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Dapol Announce N gauge Mk.3 Sleepers


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  • 2 weeks later...

Hallo,

I know there are still many caveats, however on my query regarding the BlueGrey livery, Dapol wrote to state 

 

'Not allowing for any further shenanigans with international shipping they should be here by the end of the month I believe'

 

And it seems they are getting very frustrated by the whole supply chain situation. 

 

es grüßt

pc 

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3 hours ago, Padishar Creel said:

Hallo,

I know there are still many caveats, however on my query regarding the BlueGrey livery, Dapol wrote to state 

 

'Not allowing for any further shenanigans with international shipping they should be here by the end of the month I believe'

 

And it seems they are getting very frustrated by the whole supply chain situation. 

 

es grüßt

pc 

 

No doubt they are frustrated. Many manufacturers are struggling with supply from China and getting frustrated. It's a sign of the times, unfortunately.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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On 18/11/2021 at 11:14, John M Upton said:

Blue/Grey ones now bumped to January.  Won't be here by Ally Pally at this rate....


I have some of these on pre-order and had an email from the shop yesterday to say they will be in stock “on or after” today. Read into that what you will but it certainly sounds to me like they’re imminent. 
 

EDIT: Order now processed so they’ve arrived. 

Edited by The Pilotman
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Just seen the pictures of the actual blue/grey version and, oh dear...

 

The CDL still on are the least of its problems.

 

The ends of the grey are wrong, the grey band is too wide with the top too high (the upper blue stripe has been pushed up almost out of existence) the overhead warning flashes are the modern yellow type and of course the moulded on CDL lights are there. 

 

Would love to see the lame excuse Dapol come up with to explain this mess...

 

On the plus side, the InterCity Sleeper lettering is actually the correct typeface for a change!

Edited by John M Upton
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Have to agree with @John M Upton ; the blue/grey coaches are, at first glance, disappointing. Personally, I can overlook the CDL lights (the inclusion of which was presumably a tooling compromise) and the overhead warning flashes (which are tiny) but from the pictures I’ve seen, the depth of the grey band spoils the whole look of these coaches. That said, some carefully applied blue paint along the top of the coach sides should go some way to making these look more presentable. 

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Yes, my order duly cancelled.

I too had accepted the CDL lights as a tooling compromise. I can also cope with the overhead warnings as they would be simple to correct.

However the application of the grey and white border is shocking.

I had mulled over addressing the issue with some blue paint but instead I have cancelled as the issues of matching the paint, re-applying the white border is neither appealing or should be necessary.

Such a shame and over £200 quids worth of order lost to a company I would love to support.

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The earliest dynamic lines mk3s weren't bad, and then it all went wrong on the buffets! Frustratingly that's also the first time they got the 1st class band at the ATP warning labels right though!

 

I'm guessing there's variation in individual coaches, but the lettering is in completely the wrong place on the blue/grey one I looked at.

 

 

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17 hours ago, Steadfast said:

Any bets on which livery will hit the bargain bins first? 

The FGW dynamic lines seem to get redder and further from reality on each release Dapol do.

 

Jo

 

Blue/grey, because my Farish ones look better than them. Even the pizza cutter wheel shod ones....

The dynamic lines might be camolagable (is that a word?) if not very prototypical under a layer of grime....

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I'm not sure about the blue/grey model - it might not be quite as bad as first thought. Looking at some video footage (Bowden collection 1988), the top blue band was very narrow so I don't thinks it's too far off. The lower blue band looks very slightly too far up the carriage. It would be interesting to know if anyone has scale drawings showing the livery to compare with the model.

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To my eyes the bottom of the grey area sits between the door handle and the angular fold on the door, which appears about right to me on the model. The top of the grey area appears to be about half way between the top of the door window and the black roof. The model has way more grey above the door than it should comparing it with the prototype images that I am looking at, some of which are linked bleow from the RW Carroll collection on Flickr.

Kernow have a couple of nice large images of the model on their site for comparison.

 

 

E10651 SLEP_Plymouth

 

10648

 

 

 

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All these livery errors really frustrate me - does Dapol actually bother to QC their livery artwork?…. do they even look at prototype photos?…. are they colour blind?…. I mean, the colours on the FGW ‘dynamics lines’ are terrible - seriously regretting pre-ordering these…. this is the last time I pre-order anything of Dapol’s.

 

Funnily enough, I had also pre-ordered the KMS exclusives and I’m pretty happy with the livery on those - I’m guessing KMS probably had to sign-off those and therefore actually bothered to QC the livery. The fade on the First CS white stripe was done surprisingly well, or as good as could be expected for N gauge.

 

….. which leads me to conclude that the problem is Dapol themselves….

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I wonder if Steve at Rail Tec Models and Adam and Electra Graphic eye's light up every time a new Dapol model hits the shops?

 

On 10/12/2021 at 18:16, John M Upton said:

On the plus side, the InterCity Sleeper lettering is actually the correct typeface for a change!

 

The font's right, but the text is missing a "-". Most of the Mk3 sleepers I've seen photos of are labelled "Inter-City Sleeper".

This is the only image I've found of blue/grey and "InterCity".

38036451611_0e670cb16d_n.jpg

10713 Mk3 Sleeper at Kidderminste (28-10-2017) by blackwatch55013, on Flickr

 

"ScotRail Sleeper" versions weren't hyphenated:

5834112844_d37a655351_n.jpg

MK3 Sleeper by Keith  Valla, on Flickr

 

 

The good news is that sleeper's ran mostly at night so the mistakes won't show in the dark.

 

Steven B.

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1 hour ago, njee20 said:

Have you lowered the SO? There looks to be a noticeably smaller gap betwixt bogie and body. 

The SO is out of the box (all be it some years ago and I think I swapped the roof to get all my HST trailers matching) and yes, there is a noticeable height difference in addition to all the other problems.

 

I am unsure if I can be bothered fixing the errors, is it worth waiting for a second batch that may be better done?

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I wouldn't, they have zero form fixing stuff on subsequent batches! I think every single livery of mk3 has had a problem; the best you can hope for is that they do something else wrong next time!

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6 hours ago, John M Upton said:

The SO is out of the box (all be it some years ago and I think I swapped the roof to get all my HST trailers matching) and yes, there is a noticeable height difference in addition to all the other problems.

 

The ride height is pre-departure, when the toilet retention tanks are still empty. It'll ride a bit lower once the passengers have drunk the bar dry...

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