Stripping Paint Safely - A Detailed Look

Whether you're planning on painting models you picked up used or decided to restart something you're already working on, sometimes you need to remove paint from miniatures.

I'm going to show you some ways to safely break down a miniature and strip the paint from it. I'll also demonstrate how to remove paint from a single point on the figure.

Before getting to it though, I'll cover a number of safety concerns regarding some of the often recommended paint strippers out there. I've discussed the safety concerns with people before, many who blow them off as being unfounded. The main point I want to get across is: When environmentally friendly products like Simple Green exist and do such a fantastic job of stripping paint, it's irresponsible to recommend potentially harmful chemicals.

There are a couple things I'd be curious to get feedback on:
a) Were you aware of the safety concerns outlined in this post? (From a paint stripper or nail polish perspective.)
b) If you weren't already using an environmentally friendly paint stripper, will this change your mind?

Also, I've seen discussions defending the use of chemicals get pretty toxic, so please keep comments civil.

A Cautionary Tale of Chemical Reactions

Sometimes we're just going about our day, when suddenly a curve ball comes at you out of nowhere that you just weren't expecting.

This isn't one of those stories.

Wayne gave permission to use this discourse. He wanted his name included and that takes guts. I don't want anybody calling him names, especially since he's willing to allow this decision to be used as a warning. Many of us have been in the middle of a project and not wanted to change gears or spend extra money. We've all made unwise decisions like cutting towards ourselves or accidentally grabbing the bottle of super glue instead of remover.

To summarize what's going on

Wayne is using Castin' Craft Clear Polyester Casting Resin to create a clear river. (Normally it's used to preserve objects in a hard plastic shell.) In theory this is a great idea. Compared to other water effects, it's not only cheaper, but faster because you can pour the layers thicker.

The way this resin works is that you mix two parts together and they solidify.
HOWEVER, the process that hardens the resin involves a lot of chemically generated heat.

Stat-Counting for Safety

"Remember honey, there are bad
people on the internet."

a.k.a. Use what you learn here for the power of good.

This is a post about recognizing that the side effect of having a presence online will no doubt face you with it's shadier parts at some point. Even though everything that goes on in the web is basically tracked, if you have a concern, do you want to wait for delays emailing The Powers That Be and chasing down information you feel you may need right away? If a site is also a store, or doing similar business, this also helps in case of fraud.

In this post, I explore using a visitor counter for safety reasons, instead of statistics.

a.k.a. Please don't stop reading my blog after you read this.

Safety Goggles

Anytime you do anything that could end up with parts flying, wear safety goggles. If you wear glasses (like me) they do make safety goggles for you. Most hardware stores carry them, even the glasses-friendly models. If you want to get fancy, you can get safety eye where with your glasses prescription. Larger cities usually also have safety supply stores if you want more selection.

Hobby Safety

In my travels of various forums and tutorials, I've noticed that something greatly lacking are safety instructions. There's a lot of great ideas out there, but also extremely stupid and/or dangerous ones. A big part of the problem here, is the target audience - I started wargaming when I was just a kid and there's plenty of other kids out there these days picking up their first paint brush - and knife. There also seems to be a general disregard for safety - Even though we're just building models, doesn't mean you shouldn't look up an MSDS and proper handling instructions.

This document isn't designed to be the end all, be all of safety instructions for hobbying - it's very important to always be aware of what you're working with and the safe way to use it. These are just some of my own observations and tips to keep yourself healthy while enjoying this hobby.

I urge everyone to read this from start to finish, as things that seem simple may have important notes and enlighten even the most experienced of us. Some of this may seem really obvious, but I've seen/heard some scary suggestions with zero regard for safety. Not everyone's going to follow this, but I feel it's important to be aware of what you're getting into and make that choice yourself.


*UPDATE* I should also mention, I will update this document as a master copy as I find things to change. If you leave comments with suggestions, they may just find themselves worked in with a credit to you.