So after my effort with the Electra Railway Graphic overlays on my Track Cleaner (see external blog http://railblue.blogspot.co.uk/ ) I thought I'd try something more substantial.

So to start off I purchased a set of Vinyl overlays from Electra and a couple of 374-180 Graham Farish Regional Railway Mk 1 BSK coaches. I chose these as they were the cheapest I could find I suppose any MK 1 coaches would do as long as they are scale length for the graphics as you strip the paint away. To Strip the paint away from China built Farish MK1s Id read that Brasso is recommend so I got some of that and were all set.

All the bits together.

So first off I removed the roof easy enough as it just pops off.

Then it was a case of dabbing my cotton buds in the Brasso and a bit of elbow grease and a bit more elbow grease.

What I found was rubbing it in a circular motion as a posed to back and forth seemed to work faster.

After a while and a lot of cotton buds you get to a clear shell see above. It doesn't really need to be perfectly clear as its only really the window section that you need clear but I thought I'd do the best I could.

On refection using the regional railway livery coach was bad as there are several layers of paint to strip off rather than just one if I'd got an all blue coach for instance.

So next up as Hermes has end vinyls to apply this needs to be stripped off as well so to ensure the vinyl had a smooth surface it was a case of cutting off the steps and other bits and bobs from the end and again rubbing the paint off which seemed harder than the sides.

Now we get to see some progress by applying the end vinyls. To aid when doing the cleaning / stripping I turned the bogies in so the couplings weren't flapping about as I lost one early on in the proceedings which was repaired.

And next was applying the sides you do get a couple of goes to get it right as long as you don't press down to hard. The hardest bit on this was getting all of the little bits of leftovers from the windows to stay on the sheet. I found it easier to pick them off and get them to stay on the sheet from the sticky side as I was removing the vinyl from the backing. It's a bit hard to explain basically the vinyl has cut out windows but you dont need the bits that are where the windows should be these need to stay on the sheet. The other way I found was trying to get the little squares to stick to the coach while I lifted the vinyl gently and the picked them off the coach.

So your left with something like this I chose to hand paint the top of the cab front in yellow to blend it in and this added greatly.

Then same again with the next coach to make Test Coach Mercury

And Voila..... I'm really happy with these for my 1st attempt they look alot better in the flesh than the photo. The white on the ends is dried Brasso which I need to paint over.

I have painted the corridor connector yellow which adds to the appearance.

And here's the whole train on my layout. Hauled by Class 46 46053 looks the dogs do-dahs

A question :- Should the coach ends on RTC stock be painted yellow??

Cheers

Steve

http://railblue.blogspot.co.uk/