Monday, December 7, 2020

A disappointing result

The experiment of using Simple Green as a paint stripper failed. Although the container has a healthy number of warning labels to the effect that it's corrosive, etc. etc, it hasn't done a thing to remove the ancient enamel paint on the figures after 72 hours soaking. Even a more recent attempt at painting over the figures with modern acrylics was left untouched.

Not a pretty sight.

At this stage of the proceedings I'm inclined to give up the whole paint removal idea as a bad job and simply move on to painting over the existing paint. The figures are back in water to remove the last traces of Simple Green. Once that's done they'll get dried off and onto the painting block.

10 comments:

Bill said...

Odd. Simple Green usually does pretty well for me. Did you try using an old toothbrush to scrub off the paint?

Mark Cordone said...

Try nail polish remover.

Fire at Will said...

I've had trouble with enamels, and found paint stripper is the only solution, but it doesn't work on hard plastics as it dissolves them as well.

Will

tradgardmastare said...

Dettol is what I use and works really well.

Matt Crump said...

Oh well I guess unless you try you never know, I have only done cleaning a couple of times finding it a real bore but when I did commercial stripper was the answer, although unpleasant. If you are determined I know one of my gaming mates (HOBBY HORSE Blog) link on my blog has recently stripped some figures very effectively.

Matt Crump said...

Sorry just realised Paul has changed his blog name to Nords painting saga not hobby horse. Matt

Millsy said...

At some point they changed the recipe of simple green, possibly because it was quite corrosive. I found after that it wasn't much chop. Having said that the type of paint has an impact too. I've found an ultrasonic cleaner coupled with a mild solvent (for which your simple green would likely do) to be quite effective.

Carlo said...

Dearest AJ I’m sorry yo read about your frustrations. If I may can I add my own recipe which is absolutely guaranteed to work.

Remember Dettol from the UK? A jar of it with the figures in them for twelve - to twenty hours followed up by a scrubbing with a toothbrush.

It will definitely work.

Red_Cardinal said...

How about trying oven cleaner?

Counterpane said...

Another vote for Dettol.

 

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