10-10-2009, 08:38 AM
If they are new Athearn's, they have changed the paint and lettering. The old Athearn used to strip paint and lettering easily with denatured alcohol or Pine Sol. I was at a friends house a Year ago to do some kit bashing with him, and we found that the new r-t-r stuff was impervious to anything except Scale Coat Wash Away. We did not have on hand or try some of the other products that have been mentioned here from time to time. The solvent in brake fluid is denatured alcohol mixed with a lubricant, so that probably won't work on the new Athearn paint. I'm n also not sure how easy it is to use Scale Coat to take off lettering without taking off the paint underneath as well. You may need to end up masking off the area where the lettering is located and doing a "patch" job on the silver before decalling for Santa Fe. You might also be able to lightly sand the lettering off with a 600 grit wet or dry sand paper glued to a stick that just fits between the windows and the roof. If you go through the silver in the process, mask off and repaint the area with silver, then decal for the Santa Fe.