This may seem like an odd question, I’m stripping a trio of UP 90s to be painted into INRD lcomotives. Using the 91% isopropyl soak teqnique that has worked foir me before, but all I get is smeared red lettering. the Yellow and the grey isn’t going, like it’s colored plastic and not painted. I sincerely doubt that though, because the inside of the shells are more of a buttercream color than Kato’s schoolbus faux-Armor Yellow, and I don’t think the shell and roof are two seperate pieces. Am I missing something here?
In my experience, the 91% will eventually get it, I have 2 SD45’s in my tub for about a month & it check & toothbrush them off about every week or 5 days. the base color is coming off now. Kato’s take a long time, bu you can get them mostly clean if given enough time.
It may take a while you it’s come off. The toughest paint jobs I’ve come across were on a pair of Bachmann GP30’s. The lettering came away easily. The rest of the paint however had to be scrubbed off even after soaking for 24+ hours in 91% alcohol.
This maybe a long shot for you guys in the US, im not sure if this stuff can be exported or not.
Im also not sure if Phoenix Precision ship outside the UK but this is the stuff you need-
http://www.phoenix-paints.co.uk/superstrip.asp
Its called Superstrip and works in an hour or so. I used it to great effect on an Athearn SD45 back along that was a NW high nose, bi-centenial version that had about 4 layers of paint. Red, blue, white and black. When I finished, it looked as good as a shipped un-dec shell !!
I found the paint to come off the shell like it was a water based kiddies poster paint when using this stuff.
Heres another source- http://www.nairnshire-modelling-supplies.co.uk/?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=19
Cool. That’s the confidence I needed to hear.
You’re welcome!
I always ‘take a disliking’ to the point the base colors blister in a grain of sand pattern, & the fear sets in that it won’t come out of that stage, but they will. However, if left in too long they will almost ‘rubberize’ & be ‘soft’. So watch for that. I forgot one in there once & that happened, but after drying out & painting it seems OK, nothing weird ever happened to it after that.
Please post some pix when you get those units done, they are sharp!
Right. I willd o so, but I plan on a full-auto assult using a rattle can of what I hope is close Caboose Red (Gonna test the color first though) cause I suck with an airbrush (nother topic) on two of them. The third unit will end up as 9025, of whoch I also have Decals for, but no masking. So I don’t hold my breath for that one to come out anytime soon. Frisket Film. a scan of the decal trim line, but I still expect it to be a Roayl Pain in the FRED.
Morgan,
I can relate, I have 2 stripped shells for the AWVR (Unstoppable) loco’s, they are ready to detail, & they have been sitting here for a couple months. I need to add nose numboards & some cab details. Donno why, just have not been getting to them… I also rebuilt the cab on the SD40-2 & modified the middle windows to be angled like the movie.
Perhaps you & I will get them done at around the same time! ha hah…
And where did you find decals for those?
Actually, I like the Kato paint jobs. I have a LARGE number of their mid production SD40-2’s in Santa Fe which means that except for the two factory numbers, I have to remove the numbers from the Katos and decal them. I remove the old numbers carefully and never mess up the paint. Try that on some other brands.
Bob
Pastor Bob,
Yes, I would ‘second that motion’ & here is my example;
An unfinished (non-weathered & not fully accessorized) ex-BNSF SD40-2 in FURX leased to IC&E on a donor chassis for the shoot. (It also has a new 88" Cannon nose!) However, when I take off the logo’s, I always seem to mess up the trim stripes… In this case the yellow divider stripe on both the top & bottom. You are very correct, the base colors on Kato’s are very resilient, & allows one to remove the other paint easily. On mine, those areas are really shiny from all the buffing, but after future weathering & a Dullcoat seal it will be all good!!
It is funny that traits are ‘give & take’ like that… Heh heh…
Oh, sorry M.
I actually got them from eBay, & I think the seller was here on the forum & showed his models (the AC4400’s) after the movie came out. I do not have a decal set for the SD40-2, so (cringe) I will have to paint the yellow stripe, & someday find a logo, if it were to be released again. Gosh, I can’t remember when I got those, perhaps late November of into December -ish, maybe? Search the post for “AWVR Decals” you may find the fella… They look excellent on the sheet, has everything but the small caution type/style tags (just get the Microscale set, I hit that one all the time!!!). Say, Why did they have 2 GE Manufacturer Plates on the engineer side? (often [to my lookup] Canadian loco’s don’t seem to have any, this was a CP unit). Seems they went all kinds of silly with the stickers… Sorry, got off topic…
Yes! Progress. In lieu of a workshop, I’ve had the alcohol tub in he floorboard of my car. And whilst waiting for Amtrak’s Cardinal to come by, I figured I’d check progress. We can now see the yellow paint from underneath the Harbour Grey!
And, I caught the Cimarron River and Pacific Union Private cars. I also managed to catch one of the UP engines (8105) that I’m stripping go by with the two ARMN reefers I own from Exactrail on an Eastbound.
Keep in mind some manufacturers use ink for lettering and stripes, etc. And the underlying paint is indigenous to China (or maybe Japan in the Kato instance) so it may bear no chemical likeness to Floquil, et al.
Duckdogger,
Yes, that is, in fact what some of us enjoy, as it makes removing the ‘extras’ (logo’s & numbering, etc.) so we can patch them out, as I did in a few posts back. Had that been the same ‘finnish’ as the entire bodyshell, she’d ben a real mess, uh, I guess… ha hah. Luckily I skated with just a lil worry/sweat & a bit of buffing to remove the logos off of that unit. Pretty nice actually. Yes there was just a bit of ‘wear’ on hard edges, but it looks ‘weathered’ in that area now… So don’t be real over aggressive on hard buffing, I guess… Zoom in & look, I left it as is after the logo removal, I did add a little yellow stripe ‘fill’ here & there, & you’ll see that… Otherwise it is as it was buffed out, perhaps a dusting of dullcoat, but no additional color at all.