Simplegreen ruined half of my collection

[flindo]

Simplegreen ruined half of my Gremlin Collection, I will now need to replace them all (retailing for about 170$), this is so frusterating to me because I have heard nothing but good things about simplegreen, but when I used it it broke nearly every miniature, and it still had large chunks of paint all over it (I had it in the bucket for a week as reccomended for plastic), these are all the miniatures destroyed in the incident:

Som'er

Ophelia

Wong (I'll Just buy the Box for that one)

Zoraida
Voodoo Doll
2 Skeeters
8 Bayou Gremlins
Lenny
Raphael
Francois
Whisky Golem (Limited Edition)
2 Slophaulers
Gracie
Burt Jebsen

[Durza]

Do you have pictures? I haven't used it myself but I've never heard of it killing malifaux minis.

[solkan]

3 hours ago, Durza said:

Do you have pictures? I haven't used it myself but I've never heard of it killing malifaux minis.

This account appears to have been posted in a few different areas, including the A Wyrd Place Facebook group.

On Facebook, the individual claimed that they threw away the models without taking pictures.  That account appears to be being moderated (or is otherwise missing) at the moment.

To give the full benefit of the doubt...

I've thrown a pile of plastic and pewter models in a jar and left them, and come back to a ball of separated parts and paint that I needed to pick apart carefully and clean up.  Simple Green weakens super glue bonds, and if you leave models in a solution long enough they'll essentially fall apart when disturbed.  That can be a really useful thing if you're restoring or salvaging old figures, but could cause someone to freak out if they're not expecting it.

The type of paint and primer used, and how thick the paint was, it can also take multiple passes through a process of "soak, rinse, clean, repeat" to get all of the paint off of plastic. If the paint is thick or well bonded, the solution will not get all of the paint off in one pass.
 

Since Wyrd does famously use a lot of small parts for its models, particularly Gremlins, I can easily imagine someone assembling their models with super glue, getting into an unsatisfactory painting situation, putting the models into the solution, and coming back to a terrifying mix of parts and paint.  I sure wouldn't want to go fishing through a bucket trying to sort out detached Gremlin arms, but that's a more likely outcome than the cleaning solution randomly breaking parts.

So as far as I can tell, the most likely thing that happened is that the individual in question would have over reacted, not taken pictures of the disaster, and thrown out a collection of parts that were probably just needed to be sorted through, have some of the lose paint picked away, and put carefully in the bucket (or a collection of jars for easier sorting) for another week to get more of the paint off.  In other words, if this account is true then this is a story of someone over reacting and throwing out what was probably a serviceable mess of disassembled parts mixed in partially dissolved paint.

 

[redmask]

I saw this on Facebook and am super interested. I've never seen anything like that (I've not used Simplegreen a lot, admittedly). It didn't just unglue them, though, he says that it ate through the plastic. I find that somewhat hard to believe. I may have to attempt to replicate this at home. You know. For science.

[solkan]

12 hours ago, redmask said:

I saw this on Facebook and am super interested. I've never seen anything like that (I've not used Simplegreen a lot, admittedly). It didn't just unglue them, though, he says that it ate through the plastic. I find that somewhat hard to believe. I may have to attempt to replicate this at home. You know. For science.

I hoard my leftover spruces.  Hold on a few minutes...

I now have four sprues sitting in about two inches of undiluted Simple Green in a jar.  Plastic sprues that should even be from different production years.  One of the sprues has those obnoxious wires from Hoffman's mechanical leopards left on because I'm still sane.

Ask me how it's going in a week or two.  For science and waking up in the middle of the night.  

 

[redmask]

7 hours ago, solkan said:

I hoard my leftover spruces.  Hold on a few minutes...

I now have four sprues sitting in about two inches of undiluted Simple Green in a jar.  Plastic sprues that should even be from different production years.  One of the sprues has those obnoxious wires from Hoffman's mechanical leopards left on because I'm still sane.

Ask me how it's going in a week or two.  For science and waking up in the middle of the night.  

 

Didn't even think about using sprues. You're genius.

[Cinnamon Bear]

I used simple green to strip the paint from my Imperial Guard 40k army years ago, mostly plastic cadians. Basically, if you haven't used plastic glue, they're going to split apart. The paint won't come off entirely so some simple, soft brushing with a toothbrush can help free whatever it left on the model. 

The most likely situation is what has been suggested: The person put it in simple green and then overreacted seeing the pieces disassembled and some paint/primer still sticking around. I've honestly never seen or heard of simple green destroying miniatures. It isn't magic though and requires additional work to use. They don't come out of the simple green looking spotless and pristine.

On September 28, 2016 at 5:42 PM, solkan said:

Ask me how it's going in a week or two.  For science and waking up in the middle of the night.  

Do you have a result for this science experiment?

[Tawg]

8 hours ago, Cinnamon Bear said:

They don't come out of the simple green looking spotless and pristine.

But boy would gamers pay for a product that did that

In other news, I've certainly destroyed models before, but I don't think due to Simplegreen.  I exclusively use polystyrene cement when able, and only use super glue when I must (Metal or resins).  I've certainly had models fall apart though due to simple green + super glue.  I got a reclaimed Necron army I wanted stripped because I'm not so into metalic paints, so I soaked them in Simple Green. 

The paint never came off completely (The black undercaot was basically permanently on the plastic, just painted over it), although thinking about it, I did bust a few of the plastic Warriors after giving them the paint stripping.  It was their Achille's heel, like, literally that location on the model, which was so thin that in scrubbing a few with a toothbrush, trying to get the primer off, I ended up bending // snapping a few at that joint.  Although also thinking about it, I used Easy Off Oven Cleaner, the spray can stuff, just in a plastic bag and sat over a few nights.  It actually worked extremely well, and with metal models did absolutely no harm.  Plastics though you gotta be a bit more careful with.  I doubt most chemicals will straight melt the polystyrene, but I have had it weakened at least before.

Never tried to clean up any resin models.  I imagine that would be a nightmare, since resin is already a bit finicky, and I have no idea how chemicals would react to that.

I mean, you have to base coat most foam used in terrain building with a layer of Elmer's Glue or prime by hand or Spray primers will literally react with it on contact (Which could leave a desirable texture, but would not effectively prime the terrain piece ).

[Burnin' Coal]

"But boy would gamers pay for a product that did that "

Not wishing to hijack the thread - just sharing info

@Tawg - Dettol disinfectant used neat - strips plastic clean in a couple of hours...rinse under a tap and wash afterwards...takes off black primer AND green stuff