Work continues on my GP60 project locomotives (see HERE for details)
I had been intending to use Cannon & Co cab part for one of these two GP60's and a salvaged Athearn SD50 cab for the other. I realised it made more sense to use the Cannon parts on the Railpower shell and keep all of the salvaged parts together on the same model. So NS #7129 will be a model made using recovered components.
The SD50 cab came from my basket-case ebay purchase back in March last year (see HERE for details) and was painted for Conrail and partially repainted/stripped. Because the cab/sub-base are smaller parts I used a couple of old snap-top pill containers as stripping baths.
The parts fitted neatly into the containers and the lids helped to keep everything airtight so the 99% alcohol could do its job
The Athearn RTR conrail paint turned out to be a bit more resiliant so I left the parts soaking in the shed for a week to soften all of the paint.
Here's a shot of the parts after scrubbing. The brakewheel came loose during the cleaning and will need to be refitted or replaced.
Intrestingly the 99% alchohol didn't strip the silver paint from the window frames, I'm not sure why, but it might be the type of ink that those parts are printed with. In this case that actually a good thing as it saves me from needing to try and remove the cab window sides (I'm not even certain that it is possible to remove them once they have been glued in place).
The next stage will be to assemble the locomotive and begin adding the main details, including a multitude of Cannon & Co parts.
Work begins on my GP60 project locomotives (see HERE for details)
The base model for NS #7129 is an Athearn GP60M in BNSF livery. The first step is to strip the paint from the model, so that detailing can begin. I use 99% alcohol to remove the paint, this is a plastic safe way to strip the paint from models without damaging the shell, but it should always be done in a well ventilated area. I work outside when stripping models.
I seal the model in a tupperware box overnight as a first step. Here's how things looked this morning, as you can see there is no apparent change to the paint, sometimes it will peel off without any help, but as this particular bottle of alcohol has been used a few times, it is a bit diluted.
Despite looking untouched, the paint is actually already softened, and should start to lift off the model with some rubbing. I use thick rubber gloves when handling the parts in the alcohol. The paint tends to remain in the grooves and detail areas of the shell.
An old toothbrush is the ideal tool to use for scrubbing the model, and after a minute or so the shell looks like this, the paint is removed from the majority of the long hood and walkways. The paint around the pilot ends and steps is not ready yet so I've sealed the shell back in the tub for a few more hours to finish the job. I have found it can take a couple of days to loosen all the paint, especially on the modern factory paint. Older 'blue box' paint comes off more easily.
