Thumper yellow panel removal

[PhilH]

A few years ago at an rmweb meet at Taunton I bought from the Kernow stand a sold as seen Hampshire demu, the celebrated Thumper. I’ve recently rediscovered my urge to play trains so dug it out of storage. It runs perfectly but has one feature which irks me somewhat as it is a bit late for the timeline of my imaginary railway world. That feature is the small yellow warning panel on each end of the unit.

I don’t really know how this is applied at the factory but does anybody know if it can be removed without disturbing what is I presume to be the base green paint underneath it? I suppose what I am asking is it applied as a different process to the paint so would respond to a different chemical or something.

Any insight into this would be appreciated.

[bécasse]

If you do remove the small yellow panels on each cab end, you will have to add a large orange V to the cab end of DMBS, the predecessor of the smaller black triangle that appeared in much the same place on the small yellow panel. The symbols told platform (and GPO) staff that the van was at that end of the train.

[PhilH]

5 minutes ago, bécasse said:

If you do remove the small yellow panels on each cab end, you will have to add a large orange V to the cab end of DMBS, the predecessor of the smaller black triangle that appeared in much the same place on the small yellow panel. The symbols told platform (and GPO) staff that the van was at that end of the train.

Thank you..I do get that, being a native of Eastleigh and old I was around when they were introduced. That would be the next step, however getting rid of the syp would be the first. Maybe trying to overspray is the way forward, I don’t know.

[Hal Nail]

5 hours ago, PhilH said:

Thank you..I do get that, being a native of Eastleigh and old I was around when they were introduced. That would be the next step, however getting rid of the syp would be the first. Maybe trying to overspray is the way forward, I don’t know.

 

Not really any different to removing numbers - there are 100's of threads on that. IPA, Tcut etc. All will leave a polished area so probably need a varnish overspray.

 

Painting over it will show - the thickness of the yellow paint will leave a ridge.

 

[Right Away]

I airbrushed my Hornby 2 HALs to “remove” the warning panels with Humbrol RC409 Malachite Green. The jumpers were then picked out with a suitable colour, followed with a little weathering of the lower cab front sheet to blend, - please see photo. However, the Bachmann green is darker and you would need to find a matching hue. The “Vee” could then be created with masking tape.

 

[Steadfast]

It's probably going to need painting out, I'd recommend rubbing down with wet and dry first to take the hard edges off otherwise you'll have a ghost of a square through the green.

Normally the main colours are painted in the factory, whereas numbers etc are tampo printed with ink. The ink used for printing by Bachmann is a lot easier to remove using IPA, a scalpel, Tcut or whatever. If you leave the IPA long enough to take the yellow off, it'll probably take the green with it too.

 

Jo

[PhilH]

Thanks for the replies, decisions to be made.

[RFS]

On 15/10/2022 at 12:36, bécasse said:

If you do remove the small yellow panels on each cab end, you will have to add a large orange V to the cab end of DMBS, the predecessor of the smaller black triangle that appeared in much the same place on the small yellow panel. The symbols told platform (and GPO) staff that the van was at that end of the train.

 

Not necessarily. The large orange V was a later addition and units first entered service without it. I have a pair of Kernow Thumpers that are both in full green with no yellow ends. 1115 has the orange V (plus air-horns) and 1108 has neither.

Edited October 16, 2022 by RFS