Caesar Miniatures made a line of figures for the recent Beijing Olympics. I got a bunch of them but don't really care that much about the Beijing Olympics. I have been trying to remove the paint so I can re-paint them. For decades we have been waiting for a paint that will stick well to soft plastic figures. This paint sure is it.
First, in deference to my friend Tom, I tried Simple Green. Soaking overnight, they were just as painted as they were before. Despite vigorous brushing with a toothbrush, the paint just barely removed. So, I tried my favorite, EZ Off oven cleaner. It did no better. Then I tried paint remover. After about fifteen minutes, I took out the sample figure and the paint was coming off, but the figure was melting too. Okay, I want the paint off, but melting the paint and the figure is not a realistic solution.
Finally, I tried brake fluid. It soaked for a couple hours and with a bit of toothbrush work, there was some paint removed. Then I added a few more figures and let them soak for 24 hours. The figures were in perfect shape and a bit more of the paint loosened up. Now they have been soaking for 72 hours and I will try again.
4 comments:
Good to know that Oven Cleaner won't do the trick. I will have to try the brake fluid when I get my hands on some of these.
Sticky plastic after cleaning is something that I have noticed with all my Caesar figures, and I hear that the new HaT plastic is the same.
That's why I hate this new plastic, it's not ethylene and it's not styrene, but neither is it a 'alloy' of the two...I suspect there is a bit of Polyvinyl in there, hence the rubberyness of the product.
I kept trying to get HaT to tell us what they put in it, on the forum, but Mr (Sorry 'Mrs') H (Sorry 'Jones') would never be drawn on the subject!
If you can't get it all off with Brake Fluid try Surgical Spirit (Surgical Alcohol) it might work?
Oven Cleaner usually works very well on taking off model paints. Not this time apparantly.
There are several new plastics out there. Some are letting us get better detail. Some are allowing us to glue the figures. I don't think there is a perfect one yet.
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