February Issue
I got the February issue and saw my PERSPECTIVE article. It looks great! There is always satisfaction in seeing one’s own work in print.
I noticed that some of the dates are wrong. I guess I confused things by us- ing international format dates on the files. I don’t know if it’s worth doing an errata on this but if you want, here are the correct dates:
www.dallee.com www.dallee.com
The top left photo of the self-pro- pelled was from February 1, 2010; the second from bottom (the 2-8-0 pulling a passenger car) is from February, 2001. I don’t know where the No. 1386 was in 2011; it was not in the yard. There were two locomotives that had some fairly serious damage that were paint- ed all black and stored in the remains of the sugar factory in 2010 and these had been pulled outside about 100 me- ters in 2011. It could be one of them. JOHN ILIFFE via e-mail
GP30 locomotive
In reading the article by Jim Wiggin on painting and detailing an N scale GP30 locomotive, I was interested in why the author soaked the truck frames and fuel tank in alcohol overnight before painting them. Does this have to do with these parts being made of Delrin®, or does this process apply to any plastic material? What does doing this do for him?
PHIL GLIEBE Waynesville, Ohio
I have found through trial and error over the years that soaking the Delrin trucks and handrails in alcohol re- moves any mold release agents used in the molding process of said parts and works extremely well to prep them for acrylic paint. Because of the nature of Delrin, (the flexibility of the material), the plastic seems to absorb the mold re- lease agents, and I have found that a quick wash of warm water and soap does not remove all the mold release agents. Removing the mold release
leaves only the plastic but does not af- fect the flexibility of the parts. The alco- hol is not really “etching” them. Once soaked overnight, the parts can be cleaned quickly with a rinse of warm water and allowed to air dry. As far as other styrene parts, again the 91 per- cent alcohol effectively removes any oils or residues that could harm the out- come of the finished product. Once soaked, rinse all parts with a warm water and allow to air dry. For styrene the more common 70 percent alcohol would be fine.
Since starting this process around 10 years ago, I have not had the problem of flaking paint on any of the Delrin parts. Styrene does not need to have the alcohol soaking, as it doesn’t absorb mold release agents as much as the Del- rin parts. Still, on the parts that are subject to being in contact with more oil, such as the fuel tank on a locomo- tive, it does help.—JIM WIGGINS
Correction
RMC did a nice job on the PGE/BCR remote control car article in April. There is on error, however, that needs to be corrected. The lower photo on page 62 is identified in the caption as a former FB-2, but it is an FB-1. I believe it was the last one in existence.
BOBB LOSSE via e-mail
LED strip lights
George Gibson’s article on using LED strip lights, printed in the January is- sue of RMC, brought a flurry of in- quiries about the source of the lights that he used. Unfortunately, we have temporarily lost contact with him. A few moments on the computer and entering something like “LED strip lights” in the Google® search box pro- duced a number of sources. Self-adhe- sive, five-meter lengths with 300 lights cost around $35.00 from one retailer. Cheap? Depends how many you need and how you respond to prices. As al- ways, one has to shop around. BILL SCHAUMBURG
KIT FOOTPRINT: 5”X8” 6 MAY 2012
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