I receive fairly regular update information from MicroScale about new products and releases. This was in my latest today and I thought it would be worth repeating it here since there are often questions about removing pad printed decals. I have known about this for years and have used it. I think the use of the tissue is an improvement since it does slow evaporation of the product. [video=youtube;6Gf7xqIHGMQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gf7xqIHGMQ&feature=youtu.be[/video] Although they are doing this with Athearn products I have found it works with other manufactures pad printing.
I made a mistake yesterday. I spilled CA debonder on an ATLAS DASH-8-40C. After only about 30-45 seconds, paint & decals GONE!
It ate some of the plastic. Where I was using it, I had BUILDUP OF CA, it worked fine. Took away the CA & left the paint alone. I rubbed the debonder on the CA with a tissue & it dissolved the buildup. I accidently spilled debonder on the number. When I turned over the engine, the numbers had lifted. I used a paper towel to wipe off the debonder & the number & black paint came right off. I'm debating how to fix the engine.
If it's in the right spot, put primer on it and claim turbo fire. I have several GE Dash Locos that have had fires. The latest one I bought, I looked up pictures of the real one and sure enough..... Right out of the paint shop too.
Well tried this process on a MDC locomotive lettering and sorry to say did not work nearly as well,think the pad printing on this locomotive was quite a bit thicker so took a lot of applications and scrubbing, the areas will require repainting.RATS!
Killer technique. Thanks for posting the video. I do quite a bit of painting and altering of lettering and car numbers. That is a good one to have in the arsenal.
I have tried it on an n-scale Atlas 90T hopper and it didn't work. When I say it didn't work, I mean the results aren't as "easy" as you see in the video. Some of the lettering was removed, but overall it did not remove the lettering quickly. And I have found if it isn't quickly, then you tend to have to rub more which eventually means that you rub through the paint. I think there are other variables at play. One might be the age of the pad printing. I think the longer the printing has been applied, the harder it is to easily remove. Modelers have made comments about this when removing MTL lettering (with camp fuel, not Micro Sol--which does NOT work for MTL and likely will remove paint) and I think it generally holds true across the board.
I just used this technique to modify some numbers on a couple of Bachmann Cabeese. I had three with the same 4 digit road number and went the lazy route. On the first I just removed the first number and on the second I removed the first and last digits. It'll do for now until I find a decal sheet with the right typeface, size and color. Thanks for posting this, it was incredibly helpful.
