eisenbahnstudio

Removing lettering from models can be a challenge – so I thought. Here is an easy way to strip lettering off unpainted* railroad cars.

Required tools and materials

• cotton swabs
• tape
• nail polish remover
• paper towels

Preparing the car

Start by masking areas where the lettering should stay intact. Even if there is no lettering directly around the area that you are trying to strip, it is a good idea to apply tape. This prevents unwanted discoloration of the plastic.

Once the masking is in place, put the car on a sturdy and level surface. Keep some paper towels handy in case there is spillage.

Removing the lettering

Take a cotton swab and dip one end in the nail polish remover so that it is evenly wet. Apply a little bit of nail polish remover to an inconspicuous area on the car and double check that the solution does not damage or discolor the plastic.

If the plastic stays unblemished, you can go ahead and spread the nail polish remover over the area you want to strip using the wet side of the swab. Let the solution soak in for about five seconds and use the dry end of the cotton swab to carefully scrape the lettering off the plastic. Use the wet side of the swab to apply more solution as needed.

Repeat this process a few times and you should be able to remove the lettering completely. Finish by dabbing the area with the dry side of the swab to remove excess debris. Let the car dry and take off the masking tape. Done!

PIKO Tds with the car number stripped in the center section.

*I would refrain from using this method on painted models, as the nail polish remover may inadvertently strip or damage the paint.

Weinert’s original coupler, while it is not exactly to scale, is the best available option for supering German H0 model trains with a prototypical buffer and chain coupler. The following steps outline how I assemble and optimize the coupler to allow for safe and reliable operation.

Required tools and materials

• Weinert 8632 original coupler kit
• 0.5 mm drill
• 0.7 mm drill
• 0.8 mm drill
• miniature reamer
• jewelers saw
• fine sand paper
• jewelers flat nose pliers
• Blacken-It (or similar bluing solution)
• needle tip precision lubricator

Preparing the parts

Start by cutting the parts from the casting tree using a jewelers saw and smoothen out any leftover kinks using fine sandpaper. I found that sandpaper works better than a file because it is flexible, but be careful not to apply too much pressure when sanding as the material is fairly soft.

Casting tree of the Weinert original coupler.

Next, widen the holes of the two lugs with a 0.5 mm drill and the ones on each end of the releasing screw using a 0.7 mm drill.

After completing these steps, widen the area behind the towing hook with a miniature reamer. Take enough material away so that a 0.8 mm drill goes through the opening without any problems. This ensures that the shackle can easily fall into it.

Finally, widen the hole behind the towing hook with a 0.7 mm drill.

Assembling the coupler

Take one lug and fit into the the hole behind the towing hook. Then take the other lug and fit it into one of the holes in the releasing screw. If the lugs don’t fit in either of the openings, carefully widen them with a miniature reamer until they fit. The holes need to be wide enough so that the lugs can turn in them freely. Do a gravity test by holding the towing hook and releasing screw at various angles. If the the lugs still get stuck, widen the holes some more.

Next, connect the two lugs. Do the gravity test again. If the parts are moving freely finish this step by pinching together the ends of the pegs with a pair of jewelers flat nose pliers. This will prevent the lugs from falling apart.

As the last step, connect the shackle link with the releasing screw. Again, make sure the hole in the releasing screw is wide enough. Do the gravity test, correct any issues and the coupler is fully assembled.

Putting on the finishing touches

The kit comes blued out of the box, but during assembly bare metal spots may appear on the coupler. To give it back its weathered look, clean the coupler with your favorite solvent and use Blacken-It to blue it. Make sure there are no bubbles attached to the metal for an even look.

When the bluing process is done, remove the coupler from the solution and let it dry. Finish the job by applying a tiny amount of oil with a needle tip precision lubricator.

While unpacking the boxes from our overseas move which arrived a week ago, I naturally came across my collection of Willy Kosak’s Hp1 Eisenbahnmodellbau heute. I filed them neatly in our brand new IKEA shelf  and realized later that there was one thing about the magazine, I forgot to mention in my recent You’ve got mail post: Willy Kosak offers a feature on his website that lets you search the archives of Hp1 magazine.*

With this neat tool, you don’t have to spend a lot of time leafing through past issues to find an article or track plan you want to look up. Simply entering a keyword will return entries listing category, title of the feature, issue and page number. The search functionality is somewhat limited, as it seems to only spot keywords in the title of articles. So a few tries with broad search terms may be necessary to find what you are looking for. A query for the word “FREMO” for instance returned the suspiciously low count of two results.

Search result for the term "FREMO".

As the number of magazines increases over time, I think that indexing of the articles’ contents would be a great way to make this feature even more convenient.

*Please note that this link takes you directly to the archive page without the frame set. If you want to see the page in context, visit www.h0pur.de and click on “Magazin” in the top navigation of the site.