I have stripped and repainted a Proto 2000 Gp9. I removed the clear plastic headlight and number boards which is one assembly. Well the number boards are factory painted. How do I remove the paint? I used automotive brake fluid on the shell. should I use it also on the clear plastic number boards?
Also how would I apply the new number decals? should I paint the number boards black then apply the white numbers over it? Will the light penetrate the black enough to illuminate the numbers? Thanks
I usually just take some very fine wet/dry sandpaper and lightly sand them wet. It doesn’t really matter if you scratch the lenses a little since they are not even going to be seen. As for the new numbers, depending on your decal set, you may have the black background as a decal to apply before you add the numbers. I don’t think they will light up the numbers as you are hoping, but if you look around I’m pretty sure that Microscale has a decal set of printed numberboards with black backgrounds. Those are made to illuminate like you are looking for. Depending on your prototype, they may or may not match the style of numbers however.
On some P2K engines, they are just stickers, so you might be able to remove them by using an exacto blade to get under it and peel it off.
I’d try alcohol, I haven’t had any issuses with it on clear parts.
Thanks for the replys, I’ll check out microscale and see what they have.
I have painted a few undecorated diesel locos. Used airbrush and microscale decals. For the number boards, I printed the numbers on clear label paper from Avery. You have to do a bit of experimenting to get the right size. I used PowerPoint and usually printed several images at different sizes in one shot. You can create the image as black on white [which would be clear on the label] or white [clear] on black. You have to cut the number boards out carefully with a hobby knife and peel off the images with needle tweezers. The light shows through not bad but a black background doesn’t completely block the light. Someone also told me to print number boards on overhead transparency film, though I haven’t tried this. All this if you can’t find the right decals [I couldn’t]. I would imagine that applying such decals would be very tricky.
Alan
Forget decals for the numberboards, but rather go to your local staples and buy clear labels. Print them out and apply them to your numberboards.
David B
Any method used to get the paint or labeling off will be fine. The clear numberboards don’t have to be transparent, even if sanding leaves them traslucent the light will show through. If you don’t want to print out the proper font/ size as recomemded here, you can order the numbers from ShellScale Decals http://www.shellscale.com/numberboard%20page.htm
You just need to specify the color Black on white and the font/ size. Ordering by road and maker/ unit should do the trick. The website shows the examples and general uses for individual model types.
I find that when using these or the Microscale sets, that some light leakage may show at the edges or the decal seams between number building. My backgrounds are black, touch up w/ a Sharpie solves this. If a white background just touch up w/ white paint. The paint or Sharpie touchups will disappear once a couple of coats of clear is applied. I one time wanted to show a fade/ haze behind a “real” glass cover for the prototype, so I dabbed a touch of white into my clear coat. Worked great.