CrossCountry livery colours/transfers

[sub39h]

Hi guys,

 

I have a set of Hornby CrossCountry HST power cars but the matching Mk3s are rare and I'd end up with a mish mash of Lima TGS tooling and Hornby Mk3s which would probably annoy me.

 

I'm looking to repaint a set of Lima Mk3s into the right colours. I was wondering if anyone knows what the correct colours are and if the transfers are available please?

 

Thanks!

[sub39h]

Hi everyone,

 

So I decided to use the bank holiday to do some experimenting on a scrap Lima coach I had. It had been taken apart many years ago for another project but had been forgotten about. I found the roof first so decided to give this a go. I've never done anything even close to this before so don't laugh too hard!

 

I've used Halfords spray cans. I used Vauxhall Satin Red. It is a pearlescent colour but I figured I should be able to tone down the shininess with matt varnish and some weathering. And I don't think it's come out too bad. There is enough brown, although you do catch the shine in some lights. I'm hoping it'll be darker once it's fully dry.

[sub39h]

Ok so throughout the day I've been working on a single coach. The two things I haven't worked out yet are the slightly fawn colour that you see between the door and the black window stripe, and the colour of the door itself.

 

I managed to get a proof of concept with a very good body colour but when I painted the black stripe unfortunately it bled quite a lot past the masking tape, meaning that it is too embarrassing to show on here!

 

So far this is what I have:

 

Roof - Halfords grey primer with Vauxhall Satin Red and matt varnish. It isn't perfect, but I believe once it's weathered it will be pretty good.

Body sides - Halfords grey primer with Ford Polar Grey (from Range's auto paints). It is a touch light (in fact I'm going to experiment to see if the grey primer on its own will be good enough.

 

No idea about the doors and that fawn. Stripping the coach again and will try again tomorrow.

[NickL2008]

It does look a little bright, so maybe a darker coloured primer such as black may be worth trying, although Hornbys colours sometimes are darker because of the dark coloured plastic they use

 

NL

[sub39h]

It does look a little bright, so maybe a darker coloured primer such as black may be worth trying, although Hornbys colours sometimes are darker because of the dark coloured plastic they use

 

NL

Thanks for your reply. It did dry a little darker and I had another roof to hand so I sprayed that directly onto the black plastic and it came out exactly the same shade. Once I've stripped everything back v2.0 will be with a darker primer!

[sub39h]

Ok then so today was further experimenting. I've been cutting a lot of corners and using a hairdryer to dry the paint between layers just so I can get a feel for it before I do it properly. It's far from perfect and there is still some bleed from the masking tape.

 

I'm still not able to get a good match for the doors. The HST set doesn't have doors the same colour so I'm trying to match them to the Bachmann XC Voyagers which is a sort of orangey pink which I haven't been able to find.

 

So far we have the following:

 

Roof - Vauxhall satin red on a black base (too shiny but otherwise seems spot on)

Body - Ford Polar Grey (from Range) on a grey base (not blue enough but not sure it would matter when weathered

Fawn stripe - Ford Tuscan beige over the Ford Polar Grey (totally wrong tbh but I don't think there is anything close to it.

Window stripe - Satin black over the Polar grey

Doors - no idea!

 

Cruel close up time. Don't laugh too hard! The colours look worse on the camera I think:

[JDW]

Nothing to laugh at here mate, looks like a good attempt at producing something of your own that you wouldn't have otherwise.  The colours look close enough to be believable, though I agree with you about the beige, it looks a bit strong, but even then, if the whole rake matches, it shouldn't be too noticeable in itself, if you can't find a better shade.  And especially since you're limited in your choice of colours by using aerosols, it looks a pretty good attempt to me.  Thinking about it, as it is only a small area, could you brush paint the beige stripe, if either the correct colour or something similar is available from someone like Railmatch?

 

EDIT to add:

YOu say the black bled quite badly, what masking tape are you using?  I'm no fan of painting and avoid it where I can but if I have to, Tamiya tape is well worth the investment - and lots of light coats of paint!

[sub39h]

Thanks very much for your reply. I was using Duck Tape's masking tape. It's not awful tbh and when it's pressed home really hard actually it does pretty well. I am going to invest in some Tamiya tape though.

 

I've not had a chance to have another go at it yet but I've stripped the coach body back to have another go. I'm wondering whether EWS maroon may be a better colour for the roof and Railmatch have it in aerosol form so I think that may be what I try for the roof next time.

 

For the doors I think I've found a good match. I painted on Railmatch faded Railfreight red, and then painted over it with P3 Murderous Magenta. I have no idea if this is a close match to the real thing, but it looks pretty good when compared with the Bachmann version of the livery on their Voyager which was what I was aiming for.

 

Keep an eye out for v3.0 which I'm going to try my hand at this week.

[JDW]

Good to see you're not being put off, I can see where you're going with the faded Railfreight red and magenta, maybe a hand mixed version of the 2 rather than one over the other might be even better?  I think you'll find EWS "maroon" way too red though, and too bright - unless you use the shade that Lima used to use, which was much more maroon than it should have been!