Questions about painting decorated engines.

Some engine I’d need aren’t available undecorated. Such as, P1K F3 A/B set, Kato SD40, and P2K GP30. My questions are-

  • how do I get the numbers off the boards on any of these? I plan to leave them blank for now.

  • is it possible to disassemble a P2K GP30 to the point where it can be painted? Numberboards, headlights, and cab windows would have to be removed.

  • is it possible to disassemble a Kato SD40 in the same manner described for the GP30?

I’m pretty sure a P1K F3 will be no problem to remove windows for painting.

Thanks[:)]

Believe me, I can never get what I want, so I just buy any roadname available, tear-um down and repaint them the way I want. It isn’t always easy, Now with all the preglued joints and such on many of these locos, it’s a real challenge. My latest is an Athearn CF-7, I found the headlights are all glued into the holes on the cab, the cab was glued down and the windows were all glued in as well. It appeared to be some sort of epoxy. I’m sure you’ll run into the same kind of things disassembling any brand these days. Now I’m getting ready to paint it in my private road name scheme. Good luck.

I have an undecorated P2K GP30 and a undec. Kato SD40. Don’t know about the F3’s. They are out there on E-Bay all the time. But yes you can disassemble all of these to remove paint and repaint for your selected road name.

I sure wish I could find the GP30 and SD40 in undec but nobody sells them. Guess I’ll be doing some disassembling.

Anyway, how would I removed the numbers from the numberboards? I would leave them blank for now and eventually decal them.

After you remove them from the locomotive, poli***he numbers off, the same way eye glasses are polished.

Walthers has GP 30 listed as instock, make sure they have ones with lights on the low hood for CGW.
http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?quick=920&start=750

cspmo, I don’t want a GP30 from the new run as they’re way too expensive. The old run GP30s sell for $40 at trainworld and at my LHS but I doubt either has them in undec.

Dingoix, I will check later at home to be sure I can find my undecorated GP30 (P2K). If I can I would be willing to let it go for $40 plus mailing cost, probably about $5.

I’m not ready for any more GP30s right now. Right now I’m curious about painting P1K F3s and Kato SD40s.

could you go into a bit more detail?