Identifying, Updating, and Painting a Bucket of 90's Era 40K Orks with Lawnor

The paint job on these models is incomplete at best, poor and damaged at worst so I’ve stripped the paint off before I begin.  I gathered all the orcs (And a couple of other models in need) and put them in an old jam jar and filled it up with straight Dettol and left them for about 30 hours.  24 is the minimum I’d leave for.  Longer is always welcome, but be warned of any plastics or resins.  Always test non metals first as they may dissolve or warp.  Saving sprue for this purpose or asking online is better than destroying your models. I did not risk my plastics this time.  I’ll paint over them.  Their paint is thin enough and I’ve no idea how Dettol safe 27 year old plastics are.

Do not ever dilute the Dettol.  Dettol + Acrylic paint + water = Black sticky tar like goop that you will never remove.

After they’ve had a good long soak I took them outside and scrubbed them down with an old toothbrush, keeping them well away from any water.  If you’ve never done this before and are planning on it you need to do it somewhere you can make a mess and wear clothes you don’t mind ruining.  As you scrub the solution will get filthy fast.  As you scrub you will spray it everywhere no matter how careful you are.  Anywhere it touches will get permanently stained.  You have been warned.

Once again, keep water away from the minis while scrubbing the paint off.  If you add a little water you will have problems, especially if you dunk it back in to the Dettol for a quick swish.  However once you are done you can take the Models to the sink and blast them under the tap and scrub them again (After cleaning that toothbrush as best you can) to clean them off.  Scrubbing in warm soapy water can also be a good idea.  This is safe as you are replacing the Dettol with water really quickly, and not mixing the two together.

When you are done you will have some shiny models, but likely have some black gunk built up in the hard to reach parts.  I’ve always just lived with this and painted over it.  Its been unavoidable.  Recently I’ve been reading online about people stripping paint with the help of an Ultrasonic Cleaner.  I didn’t want to ruin mine by putting the Dettol/paint mix inside it, but I decided to use it now.  I put some hot soapy water in mine and then added the models for a final clean.  I put them through its 3 minute cycle many times while painting something else and they do look a lot better.  It hasn’t gotten everything but its cleaned them up more than I could have manually.  You can see the dirt at the bottom of the baths.

If anyone has tried doing the initial stripping in an Ultrasonic Cleaner I’d love to hear how it went and how clean they got the bath afterwards.  Would you risk cleaning your airbrush in it afterwards?