My never ending quest to find suitable motive power for the Port Able and Pacific may have reached an end.
I recently purchased two Athearn Genesis MP15ACs. These are really beautiful models and run great (after I installed a DCC decoder), however, they are painted (I couldn’t find any undec) so I will have to strip and repaint them.
I’ve read most of the discussions on various methods of stripping paint of locos, my favorite method is Easy Off oven cleaner. However, the shells of the MP15AC doesn’t look like the standard Athearn fare.
I guess my question is does anybody have a suggestion as to what NOT to use in stripping these shells? Would my old stand-by, Easy Off oven cleaner, have disasterous effects on the plastic?
I just don’t want to turn these beautiful locomotives into a useless puddle of goo!
Take a q-tip, spray it with the EZ-Off cleaner and apply it to a spot on the INSIDE of the shell that wont go noticed if something goes wrong. Let it sit for a few hours and see how the plastic reacts.
I’m sorry, but if I didn’t want to take any chances at all, I would purchase some paint stripper specially made for plastics, and probably from a hobby supplier. I hear of people using brake fluid, oven cleaner, etc. Why? Because it’s cheaper? How cheap does it turn out to be when you ruin a good shell and have to replace it?
PollyScale and Scalcoat both make paint strippers, another one is Cameleon (sp?), check your LHS or Micromart. I’ve used all at one time or another with good results. Athearn Genesis shells are styrene plastic so you shouldn’t have any problems. Athearn does sell spare shells just in case.