Rescuing minis from tragic paint jobs

[IvenBach]

I already have gone and tried a few methods of stripping paint. My question resides more with how to best get into the nooks and crannies and clean them out. I picked up some tragically painted HQ minis I'm in the process of rescuing and despite some good hard rubbing and scrubbing a bit wont come out of the recesses. I've seen before ultrasonic cleaners and was wondering if anyone had any firsthand experience with them.

[Schmidt]

Have you tried with a needle or knife to scrape the last bits out? If it is 99% clean, you could try to prime one of them to see how it looks.

[chaoticprime]

What would you do if the paint-job was excellent, but the painter died immediately after finishing?

[Yochanan]

I've never found anything very good for plastic miniatures. I do know some things to use for metal/pewter, however. Please, do tell for plastics...I have a few I need to strip as well.

[Sjeng]

As mentioned here many times:
Simple green and Dettol do the trick for both metal and plastic minis. Leave them in for a few hours and brush clean.

[IvenBach]

They soaked then I scrubbed. Then soaked overnight and I scrubbed more this morning. Still have about a quarter of the paint left in the recesses for each one .

[chaoticprime]

Isopropyl alcohol works better than simple green or dettol and takes less than an hour. Use a stripping brush or a toothbrush.

[IvenBach]

Did that with the results posted above. Tried a brand new 'stiff' brush and it did a little better but still lots of paint it can't get out. Using a knife helped but way too many minis to do that on 80+. I'll get a few done and painted up to see how they look. I'm thinking part of the problem is the paint that was used. I'm pretty sure it's not acrylic. It looks like to be oil based. I openly state my ignorance in paints. When I stripped my own bad painteds with acrylics it came right of with a soak and light/moderate scrubbing. This paint does come off but is a lot harder to remove and crevices are still painted. What are some suggestions for oil based pant removal that want eat the underlying plastic? Same as acrylic?

[Count Von Bruno]

I use Dettol for plastic and metal alike, it has only failed me on one batch of minis (HQ as it happens) that I think were undercoated thick as a brick with some grey primer.
Dettol is still just as effective with 50/50 watering down too.

I get a container of hot water with dishwashing liquid in it, take the minis out of the Dettol then scrub them in the hot soapy water-rinsing the brush in the Dettol to avoid ruining it with the dreaded black gunk you can end up with.

What comes out totally stripped gets rinsed off and then soaked overnight in hot soapy water again to get rid of the fumes-partial successes go back into the dip
(I actually have two Dettol jars on the go, one for the initial dip that will be full of muck and another for those who get a second go)

Any little bits in recesses etc I just pick off with a toothpick while still wet.

[chaoticprime]

Do you have a paint-stripping brush> Allcohol works on oil paints, too.