Hi, an open question to all and especially Rob Kluz: are they undecorated AZL locos planned or is there any demand except me? Everyone who has some experience with stripping AZL locos knows what I'm talking about, it's a pain in the ...o.k., I say only pain
Hi there, At the moment, No. There has not been much demand for undecorated units (although we do get the occasional request) and there would be no price difference between undecorated and decorated, so we suggest simply repainting the model that suits your needs best. Best, -Rob A @ AZL
Rob, I was just reading some of the excited comments about the announced RDC's. I'm wondering if it would make sense to do some of the RDC's in simple metal finish and have decals or something available for various roadnames. Most RDC's were just a metal finish with the roadname painted on like a passenger car. Might let some folks get what they want a lot quicker than waiting for release of dozens of possible roadnames. Randy
Hi Rob, thanks for the answer, the price is not the important thing, to get rid off the paint is my point. Just overpainting takes lots of the details.
Yes and not just the RDC's, all engines. An undec with the choice of any road decal imaginable should be easy to pull off.
Yeah, take the new SD40-2... there are many schemes I'd like to have that I know they won't make. Undecs should always be available. :tb-wink:
Eddie, With MT locs, your best bet is to wait for a single color paint scheme with little pad printing and just strip it. The undecs cost about the same as the simple liveries. And, the MT's are easy to strip. Undecorated models aren't a high priority to most Z manufaturers. With MT, they are hit and miss at best, even for their rollingstock. AZL has made it their trademark to make road specific details on their locs. If you look at their GP7 offerings, this is very visible (DB/no DB, etc.). Anyway, if they were to offer undecs, they would have to make multiple versions of each. And, as Rob said, the demand (in the grand scheme of things) doesn't justify the added inventory. Believe me, I would like more undecs avaiable, as well, but I can understand why they aren't there. Dan S.
We offer the GP 35 in undec, the first go around took a few years to sell, but we are moving to have the 9 undec shortly. Even with the SD40-2, once those make it into production, shells can be had. Rob is correct though, not much call outside the folks on the boards it seems. Cheers Joe MTL
Oh, but we do sell shells. They come with a free chassis and are priced the same as a complete loco. I do understand. We do not specify a required source for our plastics because that would add significant expense to our products. Result is that one paint stripping technique could spell disaster for another, because different chemicals react differently to one plastic manufacture or another (BASF vs. DuPont) so we cannot give any guidance on how to strip our paints, nor do we know how! While I understand that advanced enthusiasts want to strip the paint first to preserve as much detail as they can, they do run the risk of damaging the entire shell in the process, so please take care! -Rob A @ AZL
