I want to remove the stock lettering on the following LGB loco/tender and repaint and add my own lettering/decal. Is there an easy thorough way to remove the stock lettering without damaging the tender?
LGB 2018D Mogul
Road Name: D.,S.P&P.R.R.
I repaint all my LGB engines, rolling stock, etc., I’ve been a model painter for 30 plus years, so I have a pretty good idea on what works and what doesn’t. First once again you didn’t tell us what engine you have, so were guessing again. The reason I say this is some engines are painted and some are the color of the plastic and not painted, and some a little of both. On engines that the lettering is on plastic I have many times just used a pencil eraser and erased it off, now for lettering that is stamped on painted engines the process becomes much different, I first take a Q-Tip and with some thinner on the Q-Tip gently rub just the lettering and see if it will come off, many times it will, but rubbing too much may soften the paint underneath and you will have to repaint the base color and pretty much start over. One thing that does happen is the lettering may enprint the plastic and if you paint over it, old lettering will show through, the only way to correct this is sand with 600 grit sand paper to remove the plastic enprint. I can tell you from painting for a long time, you best plan a repaint, because most of the time it never works out. Now painting is a another story and most have problems doing it, if they have no experience in modeling. Here is a pic of a LGB #50 D&RGW switcher, I removed the D&RGW lettering from under the #50 by using the Q-Tip and thinner method, it was pretty much touch and go. I then sprayed clear gloss in the area, install new lettering for my railroad, clear coated again, then sprayed with Testors dullcoat to blend the colors back to match the rest of the engine. This process is always touch and go, so like I said, 30 years of model painting made the job somewhat easy for me. Good Luck
trainman
Actually, I did post a picture of the image and it did show briefly, but no longer does. So, I’ve included a link to the image.
I have had my best success with Bon Ami cleanser. A wet cloth and don’t rub too hard. Removes the stamped on lettering and a somewhat shiny surface ready for decals.
Now where is that picture? Hmmmmmmm
