# Hydrochloric acid as a paint stripper



## BiOHaTe

I was wondering, since hydrochloric acid which is stored in plastic would be an alternative to removing paint from plastic models. 

What do you think? also in breaking bad they used Hydro fluoric acid to melt bodies yet safe for a certain plastic.


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## BiOHaTe

on another note i stupidly based my models with hardcore gloss paint, not realising it would be thicker then normal modelling undercoats. Simple green is having a hard time removing it and each model takes ages to scrub to the plastic. 

I may have to try methylated spirits, oven clearner or break fluid. But i want to know if these acids are actually safe on 40k plastic.


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## BloodAngelZeros

I'm going with this will not turn out well.


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## The Son of Horus

NO. This is a HORRIBLE idea. 

I wouldn't touch HCl unless you're a trained chemist. Dilute (10% HCl/Water) HCl will damage surfaces, your skin, and will dissolve your fingernails. It won't have any effect on acrylic paint. It -might- strip enamels, though. 

Basically, for your own safety, stick to Simple Green/Dettol, and don't play with hydrochloric acid.


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## BloodAngelZeros

If you do decide to use HCl, do as was mentioned and use a dilute solution. When diluting, be sure to add the acid to the water and not vice versa. Otherwise, you'll create a violent reaction that cause the acid to boil violently and splash everywhere.


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## BiOHaTe

At my work we have diluted hydrochloric acid in 9% so I'm not worried about that. I just saw some videos on a guy using fairy oven cleaner on gloss paint and it came off really easy. Still it would be cool to see if the plastic melts or doesn't in acid.


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## OIIIIIIO

This so reminds me of a news story that NPR had on the air in the middle of winter in the early 90's. A guy in Cleveland had a wonderful idea. It was well below freezing and he was worried that his gasoline line would freeze.

Bright fella poured 2 gallons of gas into a rather large pot to heat it up on the stove. When he turned the knob to ignite the FUCKING BURNER .... it caught fire and burned his house down. My question was always this .... Why??? You know that gasoline is like, super fucking flammable .... WHY?!?

On topic: This will end with a trip to the ER ...... alllllllll bad.


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## Archon Dan

OIIIIIIO said:


> This so reminds me of a news story that NPR had on the air in the middle of winter in the early 90's. A guy in Cleveland had a wonderful idea. It was well below freezing and he was worried that his gasoline line would freeze.
> 
> Bright fella poured 2 gallons of gas into a rather large pot to heat it up on the stove. When he turned the knob to ignite the FUCKING BURNER .... it caught fire and burned his house down. My question was always this .... Why??? You know that gasoline is like, super fucking flammable .... WHY?!?
> 
> On topic: This will end with a trip to the ER ...... alllllllll bad.


Sounds like an honorable mention in the Darwin Awards. My favourite Drwin Award is the guy who thought a grenade would make a good anchor. So he got out his blowtorch to weld it to a chain. BOOM!

In regards to the OP. Let's leave acids out of this. If they can eat acrylic, they'll likely eat the type of plastic in our models, or at least the glue.


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## chromedog

BiOHaTe said:


> I was wondering, since hydrochloric acid which is stored in plastic would be an alternative to removing paint from plastic models.
> 
> What do you think? also in breaking bad they used Hydro fluoric acid to melt bodies yet safe for a certain plastic.


Bad idea. HCl is not a recommended way of stripping paint. It's quite corrosive, and the fumes are capable of knocking you out AND the liquid can give you a serious chemical burn.

HFl is kept in TEFLON ( a kind of 'plastic' ) containers because it etches glass (and will eat through it given sufficient time). It does really bad things to flesh and will also dissolve the plastic into a puddle of ooze.


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## bitsandkits

I say "DO IT" !!!! you can email me for a good price on some new models when you have done


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## the-ad-man

Doctor: so how did you end up with all these horrific chemical burns?
BioTate: well, i have these little plastic soldiers that i diddnt like the paint on...


dont do this, you will be famous for being that guy that fucked himself up with acid, dont be that guy...


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## LTP

Wow.... Just wow. Listen to Horus... Please haha


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## Silens

I'll ask my Chem teacher if I can do it on Friday as an experiment. I'd also like to point out that during A Level I've seen others and personally had 0.1 mol dm^-3 Hydrochloric acid (Standard classroom HCl) on skin and the table. In the words of one of the technicians (When someone got it on their hand and was like "OMG IT BURNZ") "It's got about the same pH as vinegar." - The quote might not be true, but it didn't do any damage.


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## refractory

use purple power, or castrol's "super clean" (super clean is better for plastics) you'll have to scrub them or high pressure spray them to get it off but it will break down the paint. i just used purple power to get red Krylon off a set of bloodangels i picked up... :nono:


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## Marneus Calgar

I got irritation of the acid they use in schools a few years ago. The stuff there is incredibly weak and it still itched to fuck..

Please don't do this, you'll end up on the news and people will think you're an idiot :victory:


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## BiOHaTe

Hmmmmmm everyone sounds so convincing, i want to see how Silen's experiment turns out.
I did some research and it says our models which are made out of hard Polystyrene do not dissolve in HCI. But will the paint dissolve? 

I wonder how many people have done chemistry here? HCl isn't going to be like the acid from Aliens 
If a spill occures i will have Soda ash nearby to neutralise the PH of HCl

I would love to do a video of me showing the experiment of placing a model into a beaker of HCl and examining the effects. Also showing how i am using safety equipment. 

It all depends on the Mol (molecules) of HCl as even plastic will begin to dissolve in larger doses (It just has stronger resistance). I can get strong HCl and dilute HCl (9%) at work. 

I am seriously thinking of doing this some time in the future.

Would you all be interested in the results?


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## Kreuger

I'm going to echo everyone else here, these are bad ideas.

Hydroflouric acid _IS_ like the acid from Aliens. It burns through things that normal acids don't, chromedog is right on. Stay away from it.


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## BloodAngelZeros

I've done work in biochemistry and organic chemistry and while yes, very dilute amounts are not going to melt away your skin in an instant, it's more of a risk versus reward scenario. Given the other options out there that are safer and less harsh on the model it just doesn't seem worth it to use HCl. Plus, given all the chemicals in most modern paints, you never know what side reactions are going on.


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## davespil

Well if your dead set on doing it, I'd like to see the results. Best case it would be interesting to hear about, worse case it would be another example of Darwinism at work...

But please use gloves, goggles, and a smock please. I don't think its that dangerous if you dillute it enough, use the proper safety equipment, have baking soda handy, do it in a lab, and know what your doing. But there are much easier ways of stripping models.

You should leave one model in it for awhile to see what happens.


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## Silens

Acids don't react with plastics due to their structure. They don't react with glass (Except HF due to the high electronegativity of F being able to react with the Oxygen in SiO2) either; this is the reason why acids are stored in glass and plastic containers. You can't use acid on metal miniatures as the metal will begin to react and give off nasty fumes. I'm doing A Level Chemistry at the moment and will be either getting an apprenticeship in Metallurgy or going to university to do Forensic Biology at the end of the year. 

Mol means moles, which is the units for chemicals in amounts (Because different chemicals of the same mass may have a different number of molecules).

1 mole = 6.0221415 × 10^23 (Avogadro's constant) molecules

1 mole = Mr grams


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## BloodAngelZeros

While there are plastics that don't react with acids (all that well at least) other plastics do react. Also given enough time and/or a strong enough acid, it'll eat up most materials. But as was mentioned, there's a lot of easier ways to strip paint off of a mini


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