Irish AEC class DMU look alike

[jimr]

New in the USA to Irish rail modeling. I was able to get a hold of an AEC class look alike DMU pair in dark green livery. I'm curious how you long time modelers feel about partially respraying a look-alike set. My thought is to leave the lead DMU in it's green livery and respray the trailer unit in black and tan livery. I once saw somebody spray one side and one front end of the set in one livery and the other side and back end in a second livery. So depending on which way you're viewing it, you see two different liveries. I'm sure you prototypical fans hate this idea. But I like the idea of displaying two different time periods. Let me know your constructive thoughts. I appreciate the input.

[jhb171achill]

If the one you have is made by Silverfox, the green livery is 100% completely wrong, so ripe for respraying! In CIE green livery, it needs to be a lighter green, and a black roof. These railcars were introduced in the early 1950s, and would have been green from the start, but after late 1962 they started repaiting them black'n'tan. So, up to then, all green - but during the mid 1960s you'd have got a train with some as-yet unrepainted carriages still in green, but others newly painted in black'n'tan, so your plan is of course appropriate.

Painting things one livery on one side and another on the other is a trick used by more than a few; I've considered it for some stuff I have too. It will only work, of course, if the ends and roof of the item concerned is the same in both liveries; in this case you are lucky! In both green and B'n'T liveries, CIE railcars had black roofs and ends.

If you're respraying correct CIE green livery, it's a darker green up to mid 50s, lighter later. In both cases, pale green (rather than white) waistline and "flying snail" logo. (The green that S'Fox uses is more like british Southern Region green or UTA green!).

[Ironroad]

There is a precedent for everything.  Way back in the depths of time, the Rev Awdry (creator of Thomas the Tank) operated trains on his Tidmouth  layout that carried different liveries on either side of the coaches. This worked quite well because the layout (an out and back branch terminus) was built around three walls of a room and exited into a return loop in an adjacent room. So since only one side of a train was visible at any time, as a train returned it appeared to be a different train.

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Ironroad said:

There is a precedent for everything.  Way back in the depths of time, the Rev Awdry (creator of Thomas the Tank) operated trains on his Tidmouth  layout that carried different liveries on either side of the coaches. This worked quite well because the layout (an out and back branch terminus) was built around three walls of a room and exited into a return loop in an adjacent room. So since only one side of a train was visible at any time, as a train returned it appeared to be a different train.

It's actually a good idea. My layout (when complete) goes round three walls of a large attic room. A train running end to end can only ever be viewed from one side. One end is a fiddle yard. So, if it is turned round there, as you say, a different train, or the same train in a different era, appears to return.