The Duke and Duchess of Boxford/Behind the Scenes

Television Series
The Duke and Duchess of Boxford are fictional nobles who live on The Mainland. They are a couple and have their own private engine Spencer.

They were introduced the seventh series of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends.

Gauge 1 figures
The Duke and Duchess of Boxford's Gauge 1 figures was custom built from wood for the seventh series. They were filled in with craft paint. The models were constructed for distance shots only.

Close-up figures
Close-up figures of the The Duke and Duchess were constructed for scenes where they had to interact with the close-up models for engines and set dressings. Just like the Gauge 1 figures, the models had few variations to match the needs of the plots.

CGI model
The twelfth series marked the beginning of the show's transition into CGI as a replacement for the show's long-standing live-action models. The Duke and Duchess was recreated from scratch in CGI by Nitrogen Studios. Her model was "hand-sculpted" in Maya, a 3D animation and modelling software.

Photographs of The Duke and Duchess' close-up figure were used for referencing. According to Greg Tiernan, every detail of the original television series models for each character is carefully reproduced in the CGI model. The models are subjected to many rounds of review before they are submitted to HiT Entertainment for final input and approval.