Hornby Dublo 3 Rail: Stripping

Whilst I have a reasonable skill for mechanical restoration, my artistic skills when it comes to painting are a bit lacking to say the least. I was rubbish at art when I was at school and I've never really tried anything particularly artistic since then, apart from painting rooms around the house which I can just about manage without screwing it up.

So having read numerous internet forums, I was intrigued as to the many different methods of paint removal and decided to test one of them for myself.

Now there are two reasons for doing this - First of all I need more platforms, although Dublo did make platform extensions, they cost a bomb. If I could track down some shabby stations / platforms that are worse for wear or have been repainted then potentially I could strip them and repaint them myself (also avoids the issue of poor colour match between my different stations and platforms) I've picked up two more island stations, both for less than a tenner each and one without platform ramps - ideal for extending the existing stations, if I can make this work!

Secondly, I have now amassed quite a collection of spare bodies and ages ago I purchased a spare set of transfers for a 0-6-2 loco, so I decided to give it a go. I selected two bodies for repainting - a 0-6-2 and a 2-6-4 (which I later discovered had a buffer missing) nothing too elaborate for my first attempts, just standard black paintwork.

Priority at the moment is the platforms but as I needed to strip the paint it made sense to bung in the two loco bodies while I was at it. I opted to go for the oven cleaner method, using the sealed bag supplied with the cleaner.

This is the first station, bought without ramps and has been repainted along the edges, although the station building itself is in good condition so I drilled out the rivets underneath and removed the waiting room, also because it's the platform I'm really interested in...