RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Can anyone tell me the best way to remove Tamiya acrylic paint. I know i've seen something about removing acrylic paint somewhere but can't remember where I saw it. I know oven cleaner works on enamel paint but not acrylic as I've stripped a model back to undercoat using this method. Any help would be very welcome. All the best for now.
Alan

Hi Alan
Mr muscule oven cleaner works or you can leave it in a bucket of brake fluid for a week or so
both ways usualy work for me

Pete

hi there alan

i use traffic film remover ... ( trf ) from a good car spares shop its about £10 for 5 ltrs ... and it stripps eveything back to the plastic ... make sure you wear gloves ...

Thanks Pete and Iain. Looking at the Stug last night I may get away with a quick rubdown with wet and dry and respraying my basecoat. Once again thanks for the tip's I now have a couple of things to try if it all goes pear shaped again.All the best for now
Alan

mcevoyi wrote:hi there alan

i use traffic film remover ... ( trf ) from a good car spares shop its about £10 for 5 ltrs ... and it stripps eveything back to the plastic ... make sure you wear gloves ...

I'm interested in this as I have a tank that needs striping right down to the plastic.

How do you use it? Soak, or scrub the paint off with it? Will it damage the plastic at all? What about metal parts?

Cheers,
Rik

]Oven Cleaner at work,tooth brush and a pan of hot water will strip to plastic.

what i did is use a plastic tub .. form the £1 shop .. that actualy cost £5 pored the TRf in and put the plastic parts in.. left for 1 hour .. checked ....and left for the night .... all paint was removed ... no damage to plastic .... the paint removed .. was tamiya paint .. humberol .. and dulus wall emoltion paint ... even stripped out door gloss paint too

grim_marmazet wrote:

mcevoyi wrote:hi there alan

i use traffic film remover ... ( trf ) from a good car spares shop its about £10 for 5 ltrs ... and it stripps eveything back to the plastic ... make sure you wear gloves ...

I'm interested in this as I have a tank that needs striping right down to the plastic.

How do you use it? Soak, or scrub the paint off with it? Will it damage the plastic at all? What about metal parts?

Cheers,
Rik

Bit late for you guys but I have heard brake fluid works. Have not tried it. Try some on trst piece first.

I have just stripped a resin figure I got it off ebay so did not know what paint had been used.
I tried acrylic thinners - hardly touched it even scrubbing with a stiff brush.
Tried brake fluid - did not make any impression.
Tried nitromors water based paint and varnish stripper - scrubbing produced some colour on the brush but not any real impression.
So eventually I tried a bit of caustic soda - that stripped it off OK and did not damage the casting so left it to soak in a solution and it all fell off.
Beware using caustic soda its very corrosive and gives off fumes so take precautions.

Stripping Paint is easy if you have the right stuff to do the job



1) Oven cleaners
Use a spray on oven cleaner that contains costic soda, leave it half an hour and scrub off with warm water and an old tooth brush,
do this a few times and the paint will be gone (even Tamiya acrylic)
then wash well with Hot soapy water

2) Brake fluid
Fill a bucket with brake fluid and drop the part in then check it every 24 hours and scrub with a tooth brush evey time you check
within a week the paint will fall off then wash when done with hot soapy water (this removes all paints)

3) costic soda (very Dangerous stuff)
if you can get hold of this stuff its very usefull for stripping paint and grease etc
mix the costic soda in a suitable container that has a lid and place your part in it
leave for 24 hours and remove and rinse then wash with hot soapy water
this also works with metal parts but do not place aluminium in costic soda as it will eat the aluminium very rapidly
costic soda is Extreamly Dangerous and will eat humen flesh, if you do get this stuff on you wash the area in milk not water as water just makes it react even more then seek medical attention

4) carpet tape
This option is very usefull on lexan
stick the carpet tape rub it down well & leave for an hour and rip the tape off, the glue they use on it is so strong it takes the paint off the plastic

5) Traffic and road film remover
mix it up and place it in a bucket
put the part into the mix and leave for 24 hours remove the part and wash with hot soapy water & a tooth brush

6) Metal parts (Use a mask when doing this due to strong fumes)
for metal parts use industrial car paint thinners in a jar or metal con tainer with a lid in a well ventilated area
por the thinners into the container and place the parts in, 20 minutes later remove the parts and scrub with a tooth brush then wash with hot soapy water

Hope this helps someone

Pete