Unto the Breach was kind enough to send me a bottle of Paint Blitzer to try out since it's now shipping to the USA. I have to admit, I've been eyeballing it online for awhile and was a bit jealous of the hobbyists in the UK who had access to it. It just seemed so much more effective than the options I had over here. There weren't a ton of choices in the US when it came to stripping paint off models that would work for both metal and plastic minis. A lot of what worked best would damage plastic minis, so those were pretty much non-starters. I've been using Simple Green for years, and while it does the job, it's definitely not the best. I would have to let the models sit in it for a long time, and it NEVER got all of the paint off, especially on plastic models.
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| The test subjects |
Paint Blitzer has been specifically formulated to strip paint from minis, so it already has a huge advantage. Simple Green is just a cleaning solution that happens to do the job. I was also really excited that Paint Blitzer said it could just be poured down the sink after use.
With my bottle of Paint Blitzer in hand I picked my models to try it out on. I had two Bonereaper models I had painted up for tutorials and as a tester that I wasn't going to do anything more with, at least not in those schemes. By stripping them I would be able to reuse them in my actual Bonereaper army with my normal color scheme. I also wanted to try this on a metal model, so I found a spare Lord of the Rings Harradrim model from back in the day.
The instructions are really simple. I grabbed a cup I didn't mind using, dropped the models into it, shook the bottle up a bit, then poured the Paint Blitzer over them until they were covered. The instructions said that they had to sit in the Paint Blitzer for a minimum of 30 minutes, and a maximum of two hours for the plastic and three hours for the metal. Around 50 minutes later I came back for the next step.
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| The model right after I pulled it out of the cup and then after it was scrubbed, but before rinsing it. |
Once you're ready to actually get the paint off the models you simply remove the models from the Paint Blitzer, scrub them with a toothbrush, then rinse them off in cold water. I think I spent about five to ten minutes scrubbing each model. The paint came off incredibly easy. It kind of forms a paint sludge on the model as you're scrubbing, but it's pretty easy to see where it's being removed, especially on the metal model. Just a note here, I used a glove just to avoid the mess, but you don't actually need one as this stuff isn't harmful to your skin. This is WAY easier than Simple Green ever was. I feel like I have to scrub twice as long and twice as hard for half the results with Simple Green.
Once all of the models were stripped I simply poured out the Paint Blitzer I used into the sink. What was left in the cup clearly had diluted paint in it, and the instructions don't recommend reusing it since it won't be as effective.
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| Ready to join my purple and gold Bonereapers |
I did go in with a dental pick to get the paint out of some of the harder to reach spots on the models. The Bonereapers have tons of little pockets and dents in them that the toothbrush just couldn't get to. The good news though is that the paint in these areas came out really easily with the dental pick as well. In the end I was left with three models that had almost no paint left on them. I didn't bother going in with the dental pick on the Lord of the Rings model since I don't plan to actually repaint it anytime soon, so that's why there is still a bit of paint in some of the nooks on him.
The actual Paint Blitzer mixture is a kind of milky white liquid, which looks a little odd, but there's no denying it works well! For a paint stripper it actually smells surprisingly okay too. It doesn't have any harsh chemical smells at all. The one thing I didn't test out was a resin model. The instructions say that you can't leave these in any longer than 30 minutes or you might damage the model. I didn't have a spare resin model I wanted to try and strip, so I'll have to give that a shot in the future. If you're looking for a good paint stripper then I highly recommend Paint Blitzer. It's worked the best out of anything I've ever used, and is the least harsh chemically. As well as sending me the bottle for free to try out, Unto the Breach was also kind enough to set up a special code for YOU to use to get 10% off your total order of Paint Blitzer!
MENGEL10
That code is good until the end of May and like I said, he's now shipping to the U.S. as well! You can buy your own bottle here, and then simply enter the code above during checkout!
Until next time,
Tyler M.
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