Paint Removal Problem

[Tiger331]

Hi Folks,

I am after some help or assistance with a paint removal problem.

I recently purchased a part-started kit with a set of rotor blades that had been rather clumsily painted using Windsor & Newton acrylic black paint. I dug out an old pot of Modelstrip to coat the blades and rotor heads but found that it had dried up in storage. Adding a very small amount of water (as suggested on the container) seemed to do the trick and I duly coated the blades etc with the modelstrip and left them overnight in a sealed bag, again as per the instructions. The modestrip has had absolutely no effect on the blades and a minimum amount of effect on the rotor heads (which may have been painted using another type of paint, for all I know). I am not sure if this lack of effect is due to the Modestrip losing its potency over time or whether W&N acrylic paint is immune to this kind of paint stripper.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how this problem has arisen and if there are other methods of paint removal that I could try - other than resorting to a sanding stick.

Thanks

Mark

[PhantomBigStu]

Oven cleaner, if your uk based fairy power spray, an overnight soak gets off just about everything with light scrubbing

[Black Knight]

Others have success with Fairy Power Spray and MrMuscle oven cleaner. I've used a paint & varnish remover from B&Q, fresh brake fluid, caustic soda, one after the other, not all together. Some have even found Dettol or bleach to work.

[PhantomBigStu]

would add a note, if using dettol its very diffuclt to get rid of the smell, and also having tried mr muscle, yes it works but not as effectivly as fairy so might work in your case given its only a light job, but for substantial work such as stripping a fully painted model chose fairy

[Foghorn Leghorn]

Nail varnish remover has been known to work

[Graham Boak]

I've tried Fairy Power Spray on old (a couple of year) enamel and it didn't touch it at all. It was then suggested that Fairy had changed its composition recently. I also tried Isopropyl Alcohol, which is the active constituent in some nail varnish removers but most have acetone. This was moderately successful - it lifted some but not others. What worked best was Modelstrip, which was somewhat dried up but responded to some added water.

Of course, things might be different with acrylic paints.

[cruiserguy]

Hi Tiger,

Fairy Power spray works for me, but make sure you buy the right kind. Apparently there is an original and a "citrus" version. There is a post on Amazon UK from a guy who wanted to strip paint from figures for his son. He bought the citrus stuff and says it wasn't effective.

Best Wishes,

Will.

[Baggers]

Fairy Power Spray (new version) is rubbish and doesn't perform any paint stripping, the old formula certainly did but the new one won't shift anything.

MrMuscle oven cleaner is still OK. It shifted Halfords primer, Alclad and enamel paints off something I needed to redo recently.

[shood23]

Isopropyl alcohol works the best on a wide range of paints and is fairly cheap, I used it recently on a car that had tamiya spray paint and cellulose paint on it and the plastic is as good as when it came out of the box, it also works wonders on alclad paints

You can get it off eBay for under £10 a litre or 5 litres for 30

Shaun

[PhantomBigStu]

Fairy Power Spray (new version) is rubbish and doesn't perform any paint stripping, the old formula certainly did but the new one won't shift anything.

MrMuscle oven cleaner is still OK. It shifted Halfords primer, Alclad and enamel paints off something I needed to redo recently.

When did they change it?

[Graham Boak]

The Fairy Power Spray I bought is the citrus. So is this what is meant by a "new version"? or is there a possibility that a non-citrus variant is still around, and will work?

I got my Isopropyl Alcohol in a 400ml spray can from Maplins for £9.95 (or close). They did have a bigger can but I suspect even this is more than I'm ever likely to use.

[cruiserguy]

Hi Graham and others,

You can buy the original Fairy Power Spray through Amazon UK. It comes in at £12 for four 375 ml bottles at the moment. Reading some of the comments, It appears supermarkets are only stocking the new "citrus" version.

Best Wishes,

Will.

[ancient mariner]

Nail varnish remover has been known to work

That could be the road to ruin. A test on scrap is strongly advised........................................there could be tears before bedtime

Personally I like "Power spray"

[Buster213]

Going through my old stash recently I came across a hurricane model that was part built. I remembered, many years ago, i had started to spray it in a desert scheme and ( rushing late one night to get one coat on) I completely fouled up the spray mix and pressure. The end result in the morning was a thick yellow mess. I put it away to calm down and planned to come back to it a few days later and clean it all off to start again. Well that was about 8 years ago. I saw a tip on here somewhere about using Tesco everyday value multipurpose cleaner ( 36p a bottle). The tip was to immerse the model it in a tub of the liquid with a little water over night. I found with a little gentle scrubbing with a tooth brush 95% of the paint just wiped away. ( including the primer)Just for an experiment I put it back in the solution for another 24 hrs and found the more stubborn bits came off with a little scrubbing with wire wool. ( this did mean I will have to re-scribe some panel line) but the extra 24 hours also dissolved the glue so the model came apart easily. I was impressed considering how long the paint had been on there.