murphaph

Cheers Darius, yes I've ordered white backed decal paper. I think this is basically essential because my printer can't print white. I'm using Lima mk2b's, mostly ex FKs. Some TSOs and eventually BFKs to be modified into EGVs.

Thanks Robert. I have indeed ordered a single transfer to try and given the high price per coach (twice as much as I paid for the coaches themselves!) I have ordered a sheet of transfer paper to attempt my own transfer printing. I'll try all these methods and go with the one I feel most comfortable with.

I may buy one set to try. It's not a given that I would be able to get such a long transfer on straight to be honest. At least with masking tape you can pull it straight. I have done down to 1mm reverse masking on IR coaches with the airbrush with very satisfactory results, though this is a more complicated livery.

One more question if I may... How thick were the bumble bee stripes? I am trying some masking tape combinations and 1mm for the white stripes and 2mm for black and yellow seems to result in a band that is too deep (4mm scale by the way). I could try to source some 0.75mn tape which seems rare enough and not available from any shops I'm currently a customer of. 0.5mm I can get easily however at a local shop.

Hi David, yes indeed it was one of your posts over on IRM that led me to Revell 52 which I've also tested in acrylic and which for me is also a dead ringer for the MM blue. Thanks for the info on the lower "grey" band. That obviously simplifies matters a lot. Did you ever figure out codes for the light grey above the black band or did you do your excellent resprays by mixing by hand?

Thx chaps. I'm aware of the railtec lining which I'm sure is a great product given the quality of their transfers but I wanted to give the airbrush route a go first. I'll be using Railtec for all the numbering and lettering. I am pretty sure when I checked the Phoenix Paints website they did not list the colours I need. They have the NIR blues but I am very happy with Revell 52 for that already. It matches the Murphy Models blue perfectly. Yeah I just double checked and they don't have the yellow or any of the Grey's listed on the Phoenix site. Does anyone know if the roof grey is perhaps the same as BR roof grey as is available from Humbrol? I think it's RC212 (I would use it just to match up a water based acrylic to be honest, I'm not wanting to spray enamels) What about the lower greys? Any ideas there? Even a car colour might help. I could try to locate a can here and match it up.

Hi all, Does anyone have some tried and tested colour codes for the NIR bumble bee livery. I am happy with Revell 52 for the deep blue but I could do with some pointers on the roof grey, the red dining stripe, the yellow first stripe, the yellow cheat line stripe (or whatever it's called, the actual bumble bee stripe yellow part), the light grey and the dark grey at the bottom? Please note I won't be able to do anything with Halfords etc. car paint names as I'm in Germany. I would need actual RAL codes or model paint manufacturers codes. All the best, Phil

If anyone can suggest a source for drawings of the roof detail of the mk2b FK (I'm looking for the vent locations in particular) I would be most appreciative.

Thx Andrew. Appreciate your tips.

Do you mean paint the window frame brown or the flushglaze? The Irish coaches are completely black around the windows already (like these mk2b's):

Thanks a lot. I cut out the entire window and made cut n shut window frames from a scrap Lima mk2d shell but I think I'll give your way a go. Did you use flushglaze for the rest of the glazing?

These look great. I'm currently doing the same conversion of an Irish mk2c. May I ask how you did the toilet windows on these?

Thanks a mil giz. Much appreciated.

Perhaps they pressed them into service as soon as possible in some cases and refurbished a bit later. They were very short on coaching stock at the time, which is what prompted the unusual purchase if used equipment. The only donors that were corridor compartment (apart from the mk2as which I'm not interested in) were the two that ended up as buffet cars so it's possible they pushed them into service as was for a time (after a quick repaint). There is at least one example of a blue n grey BR intercity sitting in Connolly Station Dublin sandwiched between NIR liveried stock so just about anything is possible I suppose. Ultimately it doesn't matter much for me as a modeller. I'll be modelling the refurbished state with buffet in those former compartment coaches. The rest were FO originally and reclassed SO in 1983 by BR but I'm sure BR wouldn't have touched the vents at that time either.

I think the Lima roofs were all of one type and not the FK type (these were in a single row down one side of the roof) and of course the Lima model was a mk2b whereas most of the prototype donors were mk2c's, with one mk2, 5x mk2a's and 2x mk2b's. They were definitely reconfigured at least because at least some of the donors were FK's and what ended up in service were all open seating. My Irish railway rambler book uses the term "extensively refurbished" whatever that means. The two mk2b's were FK's originally and ended up as buffet cars. In any case I believe no modifications were made to the vents and the Lima model is only of one type of mk2b (the wrong type for me) so I need to file the vents down and replace with prototypical ones for the mk2b FK and the mk2c FO. So can someone point me towards a supplier or suppliers of the correct vents for mk2b FK and mk2c FO vehicles? A plan or description with dimensions of where exactly on the roof the vents go would be amazing too.

Hi all. I have a question regarding the roof vents on the above coaches which were bought/swapped used by Irish Rail from Vic Berry and rebuilt in Dublin. There are two main types and I don't believe the roof vents would have been modified during the rebuild as these coaches were only an interim solution until railcars arrived. I'm overwhelmed by the terminology (scalloped, ridged etc) and would really appreciate it if someone could say for a mk2b use X and for mk2c use y. A supplier that ships outside the UK would be preferable but I can workaround UK only suppliers too. The donor coaches are Lima mk2bs. The original prototype donors were all mk2b and mk2c FK's. Here's my progress so far: