Good evening all
I have had a lengthy phone call tonight with Roderick of the excellent 00 Works, who as most will know is planning a launch of a RTR J15.
After several previous conversations over the livery, I took some more photos of my grandfather's model, ninety years old at the moment. This was a coarse-scale 00 gauge model, but the photos are to show the grey paint which is original. Before photographing it in daylight, I took the precaution of checking that the paint hadn't faded or become discoloured as old paint can. The test proved positive, as they say, by filing away gently at a small section on the tender.
So - this is what the GSWR replaced their lined black with, starting around 1915-8, and which the GSR and CIE continued with unaltered until the end of steam. I'm posting this for general interest as well as for Roderick's information - I can confirm that he has gone the IRM-style extraordinary lengths to ensure accuracy in all areas, a difficult thing with a long-lived cl;ass with so many examples - so these locos will be eagerly awaited.
I'm sure I don't need to add that like any new model, it will come as it would have looked "out of the paint shop"; buyers can weather down - as the prototype would have had - to whatever extent preferred. The grey was known to darken in time, usually as a result of a combination of rare cleaning, big intervals between repaints, dirt and oily rags used for cleaning.
Exact matching with colour card size will follow. It is - rightly - OO Works' intention to get this historically important (if dull!) livery properly right.
The pictures follow earlier postings of mine, of the same engine in different light, including artificial.