Is there a painless way to remove the standard plastic headlights on the HL Pz3? I want to replace them with more realistic metal ones.

The glue monkey has NOT been merciful []

Set your Dremel at 9000rpms.

There are products like MEK that I've read will work, I just use the CA debonder from my local hobby shop (LHS) it will break down the CA and can soften the plastic so be careful, use a small amount and let it sit, add a bit more and start moving the light until it pulls out. You may need to fill and sand too.

Gary

Brake cleaner will also work with the same cautions

Panzerfaust77:

I have to second hdbeast's recommendation for MEK. It can be used as a CA debonder, epoxy debonder (worked on my JB Weld just dandy) and regular polystyrene (plastic) solvent glue, and is ~much~ cheaper in quantity that CA debonder. I got 500 ml (17.63 oz.) for $12 Cdn at Canus Plastics (Ottawa)

To minimize damage to the tank hull, apply the MEK on the inside of the hull joint, not the outside where it'll eat the paint as well. I recommend a wooden-handle'd real-hair brush for application, or better yet, one of the Touch-n-Flow tools (basically a very thin hypodermic tube on the end of a glass pipette) I tied a regular eye-dropper but the tip is not nearly fine enough.

I just busted the back 1/3 off one of my two T-n-F's and will be trimming it back, not tossing it, despite the cheap price of about 6-8 bucks a pop.

Urgh. Sounds like far to much work and far too great a risk. I'll leave them be [&:]

Persistence & care taken into account won it on the day for me,Sure the glue monkey was doing his thing, maybe I was lucky.
Afterwards I found the headlight assembly is able to be broken down into it's separate components. [>:] would have made the whole process easier

Mine were dead easy, all I did was to gently twist the lamp from the top until I heard a crack then from underneath I pushed a small screwdrive in and the complete lamp dropped out, brilliant !!!