Vinegar

I don't remember where I read it, but I think ordinary household vinegar and a soft brush will clean the brass. Some unpainted brass locomotives had a clear coat of laquer on them, while others were bare brass. Some actually had a brass colored paint on the locomotive, to hide the solder discoloration that could not be disguised any other way. If the vinegar works, you will probably want to spray the locomotive with a clear coat of acrylic in order to prevent the brass from tarnishing again. Hopefully others on here will also have some ideas. Jim.

Cleaning

Vinegar will work, or a baking soda and water solution. However both are meant more as a pre-paint cleaner. A lot of what you see is the natural oxidation of brass and the only real way past that is polishing. For any of the above you will want to remove the mechanism and be careful of small parts.

I would inquire at your hobby shop if anyone does painting. That is a very detailed model that would look very nice with a good paint job, but that decision is yours.

Eric

BAR KEEPER'S FRIEND CONTAINS

BAR KEEPER'S FRIEND

CONTAINS OXALIC ACID, USE AND RINSE IN ONE MINUTE PER INSTRUCTIONS

TEST SMALL AREA FIRST

Thanks for the help!

Thanks so much, Eric, Carter, and Jim! I'll try the vinegar first and then work from there with your other suggestions. I appreciate all of your help.

Nick

please note:. both methods use acids

Sand Blasting

Not so much using silica sand but baking soda in a "Air Eraser" such as Micro Mark sells or something similar.

https://www.micromark.com/MicroLux-Mini-Sandblast-Gun-Set

Bernd

and a bit more info

Any updates?

Just curious if the original poster tried any of these suggestions and how did it turn out?

I’m currently preparing to clean up a brass locomotive that is in similar condition.  I intend to paint the model once cleaned up.

Thanks in advance.

most comprehensive

IMHO the most comprehensive way to do this is to disassemble and sandblast right before painting. It (usually) is not that difficult, although you do have to be careful as most brass models have some pretty tiny screws. It is easy to have one bounce away!

In my experience the liquid methods don't get all of the paint or lacquer off. Many (most?) brass models have a golden lacquer, and some (many?) are applied pretty thickly. This makes it even more difficult for a pure liquid method to get the model completely clean.

My current project is a brass loco I bought for a song, mostly because the previous owner had bought it used and simply couldn't get all of the paint off. He got most of it off, but it was in the steps, under a screen, stuck along the sides of the handrails, etc. I use an "air eraser" which looks a LOT like an airbrush, but which has a different tip and a bigger gravity-feed bottle for the grit.

Unfortunately, if you have just one model to do, this may not be a very efficient job. The air eraser costs maybe $45-50, but you need a place to do the job and you don't want to breathe the grit. This basically means you need some kind of a blast cabinet. If you buy one, it will run at least $75 and really nice, fully assembled ones can run as much as $300. I have a whole fleet of brass locos and cabeese to redo, so I didn't mind the investment.

I will mention that if you're into this redecorating thing, the blasting is not limited to brass models. The liquid methods often don't get plastic models completely clear either. I do a fair amount of repainting, and these days I soak plastic models in alcohol to get most of the paint off. It usually don't get everything off, so after I take a toothbrush to the plastic to get most of it off, I use the air eraser to clean up the remainder. That's a quickie job usually.

One more thing: the air eraser helps greatly with the delrin handrails that come on some diesels. Most paint doesn't like to stick to that material, but after a quick treatment with the blaster, the surface is a lot more paint-friendly.