Removing paint from miniatures with Dettol

[Sjeng]

Well, I've tried the Dettol method, and it works like a charm. Smells horrible though, but it did the job:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP9w6YA3LuA

This is my recently purchased DragonStrike set. Incomplete and some miniatures missing unfortunately, but I really only wanted the boards anyway. Some mini's are okay, some look horrible lol, but I'm gonna paint em anyway.



The stuff is damn expensive here in the Netherlands. €10,- for this bottle.


After putting the mini's in Dettol for about 24 hours, lightly brush off the paint with an old toothbrush, do not use water! Water will clump the paint and mess thing up badly. Only rinse the mini's off with water after you've removed all the paint.


You can reuse the Dettol, if you sift it through an old piece of cloth. The cloth will catch the paint.

[MortiS-the-Lost]

Excellent stuff Sjeng!

I've been meaning to do a proper write-up of the use of dettol for a while now - but it looks like you got it covered.
I have re-titled this made it an article in it's own right

The only thing I feel the need to add is quick warning to anyone who has any of the games from the Dark-World series by Waddingtons


The miniatures from the Dark-World games, cannot be stripped using Dettol, it reduces them to a melty, rubbery mess!

 ^ Once a Darkworld Dwarf and Zombie, now a smooshy mess

This, I suspect, is because Dettol softens Acrylic (which is why it strips Acrylic Paint) and the miniatures may have been made in Acrylic or a similar plastic. Please note these are the only miniatures I have had this happen with and pretty much every other company makes their plastic miniatures from styrene which is not effected by Dettol.

Please note I have not yet had chance to test Dettol on miniatures from Fantasy Flight Games, which I understand are made from PVC. I am also not sure about the plastic Privateer Press use from some of their WarMachine miniatures.

[Vamper]

Cool looking game! I've also used Dettol on some space crusade minis and it worked great. 95% of the paint rinsed off under running water and the last tiny specs that were left in some of the crevices came off with the help of a toothpick.    You don't even need that much dettol if you are patient enough to do a just few minis at a time. Whats left in the bottle you can use to cleaning up cuts, abrasions and disinfecting the toilet! very useful stuff, google "uses for dettol".

[Warlord Bhaird]

Thanks for posting this Dettol paint removal solution.
Made the mistake of spraypainting some of my armies due to laziness.
Question: if you left the minis in the Dettol for longer than 24 hours would the paint removal be more comprehensive?

Love the 'Dwarf/Zombie Chaos Spawn' picture, the melting was an unexpected result but that seriously looks usable!

[Sjeng]

Warlord Bhaird wrote

Question: if you left the minis in the Dettol for longer than 24 hours would the paint removal be more comprehensive?

I don't know, but it already works pretty well after a much shorter period. And you can always brush off what you can after say 4 hours or so, and if that's not satisfactory, just dump 'em back in again.

[Alcidas]

Dettol can also be used on brushes that are getting a bit stiff due to repeated use with acrylics. Have done this a couple of times.