It's possibly a sign of age, but I still tend to think of Hornby's long, corridor clerestories as the "new ones", as opposed to the shorter models which appeared under the Tri-ang days. The earlier versions do have their uses, but when the longer models were announced - 1981 I think - they looked destined to set a new standard for reasonably accurate, panelled stock, suitable to run with the likes of Hornby's 4-4-0 County class or Dean single. Alas, when the models appeared, the moulded panels on the pre-production versions had been replaced by flat sides and printed panels, presumably because it would have proven difficult to print lining onto moulded detail.

Etched sides have been available as overlays, but they don't seem to be that easy to find, and I'd never really given the clerestories much thought until a few years ago, when I chanced upon a set in a glass cabinet at my local model shop. I was struck by how nice the lining looked, with an almost 3-d effect achieved, which went some way toward rectifying the flat look of the original releases. Some while later I bought a train pack which consisted of a Dean single and three fully-lined clerestories.

The coaches are nice enough, but I still felt that they didn't quite cut it, even with the improved printing:

The chocolate, cream and gold lining is very nicely applied, but the lining's still quite simplified as there's no black component to it. Also, the window droplights should be painted reddish-brown. Set against a kitbuilt clerestory, lined to a high standard (not by me!) the Hornby coaches looked a bit toylike - which is a shame as I gather they are fair representations of their particular diagrams - certainly good enough for my standards.

I decided to see what could be done without going to the trouble of etched overlays. The first job was to paint in the droplights, done carefully with some dark red and a fine brush. Some might prefer a browner shade but this is the colour I've used for all my other GWR coaches so at least there's consistency. Just painting these droplights went a long way to breaking up the monotony of the Hornby decoration, giving the coach (in this case a brake) a more interesting, busy look. But I was still conscious of the lack of black lining. Being in a optimistic frame of mind, I decided to have a go at ruling in the black using a bow-pen. I used acrylic ink although enamel would have worked just as well. After some trial goes before I got my eye in, the lining went quite well and I was very pleased with the way it helped bring out the gold lining already applied by Hornby:

Hornby's roof painting might be accurate for an ex-works vehicle but I preferred to go with an overall grey, in keeping with my kitbuilt vehicle. Perhaps I should have used a darker grey, in hindsight.

The origins of the Hornby brake are still obvious but hopefully these tweaks have gone some way toward helping it blend in with the kitbuilt coach, and there's still more to be done, all easy jobs, such
as removing the horrible couplings, adding working corridor connections, separate wire handrails and pipe fillers and so on. There are some noticeable differences in the renditions of chocolate and cream,
but nothing that wouldn't have happened in real life as well, given the age and condition of differing vehicles.

Total time to line both sides was one evening, with another evening or two to do the droplights, as my red needed two coats before it achieved sufficient density. Not really much work at all, then, compared
to building or painting a coach from scratch.

Cheers, and thanks for reading.