av8rmongo wrote: Did you use it straight out of the bottle or diluted? I have found that diluting it 2 parts Simple Green to 1 part water give me the best results. Chemistry majors may be able to explain how that works but I can't. Next time if you have stubborn paint try diluting it a little.
Paul
Paul,
I'll have to give that a try. I've had problems stripping paint with "simple green", but like you mentioned I only tried it "straight" out of the bottle...
Last edited by jb on Sat Apr 17, 2010 4:55 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I use full strength out of bottle, not diluted. Figs were in plastic bowl with no lid. Smells good thou. Kept it in bathroom cabinet away from pet. After good long soaking. No stress in removing paint and primier. Looks like new out of packaging. Currently, have Merkavas, and old GHQ T-55s soaking. These were also with clear mat coat. Will report on result.
Will try diluted way as well with my 15mm samurai figs from E-Bay. Badly painted, but can be restored and given new life. Sound like a commercial HAH!!!
Hmmm. I'm surprised to hear that such long soakings were needed.
In my case the JS-2s shown had been primed with Floquil spray enamel primer, then base-painted with Testor's Model Master spray enamel paint, and then detailed (if you want to call it that) with I don't know what (probably Testor's enamels, maybe Humbrol, don't think I was using Polly-S acrylics yet at that time).
These were placed in the full-strength Simple Green for about 3 or 4 hours. I left the tub open-topped in the garage during this time. I had another tub of water that I rinsed them in (just a dunking) before starting my brush-work. This was because I was expecting the un-diluted Simple Green to be nastier stuff than it turned out to be. So as I progressed with the models I stopped the rinsing as un-necessary. Although I did find that a rinse or two helped to get the sudsy green slush worked-up by the brush off of the models to allow me to complete the cleanings.
I believe these models had never been clear-coated. I wonder if that makes the difference in soak-time...
-Mark 1 Difficile est, saturam non scribere. "It is hard NOT to write satire." - Decimus Iunius Juvenalis, 1st Century AD
Mk 1 wrote:Hmmm. I'm surprised to hear that such long soakings were needed...
...I believe these models had never been clear-coated. I wonder if that makes the difference in soak-time...
I've not had "bad" bad results, but I've needed more time and sometimes sveral soakings to get everything off. Also as you mention it could be what was used on the subject in the first place.
er, is it worth a sticky? Considering there are very few stickies to start with (all about how to work within the forum)... besides, the Simple Green stuff is an American item; I certainly can't find it here. When I clean mini's I put them in a sealed acetone bath. Works pretty quick, and as women use it as nail polish remover, not exactly deadly. I'm sure the info is useful and inspiring to some, but then so is the 'show us yer stuff' thread, and that's not stickied...
After trying the diluted method. It seems to be a similar result to the full strength method. So far still will need to soak a little longer to get same result to bubble the paint. will report back at a later day.
I use to use Zip Strip which is a very strong paint/varnish remover jell paste. Stuff liturely bubbled the paint in 2 days. But smelled toxic. Had to be very protective and use gloves and mask. Results were very thorough. But after cleaning off paint. Could just dispose in drainage system. Harms plumbing. Liturely had to be a Hazmat disposal meothod.
...just tried the 1/2 water to 1/2 SG method on 3 sdAA tracks. they have soaked since sunday morning and the results are not good. I got these things off ebay and dont really know the paint that is on them, but I do know it is tuff (and ugly, never seen such a s****y color of yellow!)
I finally finished cleaning amny figures over the summer.
Simple Green REALLY ROCKS and does the job.
100 T-74s, 100 M1A1s, 60 BMP-2s, 60 BMP-3s, 45 T-80Bs, 45 T80As, 40 M2A2s,
5 A-10s, 5 SU-25s, 5 AH-1Qs, 6 F4Es, and others still soaking but looking very clean.
I used a firm nylon cleaning brush from Home Depot which does a great job of clearing
all bits and polishing the figures neatly. Got some 15mm Samurai to do that I got off
E-Bay. About 300 pieces including horses and their mounts as well as Ancient Chinese
figures as well.
You and I both seem to have a mountain of figures to clean and recondition. Hey look at it this way. If the world goes to hell and a hand basket. We can always melt it down and a have an ammo reloading party and sing Kum-Bya and past the ammo. :
OK! I need help in finding what to use to get super glue off the figures that I got off ebay which was glopped on to the hull to fix the turrets down. Some of the glue had formed on to the engine deck and it looks bad after striping the paint. Any suggestion to dissolve the glue cleanly?
The normal solvent for CA glue is acetone. Available from hardware stores, also in some nail varnish removers. The glue goes a bit gummy, but pulls away pretty well (turns into something like rubber cement).
piersyf wrote:The normal solvent for CA glue is acetone.
Yep.
Nail Polish Remover. Any lady who "does her nails" will be able to tell you where to find it (and can probably provide you with enough to clear your engine decks). Or you can buy super glue remover in a tube -- seems to be an acetone gel to my observation.
But beware -- if you thought enamel paints could get stink up your house and your head spinning ... there are few substances you'll find that are as volatile (ie: evaporate as quickly) as quickly as acetone. You do NOT want to be in a closed room with that stuff!
-Mark 1 Difficile est, saturam non scribere. "It is hard NOT to write satire." - Decimus Iunius Juvenalis, 1st Century AD
).
