After a quick bit of livery experimentation this morning, a couple of hours of work this afternoon has resulted in this - a GC HST rake!

The HSTs were old Farish Virgin ones (they were never getting run as the prototype is obsolete), and the donor coaches are from my stalled 442 Wessex project. I decided to do a 4 coach train as my 'full length' expresses are 6 coaches (plus loco and DVT), and to get the GC rake feeling correctly 'short', 4 seemed a good length.

The HST locos had their undersides sawn off and a simple buffer beam added (this needs detailing later), and were then stripped down and sprayed matt black. The coaches had their roofs sprayed, and their sides are entirely vinyl overlays I designed on the PC. The locos have had logos and numbers added as vinyls as well, and all that is missing is the OHLE warning line on the locos (need to locate my Fox transfers sheet for that), and some touching up on the ends of the coaches where the under colour shows around the corners.

I never really liked this livery, but as I had the HST floating about, and without Dapol's forthcoming (and rather soon if rumour is to be believed?) Pendolino, I am short on long distance trains, so the GC set seemed a good idea to try!

David