Eagle Scout Project-Tribute HELP

Lee willis likes to use  I think 90% alcohol, Q-tips and a lot of patience to remove lettering. I like to use 90% alcohol and a magic eraser, it's a lot faster but not as delicate. As far as new lettering is concerned, you can try to find similar dry transfers on ozarkminiatures.com or some of us have started using premium vinyl to letter projects. Check out doityourselflettering.com

Thanks Tom!  Doesn't sound too difficult.

You can also buy material to make full color iron on decals with your inkjet printer.

You could put his picture right on the car. (perhaps on the trailing end, appears to be an observation car)  I would get the picture from the family if they agree on the idea.

Otherwise I would not do it.

For two recent projects, I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with excellent results.  Both were Lionel items.  Letters came off, but paint stayed.  You have to be careful and take your time.  I have not done the exact car as you have so I don't know if your results would be the same.

 

I do see one issue you may have....

The lettering on this passenger car goes over and around some rivets.  Whatever method you use to remove lettering may take the paint off the rivets.  Not knowing what the base shell color is it may or may not be noticeable.  The good news is, if you mess up Pullman Green paint can be found.

 

As far as replacement decals...

MicroScale has lettering decals in several colors....last time I ordered they had a goldfish color that could match.  They are water slide decals.

Or...you could look for dry-transfer lettering.  CloverHouse.com has many different fonts and colors.  To only rub the area where the lettering would be, I put painter's tape around existing lettering.

 

Tom's idea of using doityourselflettering.com is a good choice too.  I've used them on a few projects and really like the results.  If you do not want to try and remove your existing lettering, you could use a solid background choice.  Then it would cover right over it.  You would need to press out any bubble caused by the rivets.

 

Nice project idea.  Please let us know how it comes out.

Rich, here's another possible solution.

 

Lionel made some of the same exact passenger cars for the New Haven around 1996. I wasn't the only one who thought the "New Haven" lettering above the windows was too large. I used some silver paint (a pretty easy color to match) a went over the lettering on the car.

 

Then on my computer, I made some rectangular orange bars with white New Haven lettering. I printed them on paper, and coated both sides with a gloss spray. I used a glue stick to adhere the orange bars on the car, and was much happier with the new look.

 

I will add, I'm real good with a razor blade and straight edge. I used an orange marker to cover the white edge of the cut paper name plate rectangle.

 

I don't know whether you just want to re-do the lower lettering or both upper and lower. You could make a black box with gold or deep yellow lettering. I would save you the potential risk of losing both lettering and paint of the car.

 

I've learned the hard way, just because a Lionel car like this one, is pullman green, doesn't necessarily mean that a model railroad paint of pullman green will be an exact match.

 

Another idea I like would be to get some facial photos of the boy and make your own custom window strips with his photo reduced enough to appear like he is a passenger in the car... that would be a nice tribute in my thinking.

Good Point.  I belonged to an HO club years ago and we wanted a pair or SD45s in GM Demo paint.  The members brought in a total of seven engines and we could not get a matching pair because of the paint difference.

Thank you.

 

Below is another link to the project with photos of the layout parts.

https://ogrforum.com/t...-project-help-please

 

Yes, you can add LEDs to anything, but the amount of work you are willing to do will determine if you do it or not.

I'm used to DC powered trains.  Do you need a special circuit to run off the AC lighting?  The mechanical aspects I can handle.  I can get a circuit built if anyone can send me a link.

Thank you.

To get DC from the AC track power, hook up a Bridge rectifier., Then a Resistor to limit current in line with your diode is all you need.

If running conventional the LED will dim and brighten with track voltage.

If Command Control I'd add a Cap and a voltage regulator after the Bridge before the current resistor to maintain the voltage lower and make the LED steady brightness.

Keith, thanks for reminding me about the rivets. My magic eraser turned a simple decal removal into a repaint because it stripped the paint off the raised rivets. If you have rivets close by try the q-tip method. It will take a while, but it could save you a repaint.

Thanks all for your help.  I was able to make decals with Testors decal kit.

Didn't look bad until I tried to seat the decals over the rivets.

Good thing I had the foresight to print 8 decals!

Next time i won't use a brush with tan, water base paint.