Mixologist

Himself has cracked and done what he said he'd never do - try mixing his own shade of green for 143.

The latest effort is the one on the far left of this piece of brass which is doubling as a swatch card, placed beside the rear bunker which has had two coats of what we now agree is something that's too light.

His reticence about mixing is the uncertainty that you'll be able to perfectly replicate the shade if, for example, it turns out that you've not mixed quite enough.

He's happy enough, though, if it can be a 50/50 mix - which is what we do with our FR carriage red - and what he's come up with here is a blend of Railmatch 'Multiple Unit Green' and Humbrol 'Mid Green'.

The colour of this engine has been driving us gently demented over the last week or so.

It is such a difficult shade because on the real engine it looks very different depending on the lighting conditions, whether that's in a photograph or when you're standing in front of it, and that's before we consider the unfortunate fact that the paint on different bits of the locomotive have visibly weathered.