On Mark Bau's VR site, at http://www.victorianrailways.net/motive%20power/fdie/fdie.html there is an image of one still in its SEC livery and it looks blue, however I am not completely sure.

Peter

On Mark Bau's VR site, at http://www.victorianrailways.net/motive%20power/fdie/fdie.html there is an image of one still in its SEC livery and it looks blue, however I am not completely sure.

Peter

That looks like   the loco in blue, it's last livery I suspect.

Regards,
David Head

Roco are only releasing F211 in VR blue and gold livery.

No, the Roco model is F202.  Sorry, I haven't put all the bits and pieces on it yet.

Well here's mine on a test track with an FS carriage


I've still to add the handrails, some of them aren't quite making sense for me currently.
And behold the brass etch and some hand rails. I think I've identified the use for some of the extra parts on the BGM etch: tail discs and additonal support brackets for the sideguards. The two C shaped parts, additional radiator shroud?

Enjoyed trying to fit a Digitrax DH165IP this morning after picking up my F from the PO as I had some spare in the drawer.  It don't fit!  Would some kind soul out there kindly advise what 8 pin chip would best suit.  I could use a DZ125 but just want to know of any other recommendations out there that others have or will use, as there is not a lot of room inside the loco.

Thanks in advance - Peter

On Mark Bau's VR site, at http://www.victorianrailways.net/motive%20power/fdie/fdie.html there is an image of one still in its SEC livery and it looks blue, however I am not completely sure.

Peter

I agree that it looks blue. Some of that could be reflection from the sky, of course.

I can't remember which one I saw (I don't think it had the crest on the cabside) and it was definitely black (as viewed live). My photo was from a more usual cloudy day at Dynon.

M636C

Enjoyed trying to fit a Digitrax DH165IP this morning after picking up my F from the PO as I had some spare in the drawer. It don't fit! Would some kind soul out there kindly advise what 8 pin chip would best suit. I could use a DZ125 but just want to know of any other recommendations out there that others have or will use, as there is not a lot of room inside the loco.

Thanks in advance - Peter

A Digitrax DZ series decoder will fit. I removed one recently when the owner upgraded to a noisy F class (LokSound Micro with speaker and stay alive).

Mike

Were they originally black?? Might M636C be ancient enough to view the original scheme?

Cheers

No, the Roco model is F202. Sorry, I haven't put all the bits and pieces on it yet.

Hi,

That is strange, as the catalog shows F211.

Peter

The blue colour is dead wrong anyway, look at the X class behind it. And the gold is not much better.

Question from a DCC novice.  I notice the existing lighting is not LED, so does that mean it needs changing before fitting a dcc decoder? - Peter

The blue colour is dead wrong anyway, look at the X class behind it. And the gold is not much better.

Precisely why I put the X class behind it.

Could it be that Roco received paint sample's or pictures of the F class near the end of their life with faded blue & gold? For it appears to me that it matches the colour 1978-82 photos on the VR site, and the lead photo shows a difference in colour between F 201, the B(S?) ??8 and the background T, beyond the coating of grime.

Then again:

(Powerline T360, Auscision B75, Austrains Y139 & Roco's F class) there's a bit of visible difference between them.

I would say that it looks to be a bit on the faded side and further weathering would disguise it. The original Trax 830 came out in a very insipid shade of orange but that is what they looked like in there last years in Mustard pot colours though faded badly, weathering them up fixed most of them though.

Could it be that Roco received paint sample's or pictures of the F class near the end of their life with faded blue & gold? For it appears to me that it matches the colour 1978-82 photos on the VR site, and the lead photo shows a difference in colour between F 201, the B(S?) ??8 and the background T, beyond the coating of grime.

No-one should judge a colour from a photograph, as emulsions vary and often the colour temperature at the time the photo was taken is not taken into account. For example, I could take one of the photos of the F class here and after 2 minutes work, return them with the locomotive now red instead of blue.

No-one should judge a colour from a photograph, as emulsions vary and often the colour temperature at the time the photo was taken is not taken into account. For example, I could take one of the photos of the F class here and after 2 minutes work, return them with the locomotive now red instead of blue.

