Purple - WHY ?

At the front of the railcar is a route indicator. Behind the rectangular windows should be some lettering. Someone very cleverly decided that the easiest way to supply this was to print it on the instruction sheet. This could be cut out and stuck into the model So far, so good.

Back in the days of old money, Airfix instructions were in black and white. To be honest, when this kit was designed, everything was in black and white, colour not having been invented. By the time the kit I bought was produced, some numpty graphic design bod at Dapol presumably decided this wasn’t radical enough and opted for dark purple instead. (I know it looks red in the photo - I assure you in real life it's a regal purple)

Now, I’m no expert but I’m pretty sure that British Rail never used purple as a background on destination or indicator blinds. Not even your new fangled railway companies with their crayzie liveries have tried this one. Therefore I’ve got to fix this. The ideal solution would be make up new blinds with transfers. That’s not a goer as the typeface is a bit weird (does anyone know what it is called ?) and the only transfers I have in it are for a Class 20, whose headcode box is a lot bigger than the one on the railbus. I’m not buying a pack of letters for 2 digits on one model – far too tightfisted

Plan B involves doing something on the PC. I probably could find something nearly right but to be honest that meant going downstairs and switching the thing on and quite frankly I couldn’t be bothered.

Which leaves plan C. Paint over the purple with black. The result doesn’t need to be perfect as the “glass” it will be visible through is s scale 8 inches thick. Careful brushwork is giving promising results although I think I’ll need to do the white as well. If I can find my white gell pen and it hasn’t dried up then that will be the tool for the job.

If not I’m back to plan B.