Hi there,
Dettol works great for me! And you can both use it on plastic and metal miniatures (don't know about finecast).
So, here's how you use it, take a plastic box, like those who have ice cream in it, depends on how many models you want to strip.
Just pore in the Dettol, you don't have to water it down, oh well, I don't do that, don't know about anyone else..
Let the models soak for about a day, it'll take a while. Once you decide to strip them, just put them under running water, most of the paint will run of this way, if not, like in corners, or places covered with mail etc, you could use an old toothbrush, be careful with plastic models, they'll break easily this way (like Rohan spears and such).

After you stripped them, let them soak in water for a while, so all of the Dettol will be gone. Also, don't start painting them immediately, let them rest for a day (or two) after you've put them in water, just to make sure everything's gone.

Hope this helps, good luck!


Jorn.

Thanks!

Does it still work when watered down (because that would save me a lot of dettol)?

Dettol doesn't work on plastics!! It eats them!!

I've left metal models in dettol for months and it's done them no harm. I reckon a bottle of dettol will do me 50 models at least.

What size of bottle? Because I sure do hope I can get more out of a 1 litre one!

I do find that the paint can turn into a very sticky black gloop

This happens to me too, tends to only happen in the deepest grooves though.

As for a 'limit' I don't think there is a limit as such unless you get water in the solution. Obviously because of all the paint coming off the mixture becomes very dark and murky and difficult to see what you've got in there. Thats usually why I start afresh rather than because the mixture has stopped stripping the paint.

I think the black paste is the basecoat from the model - it's harder to remove a basecoat then the paint itself