Help with the Epiphone Casino!

So, I am planning to get an Epiphone Casino very soon, but I am wondering... Is there a way to remove the finish without having to go to a luthier? I want to kind of "Beatle-ize" it. So... Anybody got answers?

Full disclosure, I have zero experience with painting/finishing guitars, but I did a quick search and found this video you might find helpful: Video link

If it was me, I'd probably get it professionally done unless it was a guitar I didn't care too much about as I have no idea what I'm doing. If you do want to tackle it yourself, it does look like there's a good few resources online.

Am a bit late here, though I agree... I once had the opposite issue (bought a Jolana Kolor bass that the previous owner had removed the paint and finish of, as I wanted to customize it by painting and finishing it myself in black, rather than blue which was the original colour). It didn't help that the paints and poly I bought were terrible quality, and I have a small apartment so I can only use the wipe-on poly rather than the sprayed one. In the end I did take it to a luthier, the final product was amazing! But he did mention that if I hadn't tried painting it, it would have cost a lot less (maybe even half the price), as he needed to remove the paint and poly I had applied, and in places it was difficult to apply the new paint/poly so there are some parts that still look "worn" (not necessarily a bad thing though as the bass itself is a vintage item). So from now on, I'm definitely leaving these larger jobs to a luthier.

Depends on the model. Anything with poly (esters or urethane) finish is quite an undertaking. You can sand all year and not find wood or sand so hard you damage the top. A lot of people use boat stripper and a putty knife to melt it and peel it up in big strips...which is pretty noxious and potentially lethal if not used with proper ventilation.

Did you ever get the Casino you wanted? I see there seems to be a Natural finished one in production now as well as 'Worn' variants (not relic'd) https://www.andertons.co.uk/epiphone-casino-electric-guitar-natural

If there were "just one more..." guitar left on my wishlist it'd be the Casino Coupe in boring old traditional sunburst finish. Hollow bodied with P90s would kill two birds with one stone. ...want it, don't need it. I've gathered too much music junk I need to declutter already.