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Fairy Power Spray no longer good as a paint stripper?


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I always used to use Fairy Power Spray to strip both factory and enamel/acrylic paint from plastic models. Sealed in a plastic baggie, with occasional attacks from an old toothbrush, it usually took most paint and decals off within an hour or two. Some stubborn colours perhaps needed an overnight bath in it. 

 

I recently used up the last of the bottle I had been using (might have been 5 or more years old) and started using a more recently purchased one, which is "New Citrus Scented!". However, after leaving a Märklin wagon in a bag with it for three hours, there was no sign of any paint moving at all. Hard scrubbing took off a tiny bit of one of the colours, but most refused to budge. I'm used to paint peeling off in large layers when left in this stuff. Is the new nice smelling formulation just no good for our purposes anymore?

 

I resorted to Dettol, which did eventually work, but seemed to take a lot more elbow grease with the toothbrush, and left some sticky residue in some places that has been very hard to shift. (The Fairy Power Spray did at least work a bit better at shifting the Dettol stickiness!).

 

Are there other recommendations for household products as paintstripper? I've heard Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner mentioned - is this really safe on plastic?

 

Justin 

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49 minutes ago, GWR-fan said:

100% isopropyl alcohol is apparently an excellent stripper (available online in 5 litre containers).   For small areas my son uses "Isocol" mouth wash.

Hi

 

I’ve tried the IPA approach and it didn’t really touch the factory finish on the Farish class 24 I was trying to strip. Did remove the numbers though so maybe a method for renumbering without a full respray.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

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I've had great success with Dettol, good for removing paint off diecast cars, and safe on most plastics I've tried. Submerge the item in a bath of the stuff, leave overnight and scrub with a toothbrush next day. Hornby, Bachmann and Farish loco bodies have been done this way.

 

Nigel L

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On 09/08/2021 at 16:11, justin1985 said:

I resorted to Dettol, which did eventually work, but seemed to take a lot more elbow grease with the toothbrush, and left some sticky residue in some places that has been very hard to shift.

 

You might find that this is actually the plastic itself disintegrating?

 

3 hours ago, Lemmy282 said:

I've had great success with Dettol, good for removing paint off diecast cars, and safe on most plastics I've tried.

 

I soaked a Bachmann wagon body and unfortunately the entire moulding softened and became 'sticky' and virtually disintegrated.  Use with caution.

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17 hours ago, YesTor said:

 

You might find that this is actually the plastic itself disintegrating?

 

 

I soaked a Bachmann wagon body and unfortunately the entire moulding softened and became 'sticky' and virtually disintegrated.  Use with caution.

That's interesting, never had that happen, in fact today I put a Bachmann slope sided mineral in some Dettol, and the paint came off in about an hour with a bit of scrubbing with a toothbrush, and no damage to the plastic.

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I am finding all the variants of paint stripper these days are less effective these days than the same types I have used previously. That is on both domestic paint and metal bodied models (Not attempted a plastic model strip recently). I suspect some form of deliberate government regulatory reduction in effectiveness to reduce accidental problems. Guessing the same applies with domestic cleaning agents too.

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Thanks for all the replies.

 

On 21/09/2021 at 01:56, YesTor said:

 

You might find that this is actually the plastic itself disintegrating?

 

The wagon stripped with Dettol (Märklin) did clean up well in the end, so I'm not sure if the stickiness was melting plastic, or perhaps one of the components of the original paint that wasn't being dissolved as well as the pigments etc? 

 

On 18/08/2021 at 10:34, PaulCheffus said:

I’ve tried the IPA approach and it didn’t really touch the factory finish on the Farish class 24 I was trying to strip. Did remove the numbers though so maybe a method for renumbering without a full respray.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

 

That is a good tip for renumbers! I wonder if the same is true with Bachmann/Farish printed sector logos etc?

 

Perhaps with all these changes it is time to bite the bullet and buy commercial plastic safe paint strippers? Modelling ones do seem very expensive though! 

 

Has anyone been brave enough to try decorating type paint strippers on plastic models? They do at least seem to be a bit more transparent about their active ingredients ... 

 

J

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