LGB Kit Bashing Question

[CRuss]

I have an LGB chassis frame from a v-tipper. The toy has a red tipper and black chassis. I want to grind off the LGB lettering and cut off the black couplers at either end. I also want to paint and weather it with a rust-type product. I have never done this before and need some guidance on how to go about cutting and grinding, I don't want it to melt during this process. Also what kind of glue and paint should be used on LGB toys.
Thank-you

[tworail]

Use a dremel tool on low speed. Practice on a few crappy models or almost anything so you get a feel for what it does. You can wreck things pretty quick with a Dremel, speaking from experience here.

Gluing LGB plastic is tricky due to the composition of the material. One way is to rough sand any parts to be joined and use a good thick super glue.

Do you have a picture or reference pic of the one you are talking about? As most LGB models you can remove the couplers easily.

[Reckers]

Along with Tworail's expert advice....

If you're going to cut metal to remove the couplers, use the Dremel cutoff wheel. It will make a fast, thin cut and you can dress the edges with a grindstone. "Dressing" means smoothing and polishing the edges.

For plastic, let me suggest you first reconsider the thought of "grinding". Grindstones are pretty coarse and hot-running for plastics: you'll end up with a stone full of plastic gunk and a mess of a car. If I were cutting plastic, I would start with a hobby knife or a sawblade for an exacto knife handle. A very small coping saw would also be an excellent choice. None of these get hot, so you get a clean cut.

If all you want to do is remove surface paint, start gently and then get tougher if you have to. Dremel-time, again: start with the little white cotton wheel that looks like a mini-buffer for polishing things. Dremel sells these little, green-capped tubes with a reddish-brown gunk in it. That's called rouge, and it's used for polishing out scratches. It can also be used for polishing off paint, without leaving the deep gouges that sanding or grinding will create. If you go to a decent hardware store and ask, they should have a polishing compound for plastics. So, you use the rouge to take off the lettering (don't let the heat build too much!) and then wash off the rouge. Come back and use the plastic polishing compound if you need to for restoring the smooth surface. By the way, there's no rule against putting that plastic shell in the freezer for a while before you work on it---just don't drop it! The cold plastic will have less likelihood of heat-damage, as the whole shell will act as a heat-sink for the work area.