PFA Decorated Samples Arrive
Our OO PFA project has been progressing swiftly since we announced it at the Alexandra Palace Show at the end of March. We have now received decorated samples of these wagons for assessment with the various containers.
While we are happy with most aspects of the wagon, including the fully diecast frame of the flat itself, the fidelity of the various containers, crispness of the tooling and the beautifully fine separately applied detail, we are not so keen on some of the colours used.
As we can see from the Cawoods sample, the yellow is much too bright and the tampo printing needs a bit of attention too. The DRS nuclear container also needs adjusting, being a tad too red.
However, this is something that is easily adjusted and it is why we go through the decorated sample process. This allows us to firm up and corrections ahead of production and ensure that our models go that extra mile. We put a huge amount of effort to get the shape and details correct, and we do the same with colours too.
Other areas need attention too. The hooks on the tension lock couplings are not good, and these will look a lot better on the final model, and some of the tampo printing and assembly, particularly around the buffers and plaques will be sorted out too.
Now that's the negatives out of the way, we can focus on the positives. The wagon itself is beautiful. The crispness of the diecasting and the underfame details is superb. The containers themselves are absoutely delightful too, with real definition and variety on offer to cover all eras from 1986 to the present day.
They are also sweet runners, with plenty of weight from that diecast chassis and little rolling resistance, allowing modellers to run nice and long trains as per British Gypsum, Cawoods and British Fuels trains. Watch the video below to see them on test on our office layout.
Our list of corrections has been sent to China and production is well underway, with just corrected decoration and final assembly required before shipping to the UK. As alterations have been required the delivery date is now early December 2019. We apologise for this slight delay in delivery, but we feel that it is important to get the models right and we are sure you agree!
If you wish to pre-order your PFAs, you can do so here! Demand has been very strong for these, so don't miss out!