New way to test/remove fake paint!- Theory and tests

[OsiusGaming]

Hello everyone! Before I start off this post, I would like to make a few notes and some disclaimers.

Notes: Please excuse me if this test/idea has already been done. I have checked up and down this forum and haven't found anyone posting the same thing as I, but you could never know. Also, please excuse me if this thread is in the wrong category. I figured it would be best under "Discussions" as I am discussing a test I recently conducted. But I could also see how it could go under the Restorations category.

Disclaimer: I have not conducted this test on original decals nor original camo paint. I have no idea as to what affect this may have on these paints.

Summary: You can most likely use 91% and above Isopropyl alcohol to test/remove fake paint on helmets and other items alike without damaging original paint.

Now let's begin.

Not too long ago, I was repainting some of my models/miniatures that I had put together about 8 years ago. But in order to repaint them, I needed to safely remove the original paint. Usually, people tend to use 2 different products: acetone or Isopropyl alcohol. Acetone seems to be the most common choice, but it can also easily ruin a model by melting it. So I decided to try out the Isopropyl alcohol method instead, and it worked like a charm! Within mere seconds, I was able to just wipe off the old craft paint that I had used without any damage to the plastic model. After doing so, I repainted them and put them away without any other thought about it.

Flash forward a couple of months and I'm scrolling through our lovely forum, reading about people trying to restore original helmets that are badly messed with. Now, I am not someone who restores helmets but I think it is interesting watching people remove fake decals/paint off of a shell to bring it back to a state it may have looked like before being messed with by a reenactor. But everytime I read one of these posts, they always seem to use acetone and talk about how they must carefully use it in order to not remove the original paint that may be underneath. So this got me thinking. There must be an easier and safer method of doing this. That's when I remembered about my good ol' friend Isopropyl alcohol, and I did a few tests but wanted to start off on a smaller scale.

Firstly, I chose my Finnish m40/55 helmet to be the first candidate. These helmet's are not rare and have practically little value. So if worse came to worse, I wouldn't lose out on much. I put a little bit of the alcohol onto a rag and wiped the inside of the helmet a few times. This resulted in absolutely no paint coming off. I then worked my way up through several other helmets, including: Canadian post war mk2 helmet depot repaint, South African mk2 war time paint, Norwegian mk1 helmet repaint, Swiss m18-41 helmet, a German m40 relic shell, and a South African mk2 Greek repaint. In all of these instances, absolutely no paint came off.

This post has been long enough, I'll continue in a second post.

[Tank Destroyer]

Very interesting and looking forward to the discussion.

Marty

[OsiusGaming]

Ok, so let's dive right into the second test I conducted. I figured that I should test to see if the alcohol can remove spray paint off of metal. If it can't do that, then this whole theory would have been proven wrong. So I began to look around for some metal that I could paint. After searching for sometime, I found the perfect piece! My metal man!
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This little guy was a project that I welded together back in my Freshman year of high school. I had completely forgotten about him until now. This man has braved many winters inside the garage, so in order to honor him, I chose him as the prime candidate.

Then I searched for some paint that I had laying around and chose these 4.
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While the brands are not too diverse (3 out of the 4 being rustoleum), I felt like it was at least a good choice based on the colors. From now on, I will refer to these paints as 1,2,3,4 working from left to right.



After washing him off, I painted his front with 1 and 2. (1 is silver and 2 is light khaki)
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I then painted his back with 3 and 4. (3 is hammered silver and 4 is dark khaki-ish)
IMG_20200201_104937134_HDR.jpg

Now, I only did about 1 and a half thin coats as I was in a rush to get to work. So if you believe this test isn't valid, I understand. That's why I look forward to seeing other people conduct their tests.

I let him dry for about 2 days in the garage. Luckily, the weather was really nice these past couple of days, so the paint had a great chance to adhere. Here he was today after drying.
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Now remember what he looks like as the next two pictures showed some pretty amazing results. Keep in mind that I only used the isopropyl alcohol on his face. I did this so you can see the original paint below and compare it to the metal. This is how he came out after maybe 5 minutes of wiping his face with a sponge.
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While these results certainly are not perfect, remember that I spent 5 minutes at most on each side before quitting in order to quickly post my results. In my opinion, this seems like an amazing option to choose when removing spray paint. I believe you could also use this method to test a helmet's paint authenticity. Even when the sponge (wetted with the alcohol) touched the paint for only a second, a little bit of it rubbed off onto the sponge. However, this didn't happen when I wiped any of my helmets' paint. This leads me to believe that you could at least try this on a helmet whose paint you are unsure of without the risk of removing the paint if it is original. If any paint comes off on your rag, there's a good chance that it was repainted with spray paint.

This concludes my test. I would love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions. Also, if anyone tries this test out themselves, please post your findings as well!

Disclaimer just for my own sake: I have no idea as to what this can do to original decals or original camo paint. I am also not responsible for any damages done to your property. These results were just the one's I found and may not be reproducible with others. Also, you should try to avoid contact with Isoproyl Alcohol as it easily dries out skin. You must also need to use at least 91% Isopropyl Alcohol. Anything below this may not work.

Thanks for reading!