Best way to remove dry paint

[virginhst539]

Very Red face moment here, I left a small amount of paint in the cup of my airbrush and it is now dry, have tryed soaking in paint thinner for an hour but no luck. Any ideas?

[Ray H]

Enamel or Acrylic?

[DLT]

Mekpak, as used for sticking plasticard is a very efficient paintstripper for enamel or acrylic.  

I use it to restore dried up paintbrushes, and I've occasionally stripped a badly painted model with it.

Hope this helps,

Dave.

[AngryMeerkat]

Mekpak, as used for sticking plasticard is a very efficient paintstripper for enamel or acrylic.  

I use it to restore dried up paintbrushes, and I've occasionally stripped a badly painted model with it.

Hope this helps,

Dave.

I'd be careful putting that stuff in an airbrush, it will eat the seals in no time. Handy tip about the paint brushes though!

 

If it's acrylic paint that's dried in there, some airbrush cleaner will remove it. I use the aerosol stuff from Hobbycraft, bit expensive at £6 a tin but worth the money for the job it does.

 

If it's enamel, then you'll need some time and patience. Strip the airbrush and again use the airbrush cleaner. Agitate it with a cleaning brush, you get them in packs of 5 usually, always handy to have. Go through the airbrush in parts, clean the needle, then the nozzle, then the cup and mixing chamber. It will take time, enamel is a hard paint and once dry is reasonably resistant to solvents.

 

Don't be tempted to use an abrasive tool to clean your airbrush, it will do more harm than good. Your airbrush is smooth metal for a reason - it's much harder for paint to bond to a perfectly smooth surface. If you use an abrasive brush (wire brush for example) or a sharp object, you will scratch the surface of the airbrush. It won't matter right now, but next time you try and clean it you'll be cursing yourself!

 

Mark

[virginhst539]

It's rail match so looks like I'm in for a bit of a battle with it, have tried thinners with no luck

[petethemole]

Fairy Power Spray is becoming recognised as an effective paint stripper for enamels, so would be worth a try.

[Pugsley]

Cellulose thinners will shift it with no trouble.  The only trouble you may have is getting hold of any, but a specialist auto paint supplier should be able to supply.

 

HTH

[virginhst539]

Yeah thanks for the idea, another idea I had was nail varnish remover

[TheWeatheringMan]

Yeah thanks for the idea, another idea I had was nail varnish remover

Hi,

Sorry to hear what's happened.

Firstly don't bother with nail varnish remover -acetone is not a good solvent of paint -nail varnishes are a very different formulation. The acetone free versions are totally useless for this purpose.

Do not, repeat do not use mekpak in an airbrush ever -as correctly pointed out by a poster above it will cause extensive damage to the synthetic seals in the airbrush.

As to stripping a model off with Methyl Ethyl Ketone this can only work on a metal model for obvious reasons.

MEK should never be used for any application such as stripping paint as it is highly volatile and the amount of vapour such an operation would cause is extremely likely to cause at best violent nausea and at worst serious lung and or brain damage.

 

The advice regarding cellulose thinner is good and this can be obtained easily from Halfords.

Cellulose thinner should clean out enamel paint without trouble and will with a slower action eventually break down acrylic paint.

Please be aware that most cellulose thinners including Halfords  contain Xylene. This is carcinogenic either through skin contact or breathing the vapour so take sensible care when using.

 

Once again we have mentioned the use of household cleaners/chemicals to remove paint - these 'discoveries' will lead to a lot of very unhappy modellers over the coming years as many a model suffers irreversible damage.

Many cleaning chemicals might remove paint to some extent - some will and some won't.

What many of them will also do is to cause (sometimes invisible) chemical damage or changes to the surface of the plastic. The result of this will be break down and degrading of the plastic after a period of time that cannot be reversed resulting in destruction of the model. Another common result of this process is warping.

These so called wonderful 'discoveries' contain chemicals that are often incomparable with polystyrene - the reason some can attack paint is why they will also damage plastic.

