Virgin Challenger Class 43.

divydave31 · Post by **divydave31** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:39 pm

Just a little reskin ive done for the superb MK3's,by Dave Babb, and Relivered by H. Tizard, and Sam Clements in Challenger livery.

This for the moment is for personal use, and still needs a little work done to it, but if you think I should try to upload it when I am happy with it, please say.

Also I will need to get permission from the auther, before I do upload it.

Hope you like.

Click the image to zoom in

mattvince · Post by **mattvince** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:15 pm

It's a start - although I think there's too much yellow on that front end - it doesn't suit the nose of the HST, and the red doesn't stand out as much as it 'should'. The black seems wrong - too broad, maybe a more 'Voyager-esque' style with the black spreading over the cab roof? HST cab roofs really must be dark anyway - they end up like the fallout from Hemel Hempstead!

Again - a good start - I like the coaches particularly (maybe a red band between the cantrail line and the black roof?). Just trying to be constructive

divydave31 · Post by **divydave31** » Wed Dec 14, 2005 11:18 pm

mattvince wrote:It's a start - although I think there's too much yellow on that front end - it doesn't suit the nose of the HST, and the red doesn't stand out as much as it 'should'. The black seems wrong - too broad, maybe a more 'Voyager-esque' style with the black spreading over the cab roof? HST cab roofs really must be dark anyway - they end up like the fallout from Hemel Hempstead!

Again - a good start - I like the coaches particularly (maybe a red band between the cantrail line and the black roof?). Just trying to be constructive

Any suggestion gratefully received.

divydave31 · Post by **divydave31** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:19 am

Getting there I think.

Backfoot2002 · Post by **Backfoot2002** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:34 am

Thank god they bought voyagers!

GaryL · Post by **GaryL** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:55 am

Oh jings, no. HST's by a honky tonkin' country mile, no matter what the livery!

baggy6233 · Post by **baggy6233** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 3:22 pm

That looks better. At least the spelling mistake on the word 'Challenger' has been noticed.

Starting to look nice anyway, though I don't really like the yellow.

mattvince · Post by **mattvince** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:49 pm

Try to bring the edge of the yellow warning panel in line with the diagonal of the cab side window. The black of the cab roof may need to be wider - possibly curving down to meet the cantrail line by the grilles. Nothing wrong with having the light-clusters in a black surround - I think it looks better. Also, nothing wrong with extending the yellow down to the bottom of the nose.

Looking better, though!

jamestcc · Post by **jamestcc** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:08 pm

This may sound like a daft question but is Virgin making these "Challenger Trains"??

baggy6233 · Post by **baggy6233** » Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:45 pm

I seriously doubt it, as they have returned all, if not most, of their HST sets to the leasing companies, and I really doubt they'll ever run them in Virgin colours all year round again, only in Spring and Summer like they did this year.

jamestcc · Post by **jamestcc** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:49 am

Cheers Baggy

mattvince · Post by **mattvince** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 12:42 pm

'Challengers' were a proposal for 5-car HSTs refurbished to Voyager standards, re-engined and running some of the diagrams. The SRA put paid to that plan - although not before Virgin had cut its HSTs down to 5-car and 'sort-of' branded them 'Challengers'! Since then, all HSTs on Virgin Cross-Country have been hired in from other operators.

jonrach73 · Post by **jonrach73** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 2:05 pm

mattvince wrote:although I think there's too much yellow on that front end - it doesn't suit the nose of the HST

Of course, the original livery of the HST had a fair bit of yellow on the nose - and still remains one of the best HST liveries out there in my opinion

Cheers

Jon

mattvince · Post by **mattvince** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:36 pm

But the original BR blue 'flying banana' livery actually worked well with the shape of the HST, and indeed the yellow was part of that livery. Yellow is, of course, not one of the colours in the Virgin branding, and should therefore play second-fiddle.

jonrach73 · Post by **jonrach73** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:51 pm

Yeah, none of the post privatisation liveries have worked that well with the HST - with the possible exception of GNER.

Rail blue / Yellow and IC livery do work like you say due to yellow being a pallete colour of the brand. Maybe though if the yellow nose was tempered by making the window surround a dark colour (as per flying banana) it might work better?

Cheers,

Jon