ECZamurai's custom fig's!

Advertise with us
One sixth kit
shop deals on amazon
Collector Freaks Forum

Help Support Collector Freaks Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Too bad I can't clean this and try again with said medium. I hear green stuff doesn't take well to acetone. Or do you know any other methods of stripping paint?
 
You're looking for acrylic retarder medium.

https://www.aviationmegastore.com/a...lingpaint/product/?action=prodinfo&art=130349

Also, thin your paints to a milky consistency (almost water-like) and slowly, slowly build up the colour. That alone will give you a bit more working time with acrylics, and allow you to correct mistakes before they become unmanageable. As for removing paint, I submerge my parts in Dettol for a day or so, and the paint will become a skin that can be brushed off with a toothbrush or whatever you have.

https://www.holland-at-home.com/en/brands/dettol.html

This was a completely painted 1/4 Predator leg after soaking for a day.



Also, Dettol won't hurt Green Stuff. I've used it to strip Warhammer models that included Green Stuff work.
 
eczamurai said:
How long do you have to wait before painting on a new layer of color using that?
Click to expand...

After letting it sit in the Dettol for a day, you'll need to scrub it with a toothbrush or something to get all of the paint off. Make sure you wear gloves (Dettol will dry your hands out and make them feel slightly numb if you don't), and scrub the head while it's still in the solution. Take it out of the solution, give it a good wipe down with a dry cloth or something to get off as much of the solution as you can. Then give it a good, thorough rinse and wash in soapy water. Dry it off and you're ready to go again.

Two tips. One, when removing the paint, make sure you keep it wet with the Dettol. Don't take it out and try to rinse the loose paint off with water. I did this the first time I tried it, and it just washes the Dettol off and makes the paint re-stick, and you have to dip it again to re-loosen the paint. Two, make sure when you give it the soapy water wash and rinse afterwords that you get ALL of the Dettol off. Thoroughly wash inside any cracks or crevices. If there's any Dettol left on your part it's going to keep your paint from drying and cause a mess.

There are only two cons I've found using this method over the years, and they're not that bad, but you should know anyway. Depending on the plastic you're using, if you leave the parts in too long they can become slightly tinted the colour of the Dettol. A day long dip doesn't hurt, but I forgot I had some predator parts in the dip for about a week, and they came out slightly pink. Could have been a reaction from the plastic, but either way, it was due for a repaint, so the discoloration made no difference. The other thing is the smell. Dettol has a very strong smell, and, invariably, will leave whatever you're dipping smelling like the cleaning product. But then, who doesn't like fresh smelling figures?
 
About vader. Seems like my kaiyodo Resculpting has been for nothing. The hasbro die cast helmet looks near perfect to my eyes with a repaint. Can't wait to have it in hand especially the metal dome they seem to have also nailed.. (Unlike these "big" companies for 100's of dollars) and only for 15 $?!
 
eczamurai said:
Oh I understood that, I was asking how to get the skin tones as smoothe as some painters on here.
Click to expand...

Oh, you meant the retarder medium? Silly me. Depends on how much you use. I put one drop of retarder is a small bit of paint on my pallete, and it was still wet the next day. If you want to use it I would just use a tiny drop, work with it on your sculpt and then use a blow dryer to speed up the drying. That gives you plenty of work time and then a quick dry.

Typically, you don't really need retarder medium unless you're doing wet blending, which is one method, but I'm not too fond of that method myself. Personally, I use just straight paint with a little flow enhancer. Thins the paint, makes it a bit easier to work with and doesn't dry out quite as fast as usual. Not as long as retarder, but not as quickly as straight paint.

I could type out a whole tutorial about how to paint skin, but I would highly recommend, if you want to learn how to paint smooth skin applications, to go to Darren Carnall's Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/DarrenCarnall/posts), subscribe for $3 and learn from one of the best. You'll get to see him paint a head from start to finish and he'll explain everything he does. If you're just using brushes, I can't recommend it enough. I use brushes and airbrushes whenever the job calls for them, but he'll really help you improve your brush work.

As for which Dettol to use, I just use the original antiseptic sort. It comes in 1 liter bottles here, but I can't find it in that size in the Netherlands. I found these 110ml bottles, which should be more than enough to dip your head sculpt. You can dilute it a bit if it's not enough, but it's really strong even when diluted.

https://www.emporiumonnet.nl/beauty_health/dettol/dettol-antiseptic-germicidal.html
 
Wow you went to great length for that! Thank you so much!


20170403_142829-1.jpg

Put han solo on the body untill I get he dettol in. The coat grew on me.. It's the wrong color but it looks nice, well tailored.
 
