Dismantling Diecast cars for repainting.

[Andy in Germany]

I decided to be a bit extravagant and actually buy some diecast cars for my Pulp games, but because I can't leave well alone 'd like to repaint them.

How do you remove things like the headlights and glazing for this? The chassis was held on with screws but the glazing seems quite brittle and along with lightts, chrome, et c is apparently held on with glued pins. Is it possible to drill away the pins or is there a better option?

[carlos marighela]

Depneding on the manufacturer and age of the model, sometimes the glass work is just an insert held in by tension and can gently be prised away but as you say, it requires care as it can be quite brittle.

If it's held in by pins or glued then the best method is to leave it in place and just mask it off with masking paper or blue tac. I use Blutac for headlights and just spray over it.

[Westfalia Chris]

Crimped posts and the like are usually best removed by drilling, indeed. There are actually a number of good diecast restoration and conversion channels, and one, BaremetalHW, has a number of useful tutorial videos:

https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRyp4wzBOrwm4LprqYdKz1u0PVCGKB3Uz

A fascinating hobby in itself, especially that electrolytic zinc plating process.

[Cat]

Depending on style of manufacture, you might be able to cut them away from the inside, had to do something similar here:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=130709.msg1814347#msg1814347

[zemjw]

Not sure how much of a repaint you have planned, but if you're planning to strip it back to the metal, have a look at Biostrip 20. I cleaned a car with it recently and it removed all the paint overnight (probably a lot quicker, I just left it overnight). However, it will completely screw up any soft plastic it finds, so I'm not sure windows and headlights would survive.

It is fine with hard plastic figures, but I used a plastic measuring spoon to move some of it from one container to another (also plastic) and it ate into the spoon something rotten.

Regarding removing the windscreens, I have had success getting a blade between the windscreen and the roof and managing to pop it over the pin, but if it's also glued, that may not be a good idea.

I do find it annoying just how heavily glued some of these cars are - and don't get me started on the ones that use rivets instead of screws

[Daeothar]

Years ago I did a whole fleet of cars for my pulpy games.

I disassembled them first, taking off the bottom by unscrewing or drilling out the rivets. The glassy elements were usually just inserts that were easily removed. In the few cases they were stuck (chemically or mechanically), I simply masked them off.

Chrome bits, such as fenders, radiators etc, I usually removed by very carefully pulling them free. But just as often, they were solidly glued in place so I masked them off as well.

In the end though, I most commonly just matt varnished the whole car (while masking off the chrome and windows) without completely disassembling them. I then added shadows and highlights on top of that, as I was ok with most of the original colours...

[Andy in Germany]

Many thanks, sorry for the slow response; I keep forgetting to check the link for all replies.

I have made a start on the diecast cars:







I attacked this with paint stripper but the second had a lot more plastic in its construction so I just primed and painted it and that worked just as well.

[YPU]

a start he says. That looks fantastic!

[Burgundavia]

Looks fantastic. Good job

[Daeothar]

Double post??

[Daeothar]

I bought several of those yellow and blue cars some years ago (at Action I believe) for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. project that still has to be started

Love what you did with it; very appropriate colourscheme (is that Vallejo Model Colour Luftwaffe Grey?) and a motivational sight as well I didn't know the interiors were this nice!

[ulverston]

Wow, excellent jo on the car, thats really top notch! Chrome pens are useful if you get a small one... it really is a chrome effect if you need the shiny bits to shine.

[Andy in Germany]

Thanks for the positive comments...

Love what you did with it; very appropriate colourscheme (is that Vallejo Model Colour Luftwaffe Grey?) and a motivational sight as well I didn't know the interiors were this nice!

I use artists acrylic paints: this is how several layers of mixing finally came out. I've done a couple more since; I'll post as and when I get my act together...