Gentlemen,
Meself needs a substitute for alcohol as meself is highly allergic to it. Meself hast noticed tha’ you use isoprll alcohol for just about e’erything. Meself canna get witin a mile of it. Is there an alternative?
Thank ye for your help.
Please excuse any spell’en mistakes and the Anglish - meself is an auld Highlander.
Mac (Macdonald,RB)
Ay, mon. I’m 100-proof Scot myself.
I use India Ink in water, not alcohol, for weathering. That seems to work fine. Instead of India Ink, you might consider chalk for weathering, too. I use a couple of drops of dish soap in water for my “wet water” for scenery and ballast.
I do still use alcohol for cleaning wheels. I suppose other cleaning solutions, like Goo-Gone or maybe kerosene, would also work for that. However, both of those are quite smelly so I don’t like to use them in the train room. They are also kind of nasty if they get on things other than the wheels, like the body of your custom-painted locomotives. Ammonia-based cleaners might do the job for you, but I’ve never tried those… I guess the best solution is to use the metal-polish trick on all your track, which people say keeps track and wheels clean for years without any more maintenance.
Alcohol does have a lot of uses on a model railroad. As Homer Simpson says, “Ahhh, alcohol… The cause of – and solution to – all of life’s problems!”
The main reason we use alochol is for its very low surface tension. Approximately the same results can be had mixing filtered or distilled water with a few drops of liquid dish detergent (if your tap water is relatively mineral-free, use that). Some people also use a “wetting agent” by Kodak used in film developing. It also breaks the surface tension of water. You may want to check, though, to see if it has alcohol in it. If not, stock up! With the popularity of digital photographs these days, don’t expect to have an easy time finding anything related to real film. Camera stores should still carry it.
THeRe ISH no shUbstItute fOr ALcoHol! Hic!
Burp.
'Scuse me.
DaRrelL, hic, quiet…for now