I had a major painting failure over the weekend which left me with a dead Spitfire. Very occasionally I will use the airbrush and the paint will not adhere. It comes off as a sort of powder. This happened with the upper ocean grey/dark green camo coat and left the model a mess. Efforts to fix it just made it worse.

I was about to consign it to the bin when I thought of stripping the paint and starting again. The underlying model had gone together well. Astonishingly, as well as oven cleaner and brake fluid, someone suggested Dettol (a disinfectant). Since I had it readily to hand, in it went.

So far it seems to be working. All the grey is off after less than an hour, and the green is loosening around the edges.

Has anyone else tried this? What were your results?

This is the result so far...

Hi Harry,

I recall the problem. It was only by accident that I discovered the discribed technique with disinfectant. It works perfectly with acrylic paints (Vallejo), and I regurarly use it. There are several brands at local cosmetic shop, and I stick to the gel (which is easy to apply and stand on the model for awhile). This proved to work every time for me, and it doesn't only remove the paint... it disinfect it as well!

So, i tried it.... and it really works without any downsides. However, I would be very careful to advise it before I see the actual chemistry behind it (I suppose mine was alchohol based solution)

All the best,
Entoni