Hi, is there any way to remove factory lettering without completely removing the paint? I am working on a few Branchline Pullman passenger cars. Branchline cars are SUPER DETAILED and cheap, I love em!
They don’t make cars in Santa Fe
The one’s I bought are lettered for Southern, and The Pollyscale Pullman green dosen’t really match, because Branchline used a really dark brown olive green.
Is there any other method of removing lettering other than the following methods?
Using Solvaset (preffered) or Micro Set
scraping with fine sand paper
scraping with X acto knife
using an ink eracer (prefered) or plain pink eracer
Is the Pollyscale pullman green acurate?
Will I have to repaint the whole car? (I already built the whole car…) The poly scale pullman green dosen’t match my car whatsoever…
Any method of doing this is a skill that takes practice which in turn means finding some lettered cars (freight or passenger or whatever) presumably from your own scrap pile or cheap at a swap meet to practice on.
Isopropyl alcohol removes both lettering and paint. It is a very tricky operation to get it just right. I suggest getting 50% isopropyl alcohol rather than 70% or 90% (50% is inexpensive at WalMart). Apply it with a micro brush (one of those tiny Q tip type things) rather precisely on the lettering itself and rub with the microbrush very very gently. Nothing will seem to happen – that is good. Wash it off with distilled water and let dry. Do it again and you should notice some lettering start to be rubbed off. Don’t shoot for the moon. Stop at a little and again rinse it all off with distilled water. Try a third time and more and maybe all of the lettering should come off - be prepared to rinse again with distilled water and let dry. It may take more than 3 steps.
But again – practice this with lesser cars before you tackle that Branchline model. You MIGHT want to mask off the area around the lettering with masking liquid to contain the alcohol.
I have checked most all of the suppliers listed but so far nobody carries the specific product. The list is for Testors products in general. Thanks though.
Edit: I just spent 30 minutes searching for the ELO decal remover. Apparently no one in Canada carries it and no one will ship ELO across the border.[sigh]
I built up a fleet of cabeese for my freelanced railroad using RTR equipment lettered for prototype roads. I tried several methods before settling on the one I’m about to describe. I take a Q-tip and wet the lettering with rubbing alcohol. Then a use Bright Boy eraser that is used to clean track. I GENTLY rub the lettering and before too long it starts to disappear. It does leave some barely noticeable abrasions on the surface but I find those disappear when I apply the decal for my road. They could probably be sanded smooth with fine grit sandpaper if need be but I have never bothered with that.
I had tried Amazon but I guess I didn’t enter the search information correctly. I just ordered a can. Bloody expensive!! (pardon my English Steven - just pretend I’m JaBear[swg]). Between the cost for the product and the shipping I’m over $40 Cdn! Usually Amazon shipping is free, but not this time. I guess it’s because of the nature of the product.
I have a bunch of Athearn BB Canadian Pacific ‘Spans The World’ boxcars with the same number. I tried removing the # from one car and I totally messed it up. I also have two GP7s with the same number.
The trick now will be figuring how to match not only the font and size, but also the quality of printing on the Athearn boxcars. Some are really white and some are very faint. I’ll have to do some experimenting with overspraying the freight car colour if I can mix up something to match.
Thanks so much for taking the time to help me find it.
I have had success removing lettering with minimal underlying paint damage by using liquid dish washing detergent (i.e. Ivory liquid or equivalent) and a plain old pinkish orange eraser on the end of a pencil. Apply a drop or two of the detergent on the lettering, then gently rub with the eraser. When the rubbing starts to get a little sticky, add another drop of detergent. Repeat until the lettering is gone.
Roger, I was able to use almost the same technique to remove 24 signboards from MTH coaches with no paint damage at all. The only difference: I used pink erasers and Solvaset.
I would like to replace the “Pullman” and “Missouri Pacific Lines” lettering on Walthers and Branchline Mopac heavyweights pained in Eagle scheme and apply “Texas & Pacific” lettering on them, but just until now I didn´t find a method which is safe enough to not leave any traces on the paint. It´s really frustrating, because that Eagle paint scheme is quite complicated and therefore too difficult for me to custom paint it because of all that stripes and yellow and silver trim…
Cody from MR had a technique for doing this that he’s covered a couple of times in the last few years, both in the magazine and (I think) in Cody’s Office. He brushed Micro Sol on the lettering, let it set for a while, then covered it with Scotch tape, burnished the tape over the lettering with a toothpick, and when he peeled the tape off - voila! the lettering was gone. Sometimes a second application was needed. I haven’t tried this myself yet, but I have some lettering to remove on a loco shell and am planning to use this method.
I use Walthers Solvaset and a rubber pencil eraser. With a soft eraser, it goes slowly, but if you’re patient, it will come off with no or very minimal damage to the paint below. Just work slowly and take your time.
