Removing the black powder coating from Russrep Obi-Wan Grenade & Booster

A friend has asked me to weather his Russrep Obi-Wan Kenobi hilt for him as he'd like it closer to the finish on mine (full hilt in pics)

My plan is to blue the Grenade, Booster & Emitter & then weather accordingly (I'm pretty sure they're steel)

he says he got his grenade & booster with the Matt Black powder coat option

Does anyone know if these were powder coated or just painted?

Has anyone else removed the finish from theirs?

my plan was just to try & use acetone & wire wool to get it off

but as it's not mine I really don't want to screw it up or not be able to get the finish off & just ruin the grenade :lol

so any advice welcomed as I'd like to do a good job for him

if it is going to be a complete nightmare to get off I may just advise him to get a plain Romans grenade & I'll weather that for him

Re: Removing the black powder coating from Russrep Obi-Wan Grenade & Booster

Hi...
It is possible to remove the paint. Shouldn't be too hard though.
I had a Booster from Russ which had some dents where the paint chipped away.
I wanted to fill these with an oxide layers and used some chemical solution for hot oxidization and the paint vanished completely from the booster.
It was some hot (140ºC) sodiumhydroxide solution with sodiumsulfit and sodiumsulfat.
I did this one year ago. You can find this in my ObiWan with crystal chamber build thread. http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=211462

So I would try with the aceton first. This won't do any damage to the booster and grenade.

I've never tried removing powder coating, but it is basically just paint. Maybe try a Dremel with wire-wheel? That's what I would try first, and it won't damage the steel.

Country Paul said:

I may just advise him to get a plain Romans grenade & I'll weather that for him

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That may be the best way to go

I tried once. It is very thick. I'll have to take a picture to show you how far I got.

Romans Empire said:

That may be the best way to go

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:lol My suggestion was that he asks you for a mixed kit of plain & AFB parts to complete 2 full sabers, an AFB & a weathered

I'm happy to give weathering it a go but I really don't want to get halfway through removing the powder coat to realise that it's not all coming off

I think to do a good job it needs to be stripped, don't think weathering the black paint itself will look the way he wants