Saving Decals while repainting old freight car

[kedes]

I have been refurbishing some ancient but still salvagable freight cars. Several have great, unique decals. However I need to airbrush paint the cars. How can I preserve the old decal signage. If I mask it, it will look as if the signs have different paint behind them.

 

[Scordicus]

However I need to airbrush paint the cars.

Why do you need to paint them? Do you not like the colour they are??

If you mask the decals, you could perhaps make them look like patched cars.. It really depends on what exactly it is your after as you haven't really made this clear...

 

[cajon]

Most of what you call decals is paint on 99% of model trains. It is done by what's called the "pad printing" process. Check into Microscale for something that can be applied on the markings to protect them w/o ruining them.