One of the how-to features in the latest MR showed a technique for removing factory lettering on rolling stock. You wet the lettering to be removed with Micro Sol, a decaling solvent, and then rub the lettering out with a pencil eraser. Since I had Micro Sol on hand, I couldn’t wait to give this a try. I wanted to reletter an old Athearn Santa Fe heavyweight obs so I wet the Santa Fe lettering, gave it a few minutes to loosen the lettering and began rubbing with the erase. It took a minute or two but the lettering came off without a any hard rubbing and it was completely removed without any visible scratches to the surface.
There have been a number of posts in recent months about removing lettering and this is by far the easiest and cleanest method I’ve come across.
As a freelancer, this is going to come in very handy. I had already painted a small fleet of undecorated boxcars for my road and haven’t gotten around to decaling them. Now, I can take boxcars from other roads and remove only the lettering identifying the railroad, leaving the data in place. I will only need to add the decals for my roadname, not the data which is going to be a big timesaver.
Yup, great technique. Been using it for years. Don’t even remember where I learned it.
Keep in mind this technique does not necessarily work on all models. Often it will wear the paint underneath down too, or if the lettering is removed, the area will be all shiney and look quite a bit different.
Bob Boudreau
In art supply stores they carry things that look like pencils but are actually tightly wound paper. There is a technical French name for them which, of course, I have forgotten and I am not exactly sure what technique artists use them for, perhaps spreading chalks around
Anyway they work well with this technique – but you use once and then toss since the paper absorbs the solvent and old paint. I find the paper is just slightly more abrasive than a pencil eraser but not so abrasive as to leave scratches.
Dave Nelson
I don’t know what the french name for them is,but we just call them a 'stump".They are used for blending chalks or charcoal.They do break down fairly quick when used with a liquid.
you could also get a car with a different road name weather it and “patch” ir for your road.
after all the prototype does it , why can’t we???
if i get 2 cars with the same number i weather 1 and “patch” it for my road or another road
tom
cool
i’ll have to try it
man
my new mrr isnt here yet
usually i get mine a week before the end of the month