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Well, I managed to pick up the knocked out Cromwell objective marker from the Panzer Lehr Boxed Set on Fleabay the other day. As you can see it has, somewhat inconceivably, been painted up as a German AFV. Of all the dashed impertinence! Well, as some of you might know, I’m abit obsessed with objective markers, particularly those that a harder to get. So, I thought I’d try stripping the paint using a range of recommended methods and then re-painting it after all those T34s. I’ll use it as a test piece prior to painting up my Irish Guards who are currently confined to barracks, in their box, on the shelf…

Calling in to Tescos on the way home from work, I bought some of their Pine disinfectant after reading about the power of Pinesol, Dettol and the like on the Battlefront Forum. I’ve effectively stripped paint off metal figures using acetone (nail varnish remover), but I read that this isn’t advised on resin products. Arriving home, I dug out an old mug, popped in the newly arrived Cromwell, poured neat disinfectant over her and, for good measures, a smidgen of thick bleach from the loo.

Taking her out this morning, 12 hours later, I’ve rinsed her down with warm water and run my thumb across a smooth surface.

Lo and behold, the paint has softened and peels off nicely. A quick scrub with an old toothbrush and that dirty dunkelgelb starts to disappear:

I’m starting to see what a nice sculpt it is. There’s lots of stowage details, a wrecked front vender and the remains of one of the crew in the turret. A further scrub, then rinse and Betty goes back into the tub for another soak. She’ll soon be good as new:

Well, 36 hours later and, as you can see, Betty is looking alot better after a good poke around with a cocktail stick!  The cocktail stick could remove paint in all those areas my toothbrush couldn’t reach.  It’s also soft enough not to damage the resin.  Looking at what paint remains,  I’m guessing that the previous owner used an enamel based paint on the base as it isn’t shifting under the combined assualt of pine disinfectant and bleach:

All that remains is to dig out my airbrush and undercoat black. 

Job done .