Does anyone else find the seeming trend for doing 'one-off' liveries of present-day locos / trains in preference to genereric liveries mildly irritating?
Thinking particularly here of GBRF Class 66s - in recent years, Dapol and Farish have both done the BR Green one, the Large Logo one and the Biffa one, and Dapol's next batch has the Cemex one - but neither of them has done one in the bog-standard GBRF post-Europorte livery (which is similar to the original GBRF livery, but not quite the same).
It's the same in OO - Hornby's HSTs this year include two sets in one-off liveries, despite not having done some long-standing liveries which were carried by an operator's whole fleet for years, and the even more bizarre decision to do the mismatched set of three temporarily rebranded ex-GA Mk3s and a blood and custard Mk2 which operated for a short while over the S&C last year - but they have never done the GA Mk3s in actual GA livery, despite also having the DVT and Class 90 in their range meaning they could have done the whole train.
Mildly irritating, yes David. But I can't afford all the released liveries I want (all of them!) never mind the unreleased liveries (all of which I want!). ;)
I don't find the proliferation of one off liveries annoying in itself, nor do I mind the models of them, but I agree that not having a 'vanilla' GBRf model from either brand is odd, particularly given Dapol's "Lesia" was comically awful. Farish did 66731 in Europorte livery 5+ years ago, but that one's been repainted as Captain Sir Tom Moore, and as you say we have nothing post Europorte from either brand. Similarly we've had a few "DB Schenker" 66s, yet none with the more recent large "DB" logos which most actually carry. Aside from 66002 in the Megafret set we've not had an EWS with DB logos either, despite it being carried by a lot of the fleet for 10+ years.
I also find it really annoying that Dapol and Farish insist on duplicating so many. Yet neither brand has done "ONE" pink, any of the Maritime locos; either 66727 or any of the DB "Maritime Intermodal" ones. We're also missing 66723 "Chinook", Charity Railtours, NWT etc. I think Dapol are doing "Pride of GBRf" with Gaugemaster aren't they?
Simply collectors - happily pay premium prices for pretty coloured one offs... Modellers want the 'standard' common liveries, but seemingly expect at least 50% off RRP...
Well thought I would give another perspective and that's from one of the manufactures of the class 66!
While they have no issue in doing "standard" liveries the length of time it has taken their last 2 batches to clear the sell they felt that there needed to be a dwell period before doing more of the same and well there are plenty of unique liveries to go at and they do sell better.
Which in a business sense makes perfect sense really no point producing more of the same if its not selling as well and why not chance the unique liveries people may be paying to get resprayed....
But I don't subscribe to people paying a premium for unique liveries in the case of the class 66s if you look at Rails both the Farish class 66s 1 standard and 1 unique both are £127.46 and the upcoming dapol class 66s which are all unique are £96.77, the only actual one coming up at a different price that isn't sold out is the upcoming Gaugemaster Pride class 66 which only £2 more than the last guagemaster commission and given rising costs is on par really.
So personally yeah I would like a to see some more standard liveries been done soon its not the end of the world and well I like the variation both in model and real world terms
The same thing occurs with names - proportionally there are many more named locos running on layouts than there ever was on the 1:1 network.
I don't think it's just the collectors end of the market that's driving it - given the choice of having three or four of a single class of loco I'd probably go for a variety of liveries. It might be less prototypical, but in our 1:148 world it's a little less repetitive and a bit more interesting! (particularly in more modern times when there's less variety of wagons)
Steven B.
It's not just trains. In the model bus and car world the same situation applies. In model cars the snazzy sports models predominate, and getting a standard not-route-branded Stagecoach/Arriva/First/National Express livery bus is a challenge.
Quote from: acko22 on October 25, 2021, 02:30:37 AM
Well thought I would give another perspective and that's from one of the manufactures of the class 66!
While they have no issue in doing "standard" liveries the length of time it has taken their last 2 batches to clear the sell they felt that there needed to be a dwell period before doing more of the same and well there are plenty of unique liveries to go at and they do sell better.
I'd be interested to know which models Dapol are talking about? I don't recall them doing a standard EWS/GBRf/Freightliner for years.
@Bingley Hall (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?action=profile;u=4983) - why the dislike on my post, out of interest?