Locomotive Paint Stripping

I figured I'd made some sort of super paint lol. Hopefully the new shell comes by the end of this week. According to the directions just apply and wait until the paint is crinkled and then scrub with a brush. John I wish I knew someone in Staten Island who can blast it for me. I can go to someone in nj since I'm 10 mins from the outerbridge.

I never had any luck with ELO. Its nearly useless when stripping a shell. As others said, you might use it to remove decals or lettering, its not a harsh solvent. When I first started stripping 1/32 slot cars with it, it ruined one Carrera shell when it became so brittle it fell apart. You could not give me another can of it.

Rob

I figured that Rob with my luck this stuff will not work but I will give it a try. The shell is going to be yellow. If I can get any raised paint off I think I will just prime the shell then paint it the colors I want.

PUT THE CHEMICALS DOWN.  Go back to your hobby shop, get the pack of super-fine grit sanding sheets, and use the finest that will work to knock the "lip" off of any lettering or striping, then prime and paint.  ELO isn't going to do bumpkiss on MTH paint.  DON'T ruin another shell!  Stripping is a terrible idea, at least for trains. 

You might try contacting Harry, the son of the owner of Henning's Trains at HENNING'S TRAINS 128 South Line Street   Lansdale, PA 19446
Phone: 215.362.2442

If he would do it, the cost of shipping and his fee likely wouldn't be cost effective though since you're already getting a replacement shell. BTW, [Harry and his brother are both forum members.]
 

I've noticed that MTH paint on plastic shells is a lot more robust than what Lionel uses on theirs.  Both look fine on, but the Lionel paint comes off easier.

 

I know for sure that Henning's has a bead blaster, I've used it.  The NP "O" Gaugers, club which Henning's sponsors, also has one.  If you want to ship it down, I'm sure we could get it stripped at a good price.  Or, it would be a good excuse for a field trip.

 

It is an option...

 

Well the new shell came today thanks to a forum member.  I started using testors ELO with a tooth brush to remove the paint. So far the only thing thats wiping away is the white caterpillar lettering. However after running my fingernail along the shell I can see it has no raised lettering. Do you think its a good idea give this a good washing in the sink with dish soap and then priming over the original paint?

I'd clean that off and use your finger to feel for raised edges on all the lines and lettering..if you don't feel anything...shot coat it with primer and look for marks.

 

Trying to rid my MTH GG-1 of it's paint..I'm getting to dislike MTHs paint-lol. Maybe I should just polish it all off and make a shiney GG-1...

This paint is no Joke. I know you need time but its not even comming off a bit.

Dude, just wash it with soap and water and let it drip dry....minimal handling to a painting jig and hit it with primer, then see/feel what you've got.

Bead blasting is sounding more attractive by the minute.

..yes, well...he's on a budget.

"Do you think its a good idea give this a good washing in the sink with dish soap and then priming over the original paint?"

Yes.  

That base paint will only come off by physical abrasion and the only abrasion that won't destroy the details is some kind of air blasting.  ELO will strip off the registration marks and secondary decoration but not the main colors.  The main paint is meant to stay on.  If you can prime over that with a base gray coat that won't bleed through the underlying colors you're set.

I'm down to the yellow and black. I was able to get the CAT painted on lettering off. I have gray primer from testors. They only thing I am noticing is the transition line from black to yellow it's not raised but you can feel a joint between the two.

There is one testors gray primer that is enamel based. It takes forever to dry. I would not use it. I may have the can here, I will look for the number. I like to use automotive primers or the Tamiya brand.

Rob

I don't know the number. I will find out when I get home from work. The gentleman in the hobby store picked it out.

Most of the modern equipment is spray painted use photo etched masks.  You would be surprised to see the number of masks used and how accurate the alignment can be.  There used to be a display at the Lionel visitors center on the 20+ steps used to paint the F3 warbonnet scheme and all of the masks used.  

 

Take a look at the transition seam with a 5x magnifier to see if there is a small gap or if the one color is layered over the other.

I need some ideas for decals. I know they have MNRR decals in HO scale... Will that be to small? Also some of the decals are blue can I paint them white? Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

The numbers you should be able to lift from any number of decal kits for roads that use white numbers(or are they silver?)  The Metro North on the flank and the nose emblem will be trickier.  You may need to commission custom decals.  I'd start looking for drawings of the metro north logo... it's a crap-shoot, but maybe mnrr's pr department will provide you with a vector drawing of their logo (when you clearly explain it's for not-for-profit use.)

Microscale makes these logos but there HO.

And if that doesn't work (likely scenario), one could also vector-trace a photograph or scan of the logo (or the HO decals) using Inkscape (it's free). The resulting image can be resized and printed for use in making custom decals, with no loss of quality.

---PCJ

Bano, you have a few options here for those decals. They sell letters/numbers in different fonts and colors at given heights...just figure out what that height is and find some on the bay or the web. The off scale heralds can be as simple as scanning a smaller set, copy to an editing program{ms paint/paint.net} and enlarging them to your needs, then print out on white decal paper......what I've done before is enlarge the herald and surround it with as close as possible, the background color- this will give you an outline on the white paper, to cut out with a fresh exacto blade...trim nearly to the white but a tiny bit of background color showing won't be the end of the world.

BTW- I sympathise with you about not finding the decals you want....CB&Q diesel and steam is prettymuch nonexistant in O scale now a days...sucks.

I will give that a shot. I know micro scale sells ho MNRR decals. I can call them and see if they can do an o scale run for me.

After 3 1/2 months of work (I been a little bit busy) I finally finished my MTH F40ph Metro North Locomotive. What do you guys think? This was my first time doing this.

Looks like it turned out good. I'm glad for you, cause I don't have another shell........... At least it wasn't an expensive lesson. I've never gotten off that cheap.

Paint looks great, that's an impressive first attempt!  One thing I'd do is use a short coupler for that front coupler, that one seems to stick out more than it should.