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PAINTSTRIP YOUR MODEL

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Paintstrip Your Models
Ever wondered how to strip a kit’s paint finish & start again? We tried one possible method on Rommel’s famous halftrack.

The 1:35th kit was previously released by Dragon but we ended up with the Revell (03052) re-boxing via a friend. He had tried to brush paint it with enamels on the sprues & had made quite a mess of it!

As we never like a model to go to waste, it was time to think about stripping off his paint effort.

The model maker has two options when it comes to stripping back paint. Because we thought it might be useful to modellers, we posted the technique we used here.

Option one is of course a dedicated paint stripping product like Model Strip. We’ve used it before & it certainly works. It may take a couple of applications, but we can vouch that it does the job. You just coat the parts in the thick paste-like Model Strip, seal in a bag overnight & then rinse off the paste (& the paint) with water.

There’re two problems, firstly it’s very messy & secondly, you can lose components as you rinse away the paste. You also have to use gloves, a mask & so on.

Another equally messy & more hazardous method is to use Acetone. Here again, safety is paramount. Do the job outside & wear personal safety gear.

Take a tub of Acetone & a toothbrush. Gently soak the components & then rub off the paint.

The advantage is the paint comes off almost immediately upon soaking. The disadvantage is that Acetone is a powerful solvent. Leave the part too long in the solution & the plastic will melt – as you can see on some of the tracks. So it’s a delicate job & you must judge for yourself how much dipping time is needed.

Essentially, if you are more patient, you can gently rub off the paint with a moistened brush – rather than going down the soaking route. Either way, it requires caution & can be messy too. It really is not an indoor job, but it is less of a fuss than using a paste compound like Model Strip.

Anyway, you can see from the images how the Greif halftrack came out. At least all the enamel paint layer has disappeared, but the melted tracks will need to be replaced or repaired. Win some, lose some...

Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
Paintstrip Your Models
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