Remember that for years modellers lubricated models with 'three in one' type oils and after some time damage became apparent - only then did someone point out that oils of that type contain aromatic hydrocarbons - one of which is Xylene ! - contained in cellulose thinner and able to dissolve paints AND polystyrene.

 

I do very much hope you get your airbrush clean - I've made the same error several times and have used cellulose thinner to clean it.

Regards

[virginhst539]

Went up the attic to attack said try paint with what ever chemicals I could find in the many boxes and happened to find a good size bottle cellulose thinners. Half an hour later the paint had started to flake off the sides. Thanks for the advice everyone. Hopefully get a normal east coast grey DVT sorted for 91110 soon now it's back to working order

[virginhst539]

Also that is most likely nothing but I did get some of the cellulose thinners on my hands, having never used this I don't know if this is a problem. Did wash my hands shortly after so don't think it should be to much of a problem

[TheWeatheringMan]

Also that is most likely nothing but I did get some of the cellulose thinners on my hands, having never used this I don't know if this is a problem. Did wash my hands shortly after so don't think it should be to much of a problem

Hi,

Firstly please put your mind at rest - what you have done is too small an exposure to cause any long term effects I assure you.

Just check that you don't see any sign of a little bit of dry skin - the cellulose thinner can de-fat the skin but again your small exposure is unlikely to have done this - however if you do see a small amount of this simply rub a small amount of hand cream into the area and all will be well with no lasting effect. In the absence of hand cream a little margarine, butter or cooking oil will sort your skin out, then wash hands.

 

All of the above is just a precaution. I doubt that you have done any harm.

As a trained paint chemist (retired) I have done just the same occasionally and haven't suffered any real problem ever.

It would require a much greater exposure to and contact with Xylene to be dangerous - my original warning was simply airing on the side of safety - I'm sorry if it worried you, that wasn't my intention on any way.

 

I hope that this will enable other fellow modellers who might need to use cellulose thinner to do so without worry.

 

The best thing of all is knowing that you have rescued your airbrush - its a pleasure to know that.

 

Regards

[virginhst539]

Thaught so, thanks for that. A product I would never have heard of until coming on here and it's worked a treat

[TheWeatheringMan]

Thaught so, thanks for that. A product I would never have heard of until coming on here and it's worked a treat

Hi,

You are very welcome - a pleasure to have been able to offer some help.

Regards

[cobach47]

if you can strip the airbrush down you could try mr muscle oven cleaner, i have used it many times to remove enamels. put the parts in a self-seal bag and leave it overnight, if the seals are not rubber they may be o.k. but new seals should be available if needed. When i clean my airbrush i usually leave the nozzle and needle out

as a little bit of residue can stick them together, when you use it next time just re-assemble and blow it through with a drop of thinners.

 

[Modelling Martin]

I can recommend not using paint stripper designed for wood! Tried it once on a loco and melted the plastic, was not a pretty sight afterwards. It was ok though, the model was destined to be heavily weathered and was a dummy old Hornby one that only cost a couple of quid. 

 

Gary

[TheWeatheringMan]

I can recommend not using paint stripper designed for wood! Tried it once on a loco and melted the plastic, was not a pretty sight afterwards. It was ok though, the model was destined to be heavily weathered and was a dummy old Hornby one that only cost a couple of quid. 

 

Gary

Hi,

Please everyone DO take notice of the above post.

As I've pointed out several times in the past paint strippers most commonly available in DIY shops contain an active chemical called Methylene Chloride - its this that attacks the paint.

Meth Chloride is sold within the model trade as 'plastic weld' - one of the most powerful plastic solvent welders (glue) available.

No real surprise then that it attacks and dissolves plastic models if used to strip paint from them.

 

There are now so called 'safe' paint strippers available but these do in most cases contain chemicals that will cause irreversible and irreparable damage to the surface of the plastic so stay well away from them for use on models.

The same comment applies also to the use of household cleaners and liquids such as Dettol - long term damage to a model will likely result due to the presence of curtain chemicals in these liquids.

 

Thanks are due to the OP for raising this matter again and hopefully saving fellow modellers from much upset.

 

Regards