Tamiya 1/350 USS Missouri Hull Painting Issues

There are all sorts of paint strippers, both commercial and home brew.

I like a product called Chameleon, available in the past from Squadron. 

But there's many others specific to plastic models.

AFA home brews, EZ Off or other cleaners with lye will do the trick.

Bill

Thanks Bill;

I can't seem to find a source for Chameleon here in the states.  I see a lot of talk about brake fluid.  I am sure it will be a lot better than to try and sand it off but since Alcald is a lacquer based I was not sure that anything would remove it.  I may not need to take it down that far anyway.  I just want to fix the top coat.

Thanks again.  Any other ideas would be a big help thanks.

So I got a post on another forum suggesting an air eraser.  A mini sand blaster using baking soda. Harbor freight has one for like $27.  I think I'm gonna try that route. If it works no chemicals and it should be pretty quick. Anybody else do this?  I had never heard of it.  

It sounds like interesting idea and one that might be worth considering, iif it works.

I imagine this would best be used outside where the sprayed material would just blow away and not get into or onto things best left alone.  Let us know how it goes.

They use soda blasting in the full size world.  You'll have to move pretty quickly to avoid creating bigger problems.

I'd create a test panel with the same materials in the same order to try it out before commiting to a model.

Water alone won't neutralize, you'll have to wash down with white vinegar.  We were never told that on the first one, and had to strip and start from bare metal again, on a full size pickup.

That's good to know on neutralizing.  I have some spare parts all painted up to test first.  Being new to this I have to remove paint and start over from time to time. Hope this works out. 

Concur with the air eraser.  Common household baking soda is a good grit, non-toxic and plentiful, easy on plastic.  Use the air eraser outdoors or in the garage; air erasing can be messy.  The paint being stripped may be harmful so wear a mask.

Yep mask and garage for sure. Wife's already not crazy about the paint booth in the house. I'll post up some pictures if it works out. I did a little sanding last night and that's going to be a long process. Hope this is faster.  

Well, how's it going .  .  . are your efforts being successful?

The reason I ask is also that I'm wondering what the differences are between the version you are building and say the hull of the 'modernized' version of New Jersey. You see, I just happen to have a Tamiya 1/350 modernized New Jersey hull that I'm probably not going to be using .  .  .         Just a thought.

Well yes and no. The baking soda worked good.  No damage to the plastic at all. The down side is its slow. Way to slow to do anything other than hard to get spots and small parts. I ended up making a dip tank and soaking in iso.   That did the trick. Pretty much down to bare plastic now.  

Thanks for the offer on the hull. I think I'm in good shape with this one.