Repainting freight cars


H

hefyjefy

New Member
I have an assorted collection of freight car kits that I have built over the past few years, I never paid much attention to the company so I have real mixture of different liveries. I recently improved my airbrush/decaling skills to the point where I want to try and repaint some of them.
With the exception of the most recent kits they have all been pre-decorated. Looking for advice on how to go about this,
I have a feeling that simply "painting over" might require a lot of paint and hide surface details?
If that's the case any thoughts on how to remove the old paint?
The kits are Red Caboose, Intermountain, Life Like Proto 2000, etc.

Thank you!
Geoff
 
You can use commercial products such as "Easy Lift Off", a paint remover made for model applications by Testors.

I use methanol from a hardware store, the kind used as shellac thinner.

By the way, if you are modeling N American railroads, there is nothing wrong with a "mixture of liveries", On most railroads the majority of cars are from different railroads. Having said that, I also strip off the paint from the majority of my cars and engines, primarily because the paint schemes for the roads I need in the era I model aren't available commercially.
 
hefyjefy said:
I have an assorted collection of freight car kits that I have built over the past few years, I never paid much attention to the company so I have real mixture of different liveries. I recently improved my airbrush/decaling skills to the point where I want to try and repaint some of them.
With the exception of the most recent kits they have all been pre-decorated. Looking for advice on how to go about this,
I have a feeling that simply "painting over" might require a lot of paint and hide surface details?
If that's the case any thoughts on how to remove the old paint?
The kits are Red Caboose, Intermountain, Life Like Proto 2000, etc.

Thank you!
Geoff
Click to expand...
Scalecoat makes a nice reusable paint stripper. It’s all I use.
97ABF312-2ACB-454E-AB1C-46090BD471EB.jpeg
 
I like to use Super Clean degreaser. It's very effective and readily available. I first heard of it being used to remove the vacuum plating from some model parts and it worked great in that role. Later I tried stripping paint with it and found it was also very effective yet gentle on the plastic. It also does a great job cleaning alloy wheels on full size cars and trucks!
 
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