Garden Railway Forum

I'm wanting to strip some models back to bare plastic/ white metal, would nitromors be ok to use on plastic and white metal parts (mainly beenie wagons, coopercraft kits). A change of livery is needed

Hello Jon.

I've never used Nitromoors so I don't know.

I have had good results on plastic models in the past with caustic soda. Be careful of splashes and don't breathe the fumes.

If no one can give you a definitive answer, before you proceed, test your chosen paint stripper on a small inconspicuous area first.

Success or failure will also depend on what type of paint you're removing.

Ian

Ive used it to strip paint on Mamod models before, and worked well, not used on plastic yet so thought id ask

JCSteam:119589 wrote:I'm wanting to strip some models back to bare plastic/ white metal, would nitromors be ok to use-

Painted plastic.
Is the present paint finish good enough to paint over? If so paint over it.

If you have to strip and repaint you will need to know what types of paint you are trying to remove. Your stripper will need to be able to remove all the layers without damaging the plastic. If the layers on the model consist of a variety of paint types all the paint types will have to be considered.

White metal.
Within reason, try it and see but be prepared to clean up the mess.

Hope this is ok.

The paint is a mix of humbrol enamels, and celulose, some of the paint has started to peel, on one wagon, the paint reacted, and bubbled up, at the time I wasn't too fussed as the wagon was for display on an abandoned bit of the old line, and in this case helped, but to repaint some of the wagons, the paints in quiet a bad way, so will need stripping back.

JCSteam:119589 wrote:would nitromors be ok to use on plastic and white metal parts

There are two types of Nitromors it seems. One version is mostly methylene chloride according to the MSDS, so it will turn injection moulded plastic parts of kits such as Binnie's and Coopercraft into a sticky sludge. There is also a methylene chloride free version, but the solvent in that will also dissolve the plastics used in injection moulded kits.

It won't effect whitemetal itself to any marked extent, but if the whitemetal was glued together with superglue, or epoxy, it can attack the glue and convert the model back into individual castings.

There are specialist paint strippers available for plastics which are available in some hobby shops, but the results are variable and depend on the type of paint that is being stripped. I use oven cleaner for stripping plastics, it removes enamels easily, but isn't as good for acrylic paints.

The only type of model that could be paint stripped without damage by Nitromors would be one constructed from soldered metal. It might also be suitable to use on some wood models, but it would depend on the glue used.

If the existing coat of paint is in good condition and you just want to change the colour, then give the model a good clean and paint over what is already there.

Regards,
Graeme

Thanks Graeme, that answers that question! Will look for some other paint strippers

I have had good results with brake fluid on plastic models. Check an inconspicuous area first and obay all the relevant 'elfansaftey requirements. As an ex mechanic i can confirm brake fluid is one of the nastier things to get on your skin and it has a habit of attacking some protective gloves.
It does shift aged enamel paint but can take some time to work (can be days) you may find you have to use two or three doses as it does lose its efficacy quite quickly.

Big Jim:119607 wrote:I have had good results with brake fluid on plastic models. Check an inconspicuous area first and obay all the relevant 'elfansaftey requirements. As an ex mechanic i can confirm brake fluid is one of the nastier things to get on your skin and it has a habit of attacking some protective gloves.
It does shift aged enamel paint but can take some time to work (can be days) you may find you have to use two or three doses as it does lose its efficacy quite quickly.

One solution to this is to put the brake fluid and model into a plastic bag and seal it - the fluid won't evaporate and you can keep on giving it a prod and a stir until you see some effect. Then, an an old tooth brush comes in handy to get the remains of the paint off.

I'm a bit hesitant about using brake fluid, especially as I mostly work inside the house, ive already got a large brasso stain on my carpet, (later found out it contains ammonium, and bleached the carpet) from polishing a mamod stationary boiler, I think brake fluid is asking for a disaster in my home

I've used brake fluid before and it sounds worse than it is, what I did is submerged a plastic kit in it and left it for a day and the paint [humbrol) just fell off. Believe me nitromors is far more smelly and nasty to deal with.
John

I have had some success with acetone applied with a toothbrush. It can be bought very cheaply as nail Polish remover, but make sure it's acetone based remover. Some proudly boast "acetone free".

Nitromors would be a disaster. I decanted some into a margarine container for use and the plastic container rapidly dissolved.

Just coming back to this this thread, I can get acetone from work in a fairly pure form,Roofing grade! I assume this would be sufficient to strip the plastic kits I have of paint without dissolving the plastic?

It depends on the plastic, acetone will melt most styrene based plastics and while not as effective as MEL can be used as a plastic weld glue. We occasionally have a bit of fun at work buiding stuff using acetone and disposable plasticwear

don't use nitromous it will melt the plastic .brake fluid will work iv seen it used on lexan rc car shells that are very thin plastic and it works a treat

My Dad uses brake fluid to de-paint his plastic OO scale models. It seems to work very well, as others have said. He puts the model and the fluid in a disposable aluminium loaf tin and then puts a plastic shopping bag over it and leaves it for a day or two. The paint just falls off. He cleans it up with a soft toothbrush.

I can understand not wanting to use it in the house, but is it really worse than nitromors or acetone? Imagine what those things will do to the carpet!

Be aware that a lot of high end paint strippers will attack plastic bigtime.

In my case I use BioStrip which eats anything in warm temperatures. I'd sprayed Halfords acrylic onto a Newqida plastic coach body and screwed up - out came the BioStrip - supposedly totally environment friendly and nontoxic [unless swallowed] = it turned the top layer of the plastic into a green sludge.

You're going to have to tread very carefully here. Could you not just sand them down and paint over them?

We have used plain Detol disinfectant in the past and it works OK. You have to leave it for a while to fully strip the paint.

Wow - didn't know it was that strong!