decals

[alanto]

Happy and prosperous new year to all fellow modelers,how do you remove decals and numbers from loco,s

[Roger (RJ)]

Carefully

It depends on what exact model you are doing. Some can be softened with water and rubbed of, such as old Triang, some scraped off with a craft knife or polished off with a cocktail stick and T cut. Newer Hornby can be difficult I believe because they are tampo printed at the same time as the rest of the livery.

[stuartp]

Tampo printed numbers etc are used on most modern Hornby and Bachmann models, they are essentially paint or thick ink rather than transfers.

My slightly nerve-wracking method is to very gently rub a curved scalpel blade over the printed detail using absolutely no pressure at all, just let the weight of the blade take the printing off a thin layer at a time. You can then finish off with a gentle T-Cut polish to hide any scuff marks.

On older models, especially Lima, any attempt to rub the numbers off with bring the colour coat off as well. You can strip a Lima or early Mainline model back to bare plastic using only meths.

[Mike Parkes]

A number of models can be denumbered simply by rubbing a sharpie pen over the number; looks a complete mess but cleans up with acrylic thinners. An alternative is to rub over the top of the number with a wooden cocktail stick / tooth pick; the friction often causes a the numbers to break up and can be cleaned away.
Some models (Mainline/ Replica/ some Bachmann in particular) will be denumbered etc easilly using enamel thinners, something to watch if weathering .
I have only once resorted to the use of T-cut and then discovered whilst it was a newer model the enamel thinners trick would have worked.