Atomic Systems

Good to see that Digital Traction have a GWR 3300 Bulldog/Bird class on the stocks, but judging by the early pics they need a little more research on the pre-1906 livery depicted - eg http://www.gwr.org.uk/liveriesloco1900.html.

I compared the pictures on FB with those on the linked site. May I ask where the issue is? The DT loco is a darker green then later engines, the splasher and frame are in, what looks to me, indian red, brass safety valve cover and splasher rims...

Exept for the black wheels everything looks fine to me. It is noted that this is still WIP! Also, textures in the game will never look exactly the same as in real life...

Excuse the rivet counting but it so happens that I have a 7mm brass kit of the class under construction.

So off the cuff - frame red is too pink, all boiler bands need lining, splasher tops should be black, 3310 number was assigned post 1906, wrong buffer beam number font. More generally a number of features, notably the top feed and bogie, date the DT model to a post 1906 version. Not that I would expect DT to forsake this very pretty livery for that reason.

Hi
Just had a look at my 1949 Ian Allen Combined volume and there were 24 still in service,in the book there is a photo of 3451 Pelican,the last ones were withdrawn in 1951.

Mike

Ahh, the curse of historical colours and how to gather accurate reference materials....

Period photos most likely B&W, any colour images that do exist will have “aged”, even remaining historical paint fragments will be a different colour to the original... the models are a useful template, but equally open to question

I have a 1:96 scale War Emergency destroyer model, which I wanted an earlier war Admiralty N Atlantic disruptive pattern on - mix of very light greys, dark blue grey and greens. Mostly censored photo reference material, with just a few colour and colourised images to go by. I was more than happy with the results, but my father who had worked on the ship in question thought it was too garish - all historical memories seem to be monochrome

Indeed. We intend to "darken" the victorian an edwardian era due to the b&w photos. More so as the photography methods used back then worked with ultra violet light instead of the for us visible spectre. This made otherwise very light colours look pitch black. Green grapes are a good example for this phenomena.

I think there's a reasonable consensus around GWR livery colours, even the early ones. Nobody's going to complain if you take the preserved City of Truro as a livery reference.

No, nobody will indeed. But, and that's what we're trying to say, it's not a 100% accurate reference either. To quote the site you linked on the subject of the frame's livery:

...were in Indian Red (or shades thereof, Great Western Way describing them as 'purple-brown')

The colour of the frames on the DT Bulldog is clearly "purple-brown". Not the same shade as seen on the scale models, but it's "purple-brown".

longbow wrote:Excuse the rivet counting but it so happens that I have a 7mm brass kit of the class under construction.

Just curious, but where did the model makers get their data from to make the model parts for you?

Not disclosed, but it's from a highly respected kit maker so most likely the source is a works diagram supplemented by photos and other evidence of the many mods and variations.

I have just bought this download, and very nice it is too. Thanks DT - but please note there's a glitch with the transparency when looking out from the front cab windows.

Regarding b&w photos exhibiting the issue that Gaetan describes -

This model of LBSCR D2 Como is generally held to be the most accurate representation of Stroudley's 'Improved Engine Green' to still be in existence, the model reputedly being painted using some of the last tins of the colour that were kicking around at Brighton Works and then kept mostly indoors afterwards.

A photo of the prototype, same livery. Unless one knew, they wouldn't think the loco was painted in an ochre shade!

Pardon my immature mirth, but...

Locomotiveman wrote of

the for us visible spectre

which quite derailed my focus on the topic...

Ah, the joys of predictive text!

Kind regards,

John M

Did I miss something? What's wrong with what I wrote?

Spectre is a ghost - spectrum is a range of colour.