will not loosen plastic glue. I have read (though never experienced) that it can loosen super glue. 
• In my experience so far, Dettol removes any acrylic-based paint (or even poly-urethane primer). So if it's just a crappy spray-painted undercoat like mine, or a thick dodgy paint job that was on them when you bought 'em off ebay, Dettol should work
• This is not for enamel paint, for that you'll have to use mineral spirits and elbow grease.
• DO NOT GET WATER ANYWHERE NEAR THIS TECHNIQUE! Water + Dettol will turn the paint you are trying to remove into a resilient sludge that will be nigh on impossible to remove.
• Don't mix water into the Dettol
• Don't wash the models in water first
• Don't wash the models in water after
• Timing: I leave all models I'm Dettoling fully submerged for 24 hours. By this time sometimes I don't even have to scrub the model afterwards, the paint just falls off!
• Leave the minis to air dry once you remove them from the Dettol (you can rinse them with Dettol, but do not use water!) 
• You can reuse the Dettol - just close the jar and allow it to await its next victim. 

Addendum:

For completion's sake - some people use methylated spirits (available wherever Dettol is sold ;) . They have the advantage of being generally cheaper and faster, but I find they don't work as well on undercoats (which, as you can see above, is mainly what I'm stripping). The process (and cautions) for using methylated spirits are exactly the same as listed above for Dettol.

The result:

This is after 24 hours, with only a minor scrub with the toothbrush

Thanks for checking out my first Question Point post. See you next week on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017)

Listening: We Are All Mad - Circus Contraptions

Drinking: Bushmill's 12 year old whiskey

Next Week:

What does the fox say!?