tac foley
Registered

A few years ago, I bought this great-looking Accucraft brass caboose from Sandy up there in Stirling at a very good price, mainly, I think, because somebody had carefully removed all the D&RGW decalling and replaced it with, uh, nothing, except a fictitious so-called 'estate'.
Looking for yet another project after my venture into Gauge 1 scratch-building with my CPR reefer car, I discovered a complete set of Stan Cedarleaf's superb D&RGW decals, and decided to lay 'em on it. All went well, until I ran out of the usual Humbrol satin finish varnish I used on most everything. Yup, I used another brand, and it was a total disaster, lifting all the previously-applied varnish in a kind of frost.
It has taken me overt two weeks to remove that - something I NEVER want to do again - but this evening, after my usual two-way pontification shout with old friend Fred over there in The Big O, basking in the 32C of a nice afternoon, I thought I'd show you what can be done to put things right - if you have a mind to do it.
How did I take off all the old finish and leave only a flat colour? Well, I used rubbing alcohol, white spirits, nail-polish remover, airbrush cleaner, TETRA bore cleaner and many, many little pieces of pan scrubber, Miracle cloth and various shapes of scalpel blade....

Please excuse the fingerprints - my own fault, having just finished off a bowl of potato chips. I'll do better next time for you, and give it a good wipe-over before taking the all-revealing pics.
As ever, my thanks to Stan Cedarleaf over there in Prescott Canyon for his great decals, and to pal Fred for the encouragement.
A new one now, IF you could find one, that is, is about £400 or so, and although it IS made virtually entirely of brass and nickel-silver and weighs a ton, is still only a ghost of the remarkable Bachmann van of the same kind, and maybe even the same road number. I bought two of those a couple of years back when they were remaindered at £75 each.....shoulda bought ten.
Looking for yet another project after my venture into Gauge 1 scratch-building with my CPR reefer car, I discovered a complete set of Stan Cedarleaf's superb D&RGW decals, and decided to lay 'em on it. All went well, until I ran out of the usual Humbrol satin finish varnish I used on most everything. Yup, I used another brand, and it was a total disaster, lifting all the previously-applied varnish in a kind of frost.
It has taken me overt two weeks to remove that - something I NEVER want to do again - but this evening, after my usual two-way pontification shout with old friend Fred over there in The Big O, basking in the 32C of a nice afternoon, I thought I'd show you what can be done to put things right - if you have a mind to do it.
How did I take off all the old finish and leave only a flat colour? Well, I used rubbing alcohol, white spirits, nail-polish remover, airbrush cleaner, TETRA bore cleaner and many, many little pieces of pan scrubber, Miracle cloth and various shapes of scalpel blade....

Please excuse the fingerprints - my own fault, having just finished off a bowl of potato chips. I'll do better next time for you, and give it a good wipe-over before taking the all-revealing pics.
As ever, my thanks to Stan Cedarleaf over there in Prescott Canyon for his great decals, and to pal Fred for the encouragement.

A new one now, IF you could find one, that is, is about £400 or so, and although it IS made virtually entirely of brass and nickel-silver and weighs a ton, is still only a ghost of the remarkable Bachmann van of the same kind, and maybe even the same road number. I bought two of those a couple of years back when they were remaindered at £75 each.....shoulda bought ten.