Loco Weathering

[michaelp]

Hi all,

 

After weathering locos what is the best and quickest way to get the wheels clean ready for use?

 

 

Regards

Michael

[squeaky]

The way I clean wheels is to apply some cleaning fuild (I use Goo Gone)on a piece of lint free cloth, then place over the track. Run the loco over the cloth and while holding one end of the loco spin the wheels by speeding up the loco, this will then clean the wheels.

 

I hope I've explained that well enough!

[beast66606]

As above but we use lighter fuel.

[Edge]

Paint thinners and a cotton bud.

[michaelp]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies guy's.

 

 

Michael

[Tom Bayford]

a Dremel of other rotoary tool with a soft brass brush is a good way of clearing excess paint

[CraigA]

I have the loco upside down (secured) with the wheels turning, and use a cotton bud with a dab of meths. it's quick and neat, with no mess. Meths loosens any stubborn paint with ease.

[CraigA]

I tend to clean the wheels immediately after weathering the underframe and bogies. Although I prefer to do my weathering by hand with a brush, I sometimes use an airbrush to give the underframe, wheels, etc an even coverage (which I may later rework with a brush, adding detail). So I place the model on a turntable upside down, and spray the underframe. In order to get an even coverage on the wheels I need them to turn (because they are mostly obscured by bogie frame or coupling rods, etc), and I make them do that by simply using a model railway controller with the 2 wires touching the wheels (on the inside), kept in place by a tiny piece of tape. As soon as I've used the airbrush, I do the cleaning with the cotton bud.

[Captain Kernow]

If I'm building a loco kit/chassis in OO and have used 'Romford' type wheels, I tend to air-brush them a base colour and then add the weathering by brush. The wheel is then mounted on an axle and some fine wet & dry used to remove the paint. This is followed up by a glass fibre brush, to really shine up the wheel tread afterwards. I've not had any problems with electrical pick up or running by following this method. It also pays to treat the back of the flanges in the same way, to ensure good conductivity.

 

With wheels like Ultrascale or Alan Gibson, however, it's not really practical or adviseable to keep removing them from their axles, so I tend to use the cotton bud dampened in thinners approach when using these wheels. I would normally use cellulose thinners for this, as (provided it's applied carefully and doesn't touch the front face of the wheel) it takes no prisoners where paint deposits and other detritus is concerned, on the wheel tread.

[corax67]

I shy away from abrasives just to prevent causing microscopic scratches which can harbour dirt later on, so after weathering wheels I use cotton buds with thinners (matched to the paints used) to remove any overspray which has found its way onto the wheel drive surfaces.