Yet another old project, this one was started in 2010....

It should have been a simple renumbering job, along with upgrading the roof. The Vi Trains paint had other thoughts however, requiring a repaint to remove the old numbers, the Phoenix Virgin dark grey turned out to be a lot lighter than the model so currently it looks rather odd

​Here is the loco taken back in 2010 after the repainting, at which point work stopped.

​​While looking for a different project I dug this out yesterday. The light grey looks far too light against the Hornby Mk2e coaches, however the Vi Trains shade does not look that different to the Halfords Volvo grey that I use for GWR coach roofs, so my plan is us that to respray the cab sides. If it wasn't for the stripes on the red/grey I would repaint al of the grey (but I don't want to have to respray the red as well if I can help it.)

Before digging out the paint, it also needs new roof grills adding (Shawplan). I started by fixing the brass surrounds to the etched mesh before rolling to shape and supergluing into position on the model.

Glued onto the model it makes a huge difference over the crude recessed originals

After warming up a can of Halfords Volvo grey, a quick paint job later and a much better match on the grey. Certainly close enough to the original finish that weathering should hide the joints (espically as I resprayed the whole roof.)
Once it’s dry I will add the new numbers and give it a coat of satin varnish, then start on the weathering.

For the moment it will stay in OO along with the mk2 set as a first step testing formation on Brent , but it will eventually receive new wheels and be ran on the branch on Wheal Imogen