One very quintessential piece of rolling stock for any Thomas and Friends model collection are the express coaches! The green ones Gordon and many of the big engines on the Island of Sodor would pull are easily recognizable for any passenger train on the Thomas and Friends show, and this was a project I wanted to do for a long time. So let's begin!
1) Inspiration
On Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Gordon's express coaches looked like this in this screen shot, modified from gauge 1 kits and painted in a dark green, with cream around the windows, and a gray roof. They looked quite lovely, and served as a basis for inspiration for modification and livery colors.
These are illustrations by Clifford Medway for a 1990 calendar. Scanned by @SleeperAgent01 on Twitter, I really liked the colors of how the express coaches looked way better. The livery scheme has a darker, muddy green color, which I felt would look like an amazing, subtle change I felt would look perfect for my coaches.
2) Customizing
When looking for the Hornby Maunsell coaches, I landed on 4x composite
coaches and 3x brake coaches, some with different window arrangements. I
chose the BR red and cream ones as they do look so nice as is, but
served as a great basis to simply repaint the red part of the paint
scheme vs. repainting the whole coach.
The first thing I did was remove all the unwanted extra detail to make
it feel more accurate to the show, including taking the handrails on
each end and the roof off as well as the steps. I used pliers and kept a
flat-head hobby knife and sanding file on hand when needed to scrape
molded detail off as well. This will be covered over later.
3) Commission Process
Next, I consulted my good friend ED @EdsTrainz and commissioned him to do up the whole batch for me. After masking he spray painted the bottom half with the color matched green I wanted from the illustrations. You have to make sure you use good modelers masking tape and stick it on the surface well so the paint doesn't seep where you don't want it to go. Ed did a super job on this and it really transformed the look of the models.
Once he fitted the body shells back on the chassis, he also gave a lovely weathering job to the trucks/bogies and the wheels, all along the undercarriage for realism.
Once they arrived back in the mail, it was a joy to look at them all together on the desk in person. It's amazing to appreciate the sheer talent other passionate modelers have for the hobby, and it's always a fun opportunity to commission friends to do a good job with their work for any specialty they're a good fit for with any project. Now I'll share the added details!
4) Extra Details
So from end to end, I gave the coaches flat black ends like they have on the show. This is why I stripped the detail so I can cut the card in the profile of the shape, fold the corners and paint them black with acrylic before gluing. I intend to add 3D printed steps on the right hand side like the show at a later date.
The couplings are all either Smiths LP5F Mk2 brass screw link couplings, or LP4F fine chain link couplings. After taking off the NRM standard couplings and snipping the plastic dummy couplings off with pliers, I drill two holes, one on top of the other on the buffer beam, and cut a slit from it with a craft knife. Then I can snip the long end of the coupling off to shorten it and directly glue it flush to the buffer beam for realistic coupling action!
Here's a close up of how the undercarriage detail looks weathered up! As express coaches are finely taken care of, cleaned and polished, they are carried at fast speeds, and often collect dust from the ballast on the bottom flying down the track, so I wanted Ed to give them a good spray with light ballast and rust colors for that extra touch of realism!
The last thing I really wanted to try was to make express labels! Often on British Railways and around the world, the name of an express would be added on wooden or metal plaques that are mounted on the roof of each coach. I made my own using Adobe Illustrator, using the font called Gill Sans, often used for BR rolling stock labels, then printed on premium matte paper or thick cardstock. I then simply stick them on the roof using blue tack so they're secure when I handle them, and I can easily take them off and add different ones if I wanted to, like "The Wild Nor Wester" or "The Tidmoth Flyer!"
Print typed words in a software such as Adobe Photoshop or Illustator,
and print on premium matte paper from a printer such as Epson. Cut to
length and glue on card, the cut away excess for a strong label!
Now it was time to put them on the layout and have the engines pull them for photography! They look absolutely perfect and just how I wanted them to look. Nothing beats Thomas in his early days on Sodor as a the Big Station pilot shunter, pushing and pulling coaches back and forth for the other engines to take their passenger trains on long journeys! I have to say this was an absolute blast of a project, and a huge thank you to Ed for helping to bring these coaches to life. I will sincerely enjoy running them on the layout!
If you want to check out more of Ed's stellar model work, please go check out his Patreon page and give him some love! patreon.com/EDsModelingCorner, and follow him on Twitter! twitter.com/EDsTrainz
Thank you guys so much for reading! Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions about the process. As always, happy model railroading!
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