Last night I did moreorless the complete colouring of the sides and front of the N scale model and made a test build of the body. Shape and colours came out pretty well despite some kind of alignment error on my printer. The fine detail such as text has been drawn in Inkscape so on the larger scale versions will be clear and readable. The colour shades are researched to match the hex codes of the paint schemes as far as they can be determined, but I might lighten everything to make it more realistic at small scale. Also, interior silhouettes can be added through the windows.
Main revisions are:
- Add a sloped roof piece at the front. I initially thought this would be too small to be practical at this scale and just designed a flat roof, but seeing the test and a small fit error made me reconsider and a sloping piece will be tested.
- Devise a way of making the connecting corridors. Folding a piece will be way too tiny at this scale, so I think I will provide a simple option to thicken the front with layers to about 2mm and fold sides around it, and a detail option to glue a stack of pieces to get the concertina effect.
- Optional relief on the front for the couplers and recessed steps. The face piece needs reinforcing anyway so making that and suggesting cutting out the holes should do it.
- Draw additional roof details - there are some vents for the AC.
- Devise how to make the exhaust pipe at the rear. This is a tiny but prominant detail so it needs to go on somehow. Rolling a tube is going to be very fiddly although possible, so perhaps for the simple option a stack of three pieces, or using a wire core.
- Create the running gear and underfloor boxes/engine. These once again will need to be simplified, perhaps just to low relief side pieces with the option to add the whole shape. I see plastic versions for model railways just have a flat undetailed base as it will never be seen.
At this point I also have an idea of the colour schemes to draw:
- Regional Railways standard logo
- Regional Railways 'Express' (almost the same)
- Network SouthEast red, white and blue
- Northern Spirit blue and indigo
- Metro red and cream
- South West Trains red, orange, blue and white
- Central Trains green, yellow and blue
- Wessex Trains silver and purple
- Transport for Wales red and grey
- State Railway of Thailand (basically same as Regional Railways)
- Fictional Intercity black, white and red
These are all defunct or publicly owned. More recent ones may have the issue of copyright over logos etc.
Marterair, EMR do indeed operate them inherited from East Midlands; as do Northern.