What did you do to your trains today?

I actually saw the Pre-HiT colour Skarloey when you revealed him being airbrushed on Twitter. While the shade he had from Season 9 onwards better matches the real Talyllyn (and Dolgoch) on Duncan Day, I still think his more James like shade from S4-7 looks a bit nicer. Oddly, the original TOMY release went with that colour despite being made after S9, and only HiT Toys really updated him. Looking forward to seeing your version finished.

I got Skarloey fully repainted, and Dodge a touch up with a different shade of Green. Also took photos of Rheneas before he gets a repaint aswell.






Might be a good idea for me to start a thread about my customs as to not flood this thread.

Great work

[Super]

Might be a good idea for me to start a thread about my customs

Thats a great idea Ffar, that way you can keep all of your projects in one place and make it easier for us to look at all you have.

I knew Skarloey would look good with the new-old colour. Makes me wonder how the TOMY shade would compare to it under the same lighting (like other bright red objects, many cameras tend to make it look like he has a pink tint even with other forms of him). All he needs now are his nameplates and number, which you could've scanned before painting. You said you were going for "a more Season 4 style look" with him, so I can only guess Rheneas will be vermilion. Fisher Price fixed his colour in Wooden Railway, so I still don't get why they didn't update his TrackMaster and Take 'n Play versions. One idea of mine that no one seems to have done before would be to put Duncan's face on another Rheneas detailed and repainted to resemble him, so he could better match the other narrow gauge engines.

Yes, please make the thread for all the customs and mods you showed in this one (and possibly get Supes to move/delete the original copies for you). I'm sure that would be quite popular for some time.

Just a side note on the colours of the engines on Skarloey's Railroad: in Rev. W. Awdry's book on the little engines No. 1-4 (Skarloey, Rheneas, Sir Handel, Peter Sam) the illustrator C. Reginald Dalby portrayed them in pretty much the same colour:

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Thats a nice looking book Mr No, is it an old one?

Not just in Four Little Engines, but also in all their subsequent appearances. Even Rusty, whose name has nothing to do with rust, is originally black and not orange. However, Duke the Lost Engine (book #25) shows Stuart (Peter Sam) and Falcon (Sir Handel) working on the Mid Sodor Railway, and they were green and blue like in the TV series before moving to the Skarloey Rwy.
 

Thats a nice looking book Mr No, is it an old one?

Yes, it's one of the original Railway Series books the show was based on. This one's from 1955, but Mr. No has the 2018 reprint.

This edition is published in 2018 by Dean, an imprint of Egmont UK, but that's actually Book 10 of the Rev. W. Awdry's classic "The Railway Series" in 26 books, first published in 1945 - 1972. There are four stories in each book, and they are a must-read for any Thomas & Friends fan. (Thomas appears in Book 2). The books of the new edition are small (10.8 x 14.5 cm) but they are coming in a very nice box:

Not just in Four Little Engines, but also in all their subsequent appearances. Even Rusty, whose name has nothing to do with rust, is originally black and not orange. However, Duke the Lost Engine (book #25) shows Stuart (Peter Sam) and Falcon (Sir Handel) working on the Mid Sodor Railway, and they were green and blue like in the TV series before moving to the Skarloey Rwy.

In Book 14 (The Little Old Engine) they are all red(dish) - including Duncan (Engine No. 6):



And yes, Rusty (No. 5) is black:



In "Very Old Engines" - Book 20 - the engines  (except Talyllyn, Skarloey's twin) are, as always, reddish:




In Book 25 (Duke the Lost Engine) Sir Handel and Peter Sam show up in their blue and green liveries, respectively:



Spoiler alert! On page 14 of that book their names and colours are explained: