whats the best way to prep an Athearn BB black hopper kit so that fingerprints and other gunk gets off before i start using my powders? I can hide the fingerprints that show up fairly well, but I’d like to be able to not have to deal with them.
whats the best way to remove paint from a car? I did some drybrushing on some boxcars with Pollyscale paints before I found my ideal weathering method (weathering powders > krylon dull coat > drybrush) and I overdid the area that would be covered by the boxcar’s door when opened, and I’d like to be able to remove it so that I don’t have to weather the crap out of the thing to hide it.
i’ll be posting some pics when I get a chance, because I think I’ve came upon an ideal and real easy method for effectively weathering black hoppers.
I wash the car in warm water and dishwash liquid. Or, run them thru the dishwasher. Rinse extra well and then air dry for several hours. Outside in the sun works better than inside in a damp basement. Don’t touch the model with bare hands after rinsing it. Leave the couplers and coupler box covers off so they don’t fill up with water and stay wet forever.
To strip paint you dunk the model in something that is active enough to soften the paint but not so active as to dissolve the plastic. Since the chemistry of paint and plastic is simular, finding such a liquid is something of a crap shoot. I have had good luck with high strength isopropyl alcohol . Others have used brake fluid and oven cleaner. Net rumor has it that different model makers use different sorts of paint and different strippers are needed. I haven’t stripped enough models to confirm or deny this rumor. One of the model paint suppliers offers a special paint remover for plastic models. Regular hardware store paint remover, MEK and Acetone will eat plastic.
Sometimes to remove paint from areas that have had it applied too heavy, I use a fiberglass eraser. It’s like a small bristle brush. I have also used it to wear paint down for special weathering effects. As an example, on wooden cars, I would paint the car a wood tan, then boxcar red or whatever. Then after decals were applied etc, I would rub an area with the fiberglass eraser, going through the decal, the BC red down to the wood tan. It made an interesting effect.
REMEMBER to wear rubber gloves so you don’t get finger prints on the cars. I see some on Youtube weathering and they aren’t. Then you work on the car, and touch it all over and then BAM, finger print heaven. I buy the box at Lowes for about $10, and you get 100. That honestly lasts me a few months.