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What to use to strip acrylic paint?


CANicoll

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Interesting - looked up 'Butanol' (which I presume is same/related) - "used as a paint thinner and a solvent in other coating applications where a relatively slow evaporating latent solvent is preferable, as with lacquers and ambient-cured enamels".

 

Is there a Chemist in the house?  :)

 

Iain

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'Do you happen to use Mr. Color Leveling thinner?'

I use it on enamels.  I have also used 90% Isopropyl alcohol, it comes 70% as well, and Windex on enamels.  All work well without affecting styrene.  So the effect on styrene is none.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

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Sooo.  Because I'm a patient bugger (no, not really) I pulled out the old Tamiya X20A  thinner, poured some into a small cup and soaked the offending rudder for five or so minutes (maybe ten).  When I pulled it out of the soak, it looked fine - which was really disappointing.

 

BUT - taking Iain's suggestion of a cotton bud to heart, I started rubbing.  And low and behold, the paint started coming off!  Requires a bit of friction, but it definitely comes off pretty cleanly - except around the decal.  Scratching that up a bit however and the thinner was definitely working UNDER the decal.

 

Will post pictures later, but there you go.  In a pinch for a small part that needs to be stripped - Tamiya X20A will work.  Bonus points:  since it doesn't dissolve the paint right away, you can strain and reuse the thinner.  

 

Chris

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Great to hear Chris - I do normally rub the surface with the kitchen roll/cotton buds - it doesn't generally just dissolve if soaked in it.

 

Meanwhile, here at Muppet Labs, young Beaker has some Vallejo paint drying off in the airing cupboard - will leave a day, or so in the warm and attack with some IPA.

 

Recon it'll shift it no probs...

 

Iain

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Tamiya Lacquer Thinner is cool enough to strip paint but not melt the plastic. I've used it several times for that purpose when a paint job hasn't worked out.

 

I also use Liquid Tide laundry detergent to clean out old Tamiya and Gunze paint bottles for reuse. I put a dollop in a container, add some water and throw my empty paint bottles in to soak. It usually takes a couple days but they're pretty clean with a quick scrub and ready to use for custom paint mixes. I haven't tried soaking a model yet in Tide though.

 

Carl

Edited by BloorwestSiR
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I know this thread is about stripping Vallejo specifically, but the best thing I've come across for removing Gunze and (especially) Tamiya acrylics is Windex (an ammonia-based window cleaner). It does absolutely no harm to any form of plastic or resin, but will take Tamiya acrylics off in minutes.

 

Kev

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I should probably rename the thread to stripping paint in general as there are lots of good suggestions here.  Thanks for all the input everyone - and I've been tossing old paint bottles but now I have a way to getting them cleaned so that is a big help.

Cheers, guys!

Chris

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I've been told, peeing on it will strip the paint. LOL! Just kidding!!!

 

Saw a fancy BMW on I-40 the other day passing a cattle hauler tractor trailer. As it began to pass, a stream of cow piss came from the 2nd floor of the trailer and thoroughly hit the BMW. The Driver wasn't sure what to do. He hesitated, and was hit by more piss, turned his wiper blades on, and finally floored the BMW to pass the truck!!!! I never laughed so hard in all my life!!!! Figure that cow piss did his paint job in. Can you imagine reporting that to you insurance company? LOL!

 

:tumble:

I would think that the wax covering his car would protect the finish. However I would recommend that he take his car to a good car wash immediately because some may have ended up in corners where it may do damage before evaporating. Also the odor would be a bit disconcerting.   :rofl:

Could it be possible that the leak(?) was deliberate, knowing how red-blooded Red White and True Blue Patriotic Texans feel about them foreign cars.  :fight:

:punk:

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From the interwebs :

Windex is composed of the following substances: detergents, solvents, fragrance, Ammonia-D, and alcohol.

The two main chemical substances are Ammonia and alcohol (with the exception of Windex vinegar, outdoor,

and sparkling orange, which do not contain ammonia).

 

Ammonia D , the D stands for diluted, so it's not full strength ammonia.

Like Iain said, you need one of the high test alcohols like 91% or 99%

It obviously has other uses, easily available and is incredibly cheeeaaap .

 

Class dismissed , time for recess :m0152:

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