Alice said:
After letting it sit in the Dettol for a day, you'll need to scrub it with a toothbrush or something to get all of the paint off. Make sure you wear gloves (Dettol will dry your hands out and make them feel slightly numb if you don't), and scrub the head while it's still in the solution. Take it out of the solution, give it a good wipe down with a dry cloth or something to get off as much of the solution as you can. Then give it a good, thorough rinse and wash in soapy water. Dry it off and you're ready to go again.

Two tips. One, when removing the paint, make sure you keep it wet with the Dettol. Don't take it out and try to rinse the loose paint off with water. I did this the first time I tried it, and it just washes the Dettol off and makes the paint re-stick, and you have to dip it again to re-loosen the paint. Two, make sure when you give it the soapy water wash and rinse afterwords that you get ALL of the Dettol off. Thoroughly wash inside any cracks or crevices. If there's any Dettol left on your part it's going to keep your paint from drying and cause a mess.

There are only two cons I've found using this method over the years, and they're not that bad, but you should know anyway. Depending on the plastic you're using, if you leave the parts in too long they can become slightly tinted the colour of the Dettol. A day long dip doesn't hurt, but I forgot I had some predator parts in the dip for about a week, and they came out slightly pink. Could have been a reaction from the plastic, but either way, it was due for a repaint, so the discoloration made no difference. The other thing is the smell. Dettol has a very strong smell, and, invariably, will leave whatever you're dipping smelling like the cleaning product. But then, who doesn't like fresh smelling figures?
Click to expand...

So this method works to remove all paint from pretty much everything - like cast resin as well as the various plastics that Sideshow, HT etc. use for their heads?

Interesting idea - I've never heard this one before.

But yeah - Dettol REALLY stinks and it seems impossible to wash the smell off with soap and water. Maybe leaving it soak in warm soapy bath overnight might get rid of most of the smell.
 
eczamurai said:
Yeah I always used acetone but it destroys the sculpts so I'm glad with alices advice!
Click to expand...

One good thing about a bit of acetone (not too much) is it dries out sculpts so you're less likely to get the shiny/sticky thing happening down the line. I think it's the elastomer in the plastic that eventually returns and bubbles out through the paint (the Sideshow Indy head was notorious for doing that) but a bit of acetone seems to dry out the surface from what I've seen. If it doesn't melt all the finer details I mean.:lol
 
TaliBane said:
So this method works to remove all paint from pretty much everything - like cast resin as well as the various plastics that Sideshow, HT etc. use for their heads?

Interesting idea - I've never heard this one before.

But yeah - Dettol REALLY stinks and it seems impossible to wash the smell off with soap and water. Maybe leaving it soak in warm soapy bath overnight might get rid of most of the smell.
Click to expand...

Dettol won't remove factory paint from my experience. For that I would still use acetone, though, unless a factory paint job is unusually clumpy or textured, I usually just paint right over it. Not sure if it has something to do with how factory paint is sealed or something, but Dettol usually doesn't take it off.

Depending on what material the sculpt is made of can effect how it reacts to acetone. The last head I used acetone on was the Hasbro Ultimate Jango head. It's vinyl, and I used the acetone to shrink it and remove the factory paint in the process, and I had no issues with loss of detail, nor have I had any problems with bubbling paint. I let it thoroughly dry after the acetone dips, and primed it afterwords. It's still primed now, and I've had no issues.

I mostly use Dettol as sort of an eraser for my own paint jobs, or if I get a head or some other part that someone else has painted that I plan to strip and repaint myself. It's always been successful removing "aftermarket" paint jobs from anything I'd tried it on (metal, plastic, resin etc.)

EDIT: Also, the smell of Dettol will eventually lessen over time if left in open air. I have pieces I dipped years ago, that have gotten rid of the smell, but if you put them right under your nose and take a sniff you can still faintly smell it. I haven't used this method on any Dettol dipped parts, because the smell doesn't bother me that much, but any time I've wanted to remove an odour from something I get the part and put it in a sealed tupperware container with a few fabric softener sheets for the dryer. The sheets kind of soak up the smells. I've used this method a lot on various things, such as books or figures I bought from previous owners that were smokers.
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

riky
Looking for custom portraits for Mythos Anakin and Obiwan
Replies
0
Views
357
riky
riky
Fujita
The Rising of the Shield Hero
Replies
1
Views
154
Fujita
Fujita
QuiGonFishing
Hot Toys USB Powered Sabers and Effects
2
Replies
23
Views
2K
Rui Ram
R
urascal
For Sale RAINMAN DRACULA DX SET 1/6 SCALE BRAND NEW GRAIL W/ COA
Replies
1
Views
307
urascal
urascal
Texlander
Detolf back glass suddenly exploded!
2
Replies
34
Views
4K
choombaz
choombaz

Latest posts

Back
Top