New Hornby Teak Gresleys: Can Hornby Improve on Perfection? - Unboxing and Review

[@Chrispy1976]

I just took delivery of a handful of these beauties, pricey but well worth it, recently treated myself to a 10000 hush-hush and these will look absolutely splendid behind her! Thank you for the review, i'm fashionably late by three years, but these coaches seem timeless, i'd agree, perfect. 👍

[@nigeljohnson8022]

The grain effect is good, but I find that I get better results using a gloss yellow undercoat, then proper teak scrumble paint over the top, applying it with a stiff stippling brush and almost dry, but the whole shape of the coach lets it down massively. If you look from the end of the coach, Gresley teaks should have a very distinctive tumblehome in the bottom panelling, these don't. They are almost slab sided like a Hawksworth GWR coach. I have now replaced all of my Hornby teaks with brass sided overlays. I model exact rakes of trains and find that Hornbys range very limited compared to the likes of Comet or D&S brass coaches. Good review though, thank you for sharing.

[@l1a146]

Great review as always Thank you Jenny. I had plenty of the original run of teaks and as you say, they were superb. Subsequent batches started to look like one big slab of Ikea knotty pine. 😔 It's so good to see that with the latest versions, they've gone back to whatever they were doing before and they look fabulous. A good example of a company listening to its customers. Well done Hornby.

[@GameHammerCG]

Yeah, when Jen and I saw that one back at the time she reviewed it, our thoughts were basically “what the hell were they thinking?”

[@MyChaz2]

Excellent coach. Great review. Thanks

[@chrismax18]

Another great review Jenny! I love the look of the teak coaches so stunning! Well done hornby

[@dathpo]

Thanks for the review. Even though I already own a few. I appreciate your opinion and observations that I may not have noticed. and just taken for granted. such and the wood grain and the lettering. It gives me a better enjoyment for the cars. I'm from Ohio, US

[@lesliedickinson198]

A great review Jenny and what a supremely elegant looking coach that invokes an age gone by.

[@film49uk]

Good comparison of the different releases of this coach ...

[@hamshackleton]

TTS chip in the A4, though - the 'throttle' sound is SO notchy!

[@larryrogers7216]

Wow, can you just imagine the cost and skill required to build the full scale coaches?

[@24th1879]

Another great review, totally agree with everything you say. I was looking at these in Kernow Model Rail.. very impressed..

[@trainman07011]

Got a set of the newest run, also very happy!

[@paredding]

And the Teak Thompsons are also stunning Jenny

[@flippop101]

This is quality KZbin. Thank you!

[@martinpattison5110]

They are lovely models and the teak effect is now the best I have ever seen. I can see a lot of the older ones going for sale on eBay. Nice review. martin (Dhaka, Bangladesh)

[@theovanstaden5766]

Great video Jenny!

[@fredaussi4057]

Very interesting !

[@ewoodrailway]

Lots of detail, looks so much better

[@jefflizotte4758]

thank you, good review

[@1701_FyldeFlyer]

These look a lot better.

[@Lennon6412]

Looks like they've sorted the guard's ducket

[@clangerbasher]

I remember the LNER coaches from Hornby in the 70s. Not the most easiest finish to replicate.

[@ausfoodgarden]

Yep, the last one's I saw must have been the reduced pass versions, as they were nowhere near as good as the one you reviewed. I just wish they didn't cost $100 plus here in Australia. If I can find anyone with stock that is.

[@theblytonian3906]

That's why. Luckily I did all my shopping at Hattons before GST and in the aftermath of the GFC before prices headed skyward again.

[@Hornbyttgingernerd]

Nice video duck

[@melanierhianna]

You can touch up the handles.

[@CM-ARM]

Really pretty

[@johntyjp]

The only thing really wrong with it, I noticed MADE IN CHINA underneath, instead of the U K!!!!

[@JRM-VSR]

Lovely printing, sure, but it's still on a misshapen lump. It will only be "perfection" when it's the right shape...

[@anubis6864]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnibeYComc-UeaM

[@JRM-VSR]

@@anubis6864 That reply is rather wide of the mark. So wide, in fact, I'm not entirely sure what your point in making the reply is. * This is a commercial product review. It is not about someone's individual modelling. There is a big difference between criticising a manufacturer that is mass producing and selling something like coaches, and criticising the modelling output of an individual person. * A fundamental shape error is not comparable to questionable accuracy of small details. If (to use the example used in that video) a manufacturer gets a headcode wrong, a modeller can fix it later if they choose to. If the fundamental shape is wrong though, it will always be wrong -- at least to the point where you'd care about how good the printing on the outside is. (If you want to fix a Hornby Gresley, you need to cut two wedges out of each end of the coach just inside the lower sides, and bend the sides in using either heat or the assistance of a solvent to get them sufficiently pliable, and then hold them to a profile that closer matches the real thing while setting in their new shape. In doing so, the chances of preserving the printing on the outside are unfortunately not great. It can be done, but is not something everyone is happy to do to a fresh out of the box coach, particularly one that retails for north of £50. If you also choose to move the bodyside ribs about too, then you've no hope of preserving the lovely printing whatsoever unfortunately -- at which point you're probably better off with some etched sides). Could it be a good "layout coach" from "normal viewing distances"? Sure, it absolutely can -- and if reviewed as such that would have been an entirely fair review. That printing is very nice -- certainly a better representation of teak than many people will achieve with a paintbrush. However you can't get away with calling it "perfection" (let alone "An improvement upon perfection") while such a big flaw in the basic shape remains, and this should have been mentioned in the review.

[@tulyar1043]

James Moody Hornby must have spent some serious money retooling this coach and still can't get it right. Surely it is easier to make it right than wrong. This ain't what some may call nitpicking, just pointing out how Hornby seem to want to sell people short once again.

[@JRM-VSR]

I don't think they've retooled the entire coach this time. I think this is just a printing re-design. However, why they got it so wrong in the first place is definitely confusing. It doesn't cost more for a manufacturer to make something the right shape than it does for them to make it the wrong shape. The cost variation comes from the spec - how many separate parts are added during manufacturing, and the number of printing steps in the livery. Neither of these would have been affected by getting the bodyside profile right the first time...

[@tulyar1043]

@@JRM-VSR Thanks for your reply.

[@modelrailwaynoob]

Nice coach

[@lordsnooty4138]

That "teak" finish looks like mashed banana imho