Thomas Modification ideas: assistance needed

I had a couple of ideas recently that I plan to make realities and hopefully these will get me back into the swing of things and using my trains often again instead of letting them collect dust by the TV... However, I need some help from others who already have some of the things I need. Measurements, information, etc.

First of all is giving proper purple dummy wheels, or an entire working middle axle, to a Plarail Ryan. When I get home I plan to take him apart to see if the axle idea would work, but either way, I plan to use the front wheels of a Trackmaster Ryan and Jerome Ryan or a spare Plarail Ryan. Is the Trackmaster's wheels pretty much identical in color to Plarail's? Or would it look better to buy a brand spankin' new Ryan to tear apart for this anyway?

Next, I want to wheelswap a Trackmaster Lexi, but there are many problems with that. No other engine has wheels the same color as her's, and if I do manage to find a properly colored wheelset, I'm considering rearranging the wheels to be more like a Plarail Edward. I had the idea of simply using a Plarail Edward's chassis and repainting either its wheels or Lexi herself entirely, but I'm not sure if Lexi's body shell is long enough, so I would like some comparison images or exact numbers to help me out.
If the Edward chassis idea fails, Bash is up for consideration as a wheel donor, but I've never seen a toy of Bash up close in real life, and can't tell from pictures how close the colors are.

Any thoughts and comments are welcome, and assistance will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Bash's wheel color actually has a tad hue of lavender to it whereas Lexi's is more of a truer pale blue... However, at the end of the Trackmaster 1 series, it seems like the last bit of preexisting stock, parts, pieces, packaging, and everything else leftover was shipped to China, and a few months later we had one last wave of very badly made oddball "BNIB" FisherPrice branded packages of weird releases...The canary yellow Duncan little friends pack w/horrific stickers, Rheneas spelled "Reneasa", among others, including a little friends release of Dennis without his standard grey wheels, but replaced with light blue ones!!
They are almost a perfect match!

[Super]

Anxious to see what you come up with Mik

Bash's wheel color actually has a tad hue of lavender to it whereas Lexi's is more of a truer pale blue... However, at the end of the Trackmaster 1 series, it seems like the last bit of preexisting stock, parts, pieces, packaging, and everything else leftover was shipped to China, and a few months later we had one last wave of very badly made oddball "BNIB" FisherPrice branded packages of weird releases...The canary yellow Duncan little friends pack w/horrific stickers, Rheneas spelled "Reneasa", among others, including a little friends release of Dennis without his standard grey wheels, but replaced with light blue ones!!
They are almost a perfect match!

I'm pretty sure those late Trackmaster releases are actually knock-offs, but wheels are wheels I suppose! This does give me a lot more to take the time to consider now. Last night I remembered, thanks to one of Super's posts, that the Trackmaster2 chassis is interchangable on most engines, so I used a Racing Percy to measure up against Edward. I didn't do any exact measurements yet, but just looking at it, it seems like a Plarail Edward might be another valid option to go about this! I don't think I'll be ambitious and patient enough to modify it to fit the battery on the chassis itself, but at the very least I could swap Lexi's wheels for Edward's, and modify the front bit of the chassis for the free rolling wheels.
So far, it seems like I may have narrowed it down to Edward or Dennis. I still have much time to think since there are so many other projects I plan to tackle, and Mom has a lot to buy me in the coming year... We order the materials necessary in short, spread out bursts.

An afterthought: I still don't have an airbrush or spray paints, both of which seem to be the most common method of painting small objects or doing the first layer of a new paintjob. A year ago, when I tried painting Bill and Ben's wheels, brushes proved to only cause problems, so maybe all I would need to make a wheel repaint easy is some spray paint? If that's true, it would eliminate the need for me to buy 3 Plarail Belles and if "testing" goes well, that Dennis you suggested


If anything seems a bit dismissive or if I seem like I asked a question that I already knew the answer to, I am very sorry >~< I tend to forget a lot of things and come up with new ideas after I've already given up

[Super]

I have nor t seen anone having good luck with spraytpanting wheels. The very nature of how they rum the sides of the rail to keep them on the track wears the paint away. Now I have to admit that I have never tried this as I when by the remarks of everyone I could fid that did try it.

I have nor t seen anone having good luck with spraytpanting wheels. The very nature of how they rum the sides of the rail to keep them on the track wears the paint away. Now I have to admit that I have never tried this as I when by the remarks of everyone I could fid that did try it.

As someone who has never used primer before -- like a bloody idiot -- in these examples are you certain whether or not they used primer, and/or multiple layers of paint?

[Super]

You should alays use a primer because what I primer does is bound to the plastic and then the paints quality's make it bond to the primer. But mind you the plastic should be cleaned properly to remove any mold release agents which will prevent a good bond with you primer.

What's a mold release agent??

I think painting is a bad idea, @ucwepn tried painting his jinty wheels black but as it ran round the track the edge that rubs against the track wears off, it may be better selecting some lighter coloured wheels and dying them,

There isn’t much on this forum, but on the internet as a whole there is a wealth of knowledge on plastic dyeing, I know a lot of people who dye radio control car parts (wheels) the die permeates the plastic and makes colours the plastic rather than covering it, it means it won’t rub off,

I’ve not tried it myself but I think it would be the best option for wheels,

Interesting... When I've finished my homework I'll try to remember to ask Sodor Workshops about it, and maybe look for some videos and colors. I'd guess with plastic that's already colored, the two colors will mix somewhat?