paint removal

have come into some vintage accessories of late mainly head wear bits that have been customised with paint. are there any household items that can easily remove this paint? cheers lads

Paint is either water or oil based. Oil based tends to be easier to shift, as a 'reversible coating', it can be broken down with a little white spirit or nail polish remover, a cotton bud and patience. Water based paint is trickier and will generally adhere very strongly. It is usually removed via a heat-gun or a chemical stripper like Nitro-mors, both of which would melt plastic so, no dice. You could try scraping with a small screwdriver or suchlike, but you're probably going to cause more damage that it's worth.

My advice is to find something appropriate from your local Games Workshop and paint over the offending customisation. They may also be some experienced figure painters there. I should state that I'm a decorator and have never attempted to paint or remove paint from plastic figures or accessories. I have heard about baking soda being used as an abrasive..? Or possibly Goo-Gone which seems to be good for breaking down glues and such.

Good luck and keep us posted as to how it goes, I'm sure there are many vintage items about that could benefit from a careful tidy-up!

I'm selling quiet a few vintage pieces of head gear, if you fancy buying some send me a pm?

Cheers

the pieces that have paint jobs im going to move on but cheers for the thought, bought some nail polish remover from home bargains for 50p 8) so il see how that goes :lol:

ponchobelt said:

the pieces that have paint jobs im going to move on but cheers for thethought, bought some nail polish remover from home bargains for 50p 8) so il see how that goes :lol:

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WOAHHHHH be really careful with nail polish removal....I've used different brands and some can melt the plastic!!!!!! If you're going to use it test it first on a beater figure. I much prefer to use light fluid, never had any melty issues with it

Doomseeker said:

ponchobelt said:

the pieces that have paint jobs im going to move on but cheers for thethought, bought some nail polish remover from home bargains for 50p 8) so il see how that goes :lol:

Click to expand...

WOAHHHHH be really careful with nail polish removal....I've used different brands and some can melt the plastic!!!!!! If you're going to use it test it first on a beater figure. I much prefer to use light fluid, never had any melty issues with it

Click to expand...

ha ha it was on a last 17 figure aswell...it didnt melt. if i had read your comment earlier i wouldnt of done it. ahwell its still intact and it shifted some of the paint