RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I have hit the search bar and google and found mixed messaging for removing paint from our tanks.
If you have seen my hello post you’ll notice I have a badly painted Bulldog I am going to fix up
I need to do the whole body work and most talk about soaking in a tub of x.... solution. That’s ok for the little bits but I would need 10 litres to do the hull (rough calculations). As time has moved forward (All articles I find are from 5 + years ago) and you guys are the experience hands what is the recommended methods.
Options I have seen so far
Detol .
Brake fluid (not keen on this)
Oven cleaner....
Commercial paint removers. Costly

I know this is probably old hat to the experienced modellers but I am a newbie

Thanks guys

Steve

The very first thing you need to do is identify what kind of paint you wish to remove.
Enamel paint will not be removed by the methods you list, If you can get under the skin of the Enamel paint it can often be quite literally peeled off.
Most modern Models are painted with Acrylics,
This is a water soluble paint and if the paint is recent it will rub off under running water,
Acrylic Thinners (Isopropanol) will remove Acrylic Paint BUT never overuse it on ABS/Plastics as it will melt the ABS/Plastic,
Buy it from E-Bay NOT Tamiya and save yourself a fortune
NEVER immerse the paint covered item in such liquid leaving it to stand for any length of time.
If you use Acrylic thinners as a paint remover DO wash the item in running water afterwards,
Cellulose thinners or White Spirit will remove Enamel paint but make sure you have a window open as people quite regularly die working with such chemicals,
Acetone is a certain way of removing Enamel paint but its pretty nasty stuff to work with although if you use the little bottles that your lady's Nail Varnish remover comes in you should be fine,
(If the Nail Varnish remover bottle says Acetone free don't bother with it)

jarndice wrote:The very first thing you need to do is identify what kind of paint you wish to remove.
Enamel paint will not be removed by the methods you list, If you can get under the skin of the Enamel paint it can often be quite literally peeled off.
Most modern Models are painted with Acrylics,
This is a water soluble paint and if the paint is recent it will rub off under running water,
Acrylic Thinners (Isopropanol) will remove Acrylic Paint BUT never overuse it on ABS/Plastics as it will melt the ABS/Plastic,
Buy it from E-Bay NOT Tamiya and save yourself a fortune
NEVER immerse the paint covered item in such liquid leaving it to stand for any length of time.
If you use Acrylic thinners as a paint remover DO wash the item in running water afterwards,
Cellulose thinners or White Spirit will remove Enamel paint but make sure you have a window open as people quite regularly die working with such chemicals,
Acetone is a certain way of removing Enamel paint but its pretty nasty stuff to work with although if you use the little bottles that your lady's Nail Varnish remover comes in you should be fine,
(If the Nail Varnish remover bottle says Acetone free don't bother with it)

Thanks for the reply. Well used to using ace tome to clean my orders book when I was serving and noted that this is a possible method.
It is a acrylic but definitely not a recent paint job.

I have used a project called "Super Clean Degreaser" on my old Warhammer 40K plastic marines before I sold them. I painted them as a kid and they looked horrible so I stripped the paint before I sold them since I never got into the game. I soaked them for over 8 hours with no ill affects to the plastic. It removed both the enamel and the acrylic paint on them. It also removed the plastidip I had sprayed on an old disk array case. The only cavot to using it is don't leave it on metal overnight as it will cause corrosion on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VjG4y-rQyI

You could have a problem with "Super Cleaner Degreaser" because there is a product of that name on sale in the UK but it does not proclaim to do anything like the American product,
If you go to E-Bay you will discover the American product on sale but every advertisment says it comes from the USA and the Postage and Customs charges will empty your bank account very quickly.

I tested brake fluid and it worked surprisingly well.

Oven cleaner, but please wear gloves

HERMAN BIX wrote:Oven cleaner, but please wear gloves

I Learnt the hard way about hard arse cleaning materials and gloves.
I was a young dumb solder once lol

jarndice wrote:You could have a problem with "Super Cleaner Degreaser" because there is a product of that name on sale in the UK but it does not proclaim to do anything like the American product,
If you go to E-Bay you will discover the American product on sale but every advertisment says it comes from the USA and the Postage and Customs charges will empty your bank account very quickly.

Yep US postage is a bad thing to forget

Try methylated spirit first before more aggressive methods. It mostly works really well for removing acrylic paints from slot car bodies, and its cheap if you want to dip it in a bath of solvent. Scalextric cars work in minutes, other brands are longer.

I've heard of some horror stories with brake fluid - melted plastic car bodies etc, but it is the next progression if the meth bath does not.