OT: paint stripping

No idea. You might try the alt.home.repair group. Some practical minded people there.

onsdag den 19. august 2020 kl. 21.14.37 UTC+2 skrev bitrex:

just paint over the it?

Hard to be sure how it will affect the plastic medium to long term.

ISTR that the low molecular weight alcohols will cause serious stress corrosion cracking with methanol being the worst by far and ethanol might be ok or might soften or weaken it.

Some paints cross link on curing so they are no longer soluble in the medium that they were previously dissolved in as a paint.

Test it on a single sacrificial piece first to see what works best.

alcohol will attack acrylic, was acrylic paint used?

caustic soda is probalby also worth a try,

acetone is best avoided.

Yeah I got a piece I can lose. I'll report my results...I could just paint over it but errrgh. Too much paint after it's primed and the new paint is applied, lose detail

Acetone is pretty harsh stuff, I only use it for a PCB that has some really stubborn gunk on it and have to keep it far from any plastics as it seems to attack a lot of them. denatured ethanol is my go-to for light PCB cleaning

The isopropyl actually worked really well on my test piece, N scale heavyweight coach by Rivarossi. Better than I was expecting.

About 8 hours soak and the paint starts sliding right off, a good scrub with a toothbrush is then enough to take it down to the bare plastic without much trouble. It's not an aggressive stripper tho and doesn't seem to harm the plastic at all.

Leave it a week or two before you do another one just in case. I think IPA should be OK so long as there is no methanol in it.

My engines are Hornby OO and and 3.5" gauge live steam.

With a little work and some new trucks and details these Model Power heavyweight coaches:

Aren't a bad likeness for the New Haven's 1930s-era coaches, seen here awaiting scrapping at Boston South Station in the late 60s sometime, probably:

At $8 per NOS on the 'bay though they need new paint jobs

The Prudential Tower rear left was the tallest building in the world outside New York City when it was finished in 1964 remarkably enough, doesn't even rank in the top 50 in the US, now...