DECAL REMOVAL.

[ebay mike]

Thanks Jon. I found the brand shown in Stockers post on a German site, but it's not in stock. What appears to be a similar product is listed on www.dorsetmodelbuses.co.uk as a future item, but not yet available.

 

[stockers]

Google tampondruckentferner - several European train stores supply it.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Yes......Ahem.

I have successfully used car brake fluid to remove paint and transfers in the past - not recommended though for safety reasons, it is nasty stuff.
Great care required - and gloves and I suppose eye protection for Elf and safety etc.

Yes, I have used brake fluid in the past - best not done on the kitchen table though ...........

 

[Gavin Sowry]

Turps, applied with a cotton bud........ wait till the decal crazes, then rub.

 

[G-force1]

Turps, applied with a cotton bud........ wait till the decal crazes, then rub.

I tried that Gav. Gave up waiting.

I suspect some transfers may react differently.

 

[tac foley]

Most 'decor' on model trains these days are not transfers [decals] at all, but pad-printing, as demonstrated by the labelling on the German product. Tampondruck means pressure pad, and entferner means remover.

It is a form of ultra-quick drying and permanent plastisized ink, hence the difficulty in removing it.

tac

 

[G-force1]

Miracles! I've managed a little (very) train work.

I have stripped the transfers off a second Bachmann J&S. (only 2 more to go). What I found was that the clerestory lettering is different to the fleet number, and car name, if it has one.

The fleet number and car name are definately water-slides (un-varnished) and can be carefully removed with a persistant fingernail and nothing else, if you wish. The clerestory lettering must be something like tampo as it doesn't peel and can only be rubbed away. Here I used the same persistant fingernail and some brasso.

I tried leaving them to soak with turps sub, but it seemed to do little or nothing. I'm wondering if Gav used proper Turpentine? Not easily found here these days, though not impossible.

The two left are a different colour, Yellow, not Brunswick, I wonder if they will require mildly different treatment also.

 

[dunnyrail]

There are lots of ways around the thorny issue of Decal or removal of unwanted Painted lettering. A recent article by Callum (a former serial poster on here) in Railway Modeller suggested T cut. Just so happened that they had some in Lidl the other day so I bought some to give it a worl. I recently bought a couple of Thomas Coaches from MIke and wanted the names off. Below you can see the problem.

Here you can see that I have sploged the T cut on the lettering with a non acceptable these days cotton bud. Replacement ones will be to Cop21 standards.

A bit of gentle wiping with a piece of kitchen roll is already having the correct results.

Final results after a little more T cut and wiping.

I think this has worked so well because the plastic is the colour of the bodywork, this solution should work with many older LGB items as they have the correct colored plastic with lettering added after. But as always it pays to experiment if you can on an area that is less critical.

All I now have to do is remove the nose, though T cut will work with the other face features.

 

[tac foley]

Toothpaste.

 

[maxi-model]

Great idea but a warning about T Cut and similar paint cutting agents, like toothpaste, they are all mild abrasives that include other "contaminents", unlike very fine wet/dry abrasive sheet. First check that whatever you are removing is not under a laquer coating. Otherwise you need to go through that to get at what you want to remove and will have to match the original finish, check for compatibility and recoat partialy or entirely. You might as well use a 1200 grade wet/dry in those instances and accept you will have to do an all over recoat. Some LGB products have a semi matt texture in the molded finish and T Cut it will poloish this up to a shine - see my comment below about fixing glue blemishes.

Once you have finished using a product of this type make sure you remove every trace of it, and any other fine ground particulate residues, if you are going to (re)apply a painted/laquered surface - any residue, however small (in crevises, etc') or it will create a "crinkle" effect on anything applied over it. The other thing is it is very easy to go through a painted, rather than colour molded, surface and through to the unpainted substate below - like USAT, Aristocraft products and others. Use this method with great care and forethought.

One of the great uses for T Cut, apart from its intended purpose, is as a "plastic polish". Microscale market similar stuff, at an exorbitant price, for this purpose. It is also an aid, to finish off, as part of a process when you are trying to remove glue blemishes on transparent plastic parts like windows. Max

Edit - I found this report that tests T-Cut and other related paint renovating, mild abrasive, products. It might be of help here in the suggested applications CarPlan T-Cut Scratch Remover | Auto Express

 

[dunnyrail]

I just today received 3 LGB Ow 4021 Opens. Bit tricky to date them as 2 have lgb stickers beneath 1 does not. The colour on each one is very slightly different that suits me but they have the more modern removable couplings.

Point of this rambling was that I tried T cut to remove the LGB and Number (4021) with T Cut and it just would not touch it, how strange that I had recent success with a Bachmann Coach. Looks like there are differences between print between the two makes.

What will now happen is that a new stick on label will be printed to cover it all, pretty much to the size and style of Harz Wagons but on a bkack background which is nit prototypical but does allow my operators to read the numbers.