Anyone have any hints on stripping the gold off of plastic figures down to silver? I haven't done this before and have been requested to use silver figures and trims on some trophies.
We use meths , acetone works ok too but just be careful , both will start attacking the silver if you do it too long. We have a bath of water next to the solvent and dunk the stripped figs in there to immediately stop further stripping.
I dip them in rubbing alcohol, that works on most brands like PDU, there have been some brands the alcohol does not work on, I have not had acetone to try, but now I do, so I will try that next. I figured alcohol was a little safer than acetone.
I tried the acetone and it appears that the timing is critical - too short and it leaves a gold tint, too long and some areas strip to the base (black). Haven't got to the taffy level yet. I'll keep expermenting, maybe with a stop watch, to determine the critical timing. Thanks everyone for your input.
Be careful on which figures you dip. The PDU made in China will not strip. The PDU made here in the USA will strip with acetone. I buy it from beauty supply stores by the gallon. I reuse the same gallon until it has so much dye accumulated that it doesn't work as well. The only other brand I tried was Freeman from Southeastern. They told me to use denatured alcohol which looked great at first so I did a very large batch. After they dried, they turned off color so bad I had to throw them in the garbage! Lesson learned!
