Hi all!
I want to repaint some old Games OrcShop GeneBorrowers. They're made of some
kind of plastic (sorry Chris, can't tell you what kind...
whatever old space-hulk figs were made from).
Now, I've used brake fluid very successfully to remove paint from FSE white
metal figs, and acetone to remove the epoxy holding them to washers. But I
suspect acetone would eat the plastic. What about the brake fluid though? Will
it eat the plastic? Can anyone speak semi-
authoritatively on this?
And in a related note, assuming I wanted ot repaint some rather expensive
armourcast resins (since I have an airbrush!), would brake fluid be safe for
the resin? (Maybe David of DLD or someone might have some idea about what
might be good or bad for stripping paint from resin?)
Since I'm now in the ranks of the under-
employed (I guess now that I'm a
contractor/consultant, I can't call that
unemployed, though the distinction at the bank isn't very great....), I seem
to have some time over the holidays to catch up some painting and model
building projects.
Tomb.
I'm used a cleaner named "Simple Green" to remove paint from plastic and metal
minis. I typically let the figure soak for a day or two with no ill effects
and even left several GW plastic minis soaking for over two weeks by accident
without a problem. The paint doesn't dissolve as readily as it did with brake
fluid, but then again the cleaner mentioned above didn't eat my bare skin
either. Best of all is Simple Green is suppose to be biodegradable.
I've never tried plastics with brake fluid. One one to see is take a discarded
piece of sprue from similar types of minis (you got to have some in a parts
box right?):) and give that a test to see what happens.
Kevin
> On Monday, Dec 2, 2002, at 01:24 US/Central, Thomas Barclay wrote:
> Hi all!
***
Can anyone speak semi-authoritatively on this?
***
Only semi-...
My best friend, known as Warboss both out of respect and an early love of the
RT greenskins, claims that brake fluid is definitely the way to go, even
though I'm shocked that what I assume is a petroleum product doesn't eat right
through the plastic.
That said, even paint-scummed Simple Green should be a safer, cleaner
alternative.
Tomb: Thanks for the message on reactive mine fields you sent. I'm still
cogitating an answer. ;->=
The_Beast
> claims that brake fluid is definitely the way to go,
Brake fluid is glycol-based (or silicone-based if you get DOT5, but
that's unlikely), and the fluid reservoir on some cars is plastic
(polyethylene, I think), so it doesn't eat *all* platics. I know I've heard of
it being
used to clean plastic minis with no ill effects--but I don't know what
kind of plastics those were, and TomB doesn't know what kind his are either
("resin" is only slightly more descriptive than "plastic"), and I've never
seen the kind of figures he's talking about (in fact, I'm not certain I've
ever seen any GW figure except in photos) so that doesn't help. If someone
(David? Germy?) has a guess as to what the resin is, I could
look up what effect glycol should have--but the best test is to dunk a
sprue and see what happens. BTW, one thing brake fluid *does* eat is....brake
pads.
***
Brake fluid is glycol-based (or silicone-based if you get DOT5, but
that's unlikely), and the fluid reservoir on some cars is plastic
(polyethylene, I think), so it doesn't eat *all* plastics.
***
That explains much!
***
I know I've heard of it being used to clean plastic minis with no ill
effects--but I don't know what kind of plastics those were, and TomB
doesn't know what kind his are either
***
Evil Empire(tm) sure LOOK/SMELL/TASTE like 'styrene, and that would be
what Randy used brake fluid on.
***
("resin" is only slightly more descriptive than "plastic"), and I've never
seen the kind of figures he's talking about (in fact, I'm not certain I've
ever seen any GW figure except in photos) so that doesn't help.
***
Armorcast, which had a GW license, but no way associated otherwise, uses
the slightly yellow stuff, very similar to Geo-Hex's. I'm thinking it's
a polyethylene resin, but no warranties assumed.
The_Beast
> devans@nebraska.edu wrote:
[...]
> ***
Taste?? Taste???
Ooookay, that explains much, Beast...
Mk
The_Beast said:
> Evil Empire(tm) sure LOOK/SMELL/TASTE like 'styrene, and that would be
Unpigmented PE is translucent white, feels waxy, bends without breaking and is
a real pain to paint. My two guesses would be styrene or polyester...but I
don't recall whether glycol affects polyesters. It might turn it into a glob
of goo.
Probably polyurethane resin. Not unlike the stuff you can get at Tapp Plastics
or Michaels
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
> On 2-Dec-02 at 11:25, devans@nebraska.edu (devans@nebraska.edu) wrote:
> Evil Empire(tm) sure LOOK/SMELL/TASTE like 'styrene, and that would be
Does Testors model cement work on anything other than styrene? I know it works
well on the EE plastic minis.