So in other words see: painting a WW2 tank, something many a modelling/wargaming forum has many threads and pages on with a good percentage devoted to German tanks with smatterings of the other countries. Myself, I just tend to use the relevant Vallejo primer paint (Russian Green - 4B0 or Rotbraun - RAL8012), apply a wash (or other camo colours, then wash if I've done red brown), matt varnish and call it a day. Though if I want to get fancy, I'll attempt a dusting of pigments - can never seem to use them right.

The only manipulating I've done to mine is crop or whether or not a flash was used.


In comparison to the Austrains' Y139, the blue is lighter and the yellow is a bit paler, but I doubt the yellow should match the GJF and just rough eyeballing my photos of my example verses the photos on VR.net makes me think it's pretty darn close for most of them bar F216 as the stripe's too wide and a second yellow stripe needs to added lower. I'm now thinking it's the Y class that the wrong colour.

Argh!! So just what colour is Dunkelgelb?

In comparison to the Austrains' Y139, the blue is lighter and the yellow is a bit paler, but I doubt the yellow should match the GJF and just rough eyeballing my photos of my example verses the photos on VR.net makes me think it's pretty darn close for most of them bar F216 as the stripe's too wide and a second yellow stripe needs to added lower. I'm now thinking it's the Y class that the wrong colour.

Again you are comparing the colours of photos, and that simply does not work. How do you know the photos on VR.net are correct? How do you know your computer monitor is correct?

I had paint for VR blue and gold mixed for me using colour samples from the real thing, and I can tell you the Austrains Y is pretty close to spot on, so the F is way off. That blue is far too cyan in comparison to the other models.

The Australian importers go to a good deal of trouble to get the VR blue and gold correct, otherwise they would have half the members of this forum up in arms, but there is no evidence that Roco did even the most basic research to find out the real colours. Roco did not even bother to advertise the model here as far as I know.

Wasn't the only australian announcement done by Roco's local distributor?
And you missed something from what I posted, as we're going around the correct shade of blue and gold on a loco as going by photos, which is what most people will go by without access to paint chips and the formulation of pigments, like with tanks. I'm also aware that with some paints, the colour you see it now is not guaranteed to be what it initially was.

But to get the right colour on the F class, doesn't it mean that I need to apply some coats of the appropriate previous liveries and then apply the 'true' blue and gold? Or perhaps I'll just give it a good going over with some pigments and make it look like a dirty, heavily used that hasn't seen the paint shop in some time example?

Wasn't the only australian announcement done by Roco's local distributor?
And you missed something from what I posted, as we're going around the correct shade of blue and gold on a loco as going by photos, which is what most people will go by without access to paint chips and the formulation of pigments, like with tanks. I'm also aware that with some paints, the colour you see it now is not guaranteed to be what it initially was.

But to get the right colour on the F class, doesn't it mean that I need to apply some coats of the appropriate previous liveries and then apply the 'true' blue and gold? Or perhaps I'll just give it a good going over with some pigments and make it look like a dirty, heavily used that hasn't seen the paint shop in some time example?

It could have been announced by the local distributor, but I certainly did not see it.

One of the local importers simply bought bottles of the Steam Era Models paints and sent them over to China for the company to match to, as the SEM colours came from the same 'official' chips that I used. You could repaint the Roco model, but it is not an easy task given the stripe and the decals, so as you say, the better course of action might be to weather the model sufficiently to hide the cyan blue.

Wasn't the only australian announcement done by Roco's local distributor?

I started this thread on seeing the entry on Roco's website, without any knowledge of a local distributor. I have seen an entry in an advertisement in AMRM relatively recently.

I would suggest some caution regarding the colour of the "Gold".

Many preserved locomotives now have a chrome yellow shade rather than the official VR colour which was described as "Old Gold" and was basically a deep cream colour. I could find the Dulux paint number which they can still match if anyone was interested.

From the photographs of the models, I think the "Old Gold" on the F class might be more accurate than that on the X class in the comparison above. The "Royal Blue" on the F class does look too light, and in my experience VR locomotives tended to darken to a near black rather than fade to a light blue, particularly with a coating of road dirt.

M636C