What is the best method to strip this shell. I'll be taking the paint off an American Freedom version for a de-skirted black one. I was considering 91% alcohol but I'm not sure if it will harm the shell. I've used easy off on a Kato BR shell, but it left it somewhat fragile and this concerns me.
I've stripped dozens of locomotive shells (Kato and otherwise) with 91% alcohol and never had any problems with it harming the plastic. Cheers, -Mark
Is it critical that one strip the original paint? I asked because I had the first Kato GS-4 which was the orange, etc. paint job repainted by custom painter to a B&O Blue. As far as I am aware he, did not strip off the original. Wish Kato would offer the black undec version with DDC installed. I could see another on my roster.
I've painted over decorated models before (some unstrippable PCM E7's) and didn't run into any problems. But I guess it would depend on the individual model - one more extra coat of paint could obscure some of the fine detailing on the shell. Also, there could be compatibility issues between the old colors and the new. Cheers, -Mark
I echo Mark's statement and experiences...I've painted over decorated shells...some w/o any problems...others had detail obscured somewhat by the extra paint... My preference is to get the shell down to bare plastic...91% alcohol has become my 'go to' stripper...previously it was ELO. I've had no issue stripping Kato shells down to their basic plastic, but I have been pro-active with the Kato shells...I don't leave them in the bath too long and check them often...using a toothbrush-Q tip, whatever to aid in the process... ~Bruce
if you heat the 91% alcohol to 90 degrees then put the shell in the paint will come in about 5 min. you will see the paint cloud away. i did to three up 70ace units with the flags and the flags came off like decals. and the shells look like undecs.
I prefer to strip all of my locos before repainting them. I'm not a fan of seeing the fine lines from the original paint under the new coat, I've had this issue on a few previous jobs. I'm going to take it apart tonight. I tried the 91% on a spare kato skirting that I had and it worked well. Going to take the GS-4 to bare plastic tonight.
I've had the loco shell sitting in 91% for a total of 2 hours, pulled it out after the first hour and scrubbed some paint off. The paint they use is persistent to say the least, I'll have to let it soak for some more time tomorrow to get the rest off, and then to the paint booth.
I'll second this statement. I stripped a Daylight painted one for the same reasons, to make it an all black unskirted version. The tender stripped fine, down to a nice black base color. The boiler and cab however I was never able to remove all the orange or red. The silver stripes and lettering/numbers came off easily but the orange and red onyl faded. I primered it using Tamiya gray primer then painted it with Floquil and you can't see any traces of the underlying colors. It hasn't been weathered yet, as I'm still debating how much weathering I want to do. SP kept their engines suprisingly clean when in the commute pool, which is how I plan to use my 4430. Phillip
It's possible that the locomotive shells actually are red/orange plastic (to work better with the paint scheme). I've seen Kato (and others) do that before. Cheers, -Mark
I have disassembled/kitbashed about 10 of these engines. The earlier ones were molded in gray plastic and the later runs in black from what I can tell.
sorry it toke so long to reply. i heat a bowl of water in the micro wave for 3 min. then put the bottle of 91% in the bowl . i have meat thermometer that i put in the bottle.
Finally, after sitting all afternoon in 91%, I was able to get all of the paint off, including the skirts. Now I'm trying to decide If I'm going to de-skirt the loco or keep the skirts in the black theme. I already have one de-skirted in the half daylight (which looks awesome but its a concor). At one time 4456 carried an all black theme with skirts and no tender lettering. I might go this route to start and see how it looks and if It doesn't look quite right, then remove the skirts.
