Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve been on the forum due to my new job.
I recently bought a Spectrum 2-6-6-2 W&LE and would like to remove the decals and make it into a D&RGW but haven’t ever done this before.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Tracklayer
Are they decals, or printed on paint markings?
If they’re decals, are they sealed with a clear coat of some kind, like dullcoat?
Here’s your options that I know of. If it’s a decal and it’s not sealed, you can soak it in water and it should come off. If it’s a stubborn one you could use some Testors decal solvant and soak it in that to soften it. Just lay the part so that it’s decal side up[, and pool some of the solvant on it and go have lunch. When you get back it should be softened up.
If it’s sealed, you have to strip the part. You can sand it, but I don’t like this as you can accidentally sand away some of the part’s detail. I use Easy Off oven cleaner (outdoors) to get old paint off, Just get the yellow can and spray it down good, go have a long lunch, and TA DAHHHHH, a clean part! Just be sure to wash it REALLY well with some warm water and dishwashing detergent, and an old toothbrush wouldn’t be bad to have on hand either.
If it’s painted on,…your gonna love this,…the a pencil eraser and erase the writing right off of it! Isn’t that fantastic?
Someone else might have other ways of doing it, but that’s the way I do it, and I do it alot. I’ve got a freelance RR, so most of my rolling stock gets this treatment.
The decals are printed on. I never thought of using an eraser. Thanks for the idea.
TL
If it’s a factory model, the lettering is printed on. Decals are water slide lettering, totally different. Only home made models would have decal lettering.
Bob Boudreau
Okay Bob. Then how does one go about removing factory printed lettering from a locomotive without doing any damage to the plastic ?.
TL
That’s where the eraser comes in. It takes a bit of effort, but it works. It’s also a great way to fade the printed lettering on loco’s and rolling stock when you’re weathering.
Try a little Windex with the eraser–just a little and be VERY patient.
Okay. So now that I know how to remove them, can anyone tell me exactly how they were applied at the factory ?.
TL
Paint and stencils.
They are pad printed. There is a glass plate, with the lettering pattern etched in it, in mirror-image. The etch is VERY shallow, maybe only 1 or 2 thousandths of an inch. A machine washes paint onto the plate, filling up the little wells where the lettering is etched out, then a “squeegee” goes over it, wiping the plate completely clean, except where the paint is lying in the wells.
Now, an operator positions a rubber pad on a mechnical arm so that it presses over where the wells are. That pad picks up the lettering pattern in paint, right on it. He then moves the mechanical arm over the plastic body shell lowers it, it touches the shell, and voila! A perfect set of painted letters is stamped onto the car side.
This whole jig, with the glass plate the pad arm, and the body shell, is a very HEAVY precise, machined piece of equipment, to make sure that the plate, the pad arm, and the body shell are always in the exact correct location every time.
And believe it or not, an operator sits there, printing the lettering onto ONE piece of rolling stock at a time. I couldn’t believe that this was how they do it, but it’s true.
I watched this whole process on a tour at the Con-Cor factor in Tucson back in the 1990s. You’d never think it could work, or print very precise lettering, but it sure does.
Wow, I’ve never tried that.
Art stores sell battery powered or plug in electric erasers that use a 8" long thin round eraser, like on the ends of of a #2 pencil, a motor spins the eraser making for precise erasing that can be be done with as much or as little pressure as you need. these work exceptionally well at removing stuff like this.
Back in the dark stone ages before computers, us ancient types (over 40) in the graphics oriented businesses used them all the time, I still have 3, one is still hanging from the side of my desk and the battery powered one I used for my exams years ago.
These things:
http://www.rexart.com/electric_erasers.html
use the pink erasers or the soft vinyls, DO NOT use the yellows, those are for ink removal on mylar, not for stencils on plastic.
NOW WERE COOKIN’ WITH GAS!!! (or is that electricity?[%-)])
If you absolutley can’t get the decals off, paint over them.
Windex huh? I’ll have to give that a go! Thanks!
Here’s another method. On some rolling stock, such as those nice Budd cars from Walthers, the lettering is printed on. But, sometimes you can gently scratch it off with an x-acto blade. Use a sharp blade, and go slowly. Don’t pu***oo hard or you’ll mark the plastic. I wanted a Penn Central car, but all I cound find were NYC ones. It was a simple matter of scratching off the NYC lettering. Harder will be masking off and painting the black PC letterboards 