I’ve seen this question pop up a couple of times in the last few months, both in our own little group chat and also from the Leeds Heresy Discord server. Well, less of a question and more of a ‘I’ve soaked these resin models in Biostrip¹ and now they’re all melted, goodbye £300 worth of stuff’.
This led to an interesting thought as I looked over some mk4 Destroyer’s that could do with a repaint. How? Soaking in Biostrip was obviously not the method to choose here. I like to have models left at the end of this and not gloop.

Enter AK Paint Stripper. I’ve heard reasonable things about it, watched a couple of videos on it being used to clean off a panel from a Warlord Titan and 5 minutes later Amazon was tracking an order to be delivered the next day. Now to actually test it out.

What Tools Do You Need?

• An old tupperware box. One you’re not going to use again
• An old toothbrush
• A mug of warm soapy water (not pictured)
• Kitchen roll / paper
• The models to strip
• AK Paint Stripper
• Music of choice (personally I had Spotify on random)
• Hands

I have All the Tools, Now What?

There’s really two methods I used to strip these models down. One I’m calling the ‘Pour It’ and the Other the ‘Soak It’. These names will be obvious very, very quickly. Apologies now for the pictures as some of them may not capture all the actions I took, I only have 1 pair of hands²

Pour It

• First get the model you’re going strip and the AK Paint Stripper bottle (obviously open this first, you’re going to struggle to do anything it it’s still sealed).
• Gently, lightly pour a little splash of the stripper onto the model, remembering to hold it above the container so it can collect what drips off.
• Turn the model over and repeat the little pour of stripper again (assuming you’re stripping the entire thing)
• Get the toothbrush and start to gently rub the model
• Notice that the paint will start to ‘scratch’ off. This is fine, you’re not doing any damage to the underlying model.
• Repeat the steps above, maybe pour a little more Stripper onto the model as you’re going.
• By this stage you may have collected a nice little reservoir of stripper in the container. Shake the toothbrush in it and re-apply (don’t worry about, there is more of the stripper than paint in what has dripped off).
• Continue until the model is fully stripped or down to where you’re happy to leave it. You’ll notice on a lot of the marines I stripped that they’re not fully clean. This is a light layer of paint that has stuck around some of the joints or harder to reach areas that I can easily cover when I re-basecoat the model and doesn’t affect the detail.
• Now shake the model in that mug of warm soapy water. You’re wanting to get all of the stripper residue off.
• You can also run the model under a tap as well (I did more out of wanting to be sure than anything else)
• Tap/Pat the model down with kitchen roll.
• Move onto the next model and repeat the process from the top.
  And that’s it. Depending on how thorough you’re being each marine-sized model is takes between 5 and 10 minutes to strip like this.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Yes I was using gloves when I started, but they’re the same ones I use when airbrushing and they started to feel a little sticky. So go gloveless or use something different if you have sensitive skin to the chemicals in paint stripper.

Soak It (ie: the Classic Method)

There is going to be some duplication of steps here.

• Pour the Stripper into a suitable container -or- using the run-off that you’ve collected from pouring the stripper over models already
• Dunk a marine in the container. You know that whole’ soak in Biostrip’ thing that has gone around the community for years now. Yes we’re doing that.
• Yes I know I said we’re not going to do that. Wait. No, listen.. just wait.
• I mean it. Wait. Put on the kettle. Make a cup of tea. Done? Right so maybe 5 minutes have passed here ³
• Pick up the model and the toothbrush and start to scratch/rub off the paint
• Continue until the model is fully stripped or down to where you’re happy to leave it.
• Dip it back into the solution, shake a little, repeat with the brush.
• Now shake the model in that mug of warm soapy water. You’re wanting to get all of the stripper residue off.
• You can also run the model under a tap as well (yes this was copied from above)
• Tap/Pat the model down with kitchen roll.
• Move onto the next model and repeat the process from the top.
  

  

  

  

  The important thing here, and I’m going to emphasize this, is that you do not leave the models to soak for 2 days/weeks/months. 3 minutes.
  Maybe 5. Tops.

Result Time

And that’s it really. Both methods got the same good results

Is there still some residue left over from the previous paint job? Yes. Could I re-do the steps I did to get them to this stage so they’re all completely cleaned up? Yes. Am I going to? Well no, because these models are in a state where I can start again with an undercoat and basecoat without worrying about the loss of detail from painting over multiple dried on layers already.

All 10 of these models, including the jump packs, were done in about 90 minutes start to finish. Now they’re sitting at the airbrush desk waiting for an undercoat while I continue with the side project of Hot Pink Knights.
Until next time, if I don’t see you before you see me and all that.

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1. If you get nothing else from this post, please take away this. Do. Not. Leave. Resin. Models. Soaking. In. Biostrip. ↩︎

2. Unless I was a Genestealer, right Ben? ↩︎

3. Once all the models are stripped then you have my permission to drink that tea you just made for yourself. ↩︎