Hi John,

Do you have any idea what the underlying original paint is like?

Märklin used a fairly good quality enamel on those models and unless it's really badly damaged, you may find getting back to the original paint is preferable to a repaint.

That would be your first step anyway in my opinion. I acquired some portions of an ST 800 some years back that was in almost the same state. Poorly repainted and not quite sure what to do.

I did some sample stripping with IPA (Iso-Propyl-Alcohol) and found that it softened the newer paint quite easily without any damage to the original paint. I simply sprayed IPA over the old paint, let it soak for only a few minutes then used a soft cloth to remove the paint revealing what was underneath. Although the underlying paint was somewhat chipped in many places, for me at least this was still preferable to the poor overpaint that had been done. The over-paint still showed the chips as indentations and the colour was just wrong.

A couple years ago I acquired a complete Blue version of the same set, it too had some small chips, particularly on the areas most exposed like the front Skirt, edges of the roof etc. These are a heavy train so it's easy to see how a knock or even just a robust derailment could lead to damage. For me however, this was part of a history of the item. It had obviously been used, yet if I wanted a pristine one, with box etc I was going to pay a premium for it. I like to run my trains so playworn is not a problem.

If yours is more badly marked, or you simply want to do the repaint anyway, then seeing as you are going to the trouble you might as well do as good a job as you can.

Being die-cast, you can be fairly hard on the paint without too much concern for the body itself. I'd be trying a quality paint-stripper and let it do its work, ensuring that you thoroughly clean the body afterward to remove all traces of the stripper. You should carefully remove the wire hand-rails, plastic windows etc.

Unless you are especially good at colour matching, or know someone who is, you might be better advised to seek paint from someone like Ritter Restorations...
(https://www.ritter-restaurationen.de/). Although, with a decent airbrush and some quality paint stock you might be able to get the mix you need with a little trial and error.

Frankly, just give it a go, if you don't like the result you can always strip and start again.

If you prefer not to practise on your ST800, you might consider getting some old similar die-cast items such as battered Matchbox cars etc and start with those, it will be much the same process regardless of the item.

Not sure why no one else has responded yet, I suspect like me they may have missed the posting if a few topics were all updated at the same time and often it just needs one response to trigger more.

Regards

Steve

Thank you for your replies.

I have since restored the ST to its original paintwork using a paint stripper used by plastic kit builders. I guess the only reason it worked was because of the quality of Marklin's original paintwork.

John