Cleaning Painted Statues

[Astounding]

I use Bestine (rubber cement thinner). it's a very mild solvent and evaporates quickly. Great for removing adhesives. Should also cut through that oil without harming the paint. To be on the safe side, don't use more than you need, or rub more than you have to. It is much more gentle than alcohol, which I would certainly steer clear of. It would be wise to test in an inconspicuous area first, just in case.

[Vince-Vell]

if its a pre painted statue from over seas from a company im sure you can get away with some soap and water, nothing to harsh.

if its a painted one of a kind from here in the USA, then canned air, or a make up brush woman use for blush on their cheeks. Paints in the USA have requirements that china doesn't, so no lead in them and can come off with anything really. Where as china paints are lead bases when they say its not, it is ,so holds up much better.

But even some washes or subtle shading on pre paints can whip off.

[qz33]

Thank you everyone for your replies.
Such a wide variety of good answers. Seems like everything has its risks.

Just enforces the mantra look but don't touch!

[Duke]

I've got a question and figured this thread would be the place to ask. I recently bought the Batman Catwoman Hush Kiss statue, it's awesome but I notice on Catwoman that there are three small partial "fingerprints" on her body. I imagine that when it was assembled at the factory the person had some glue residue on their hands and it left those when dried because there are no breaks anywhere on the entire statue, so I don't think it was repaired in any way.

Anyone have any input that may help to remove those "prints" off the paint?

Thanks for any help, besides those tiny spots the only other flaws I noticed were some silver paint rubbed off Catwoman's goggles and some paint rub on one of her ears. Unless you are within a foot viewing though, you really don't notice any of the issues.

[Vince-Vell]

if the paint has the finger print embedded into the paint like it was still wet then nothing short of repainting those areas will help.

Only option is see if you can rub is clean with just some spit on your finger. Most paints from china are like a candy shell so some water or spit can let you know if you can wipe it clean. if not then its stuck there.

[Astounding]

Duke, If those prints are glue they should have a raised texture. If so you could try removing with water (not likely to work), or Bestine Rubber Cement Thinner (might work). Most likely glue prints would need to be sanded off with a very fine sand paper (maybe 1000 grit or finer), but then you would need to repair the paint which would inevitably be marred by the sanding.

Bestine might also remove that rub of paint on the ear. If the silver rubbed off the goggles is along an edge it would be a pretty easy touch-up with touch of silver acrylic. Most silvers match pretty well although there could be a flake size difference. Still, it's liable to blend and look better than a blank.

[Duke]

Thanks Vince-Vell and Astounding for the info. Yeah those partial prints are definitely raised and are a white/gray color so I'm pretty sure it was from glue most likely. Appreciate the help guys, I'll give it all a try if it really starts to bug me, lol.