First job on the coach enhancement was a bit of painting. Me and air spray painting don't seem to get on too well. I made an awful mess of my working environment, and self, spilled the paint twice and as to the coach roof it had to be sprayed several times to get an acceptable finish. It is fortunate I disassembled it so that I could focus on the roof without messing up the bodywork
The roof was first primed with car primer and then sprayed with Humbrol enamel paint. A final over spray of artists fixer was applied. This protects and gives a lovely satin finish. The ends were hand painted black to give a thinner appearance to the thick moulding. I decided not to over paint the roof pipework as prototype pictures show them to be the same colour as the roof, which must be due to the grime built up over time.
Reassembly of the coach was difficult as the chassis kept bowing. I could only correct this by leaving out the metal weight. I am hopeful this will be acceptable as the coach seems heavy enough without it and free running might also be improved as there was a bit of drag compared to other brands.
You can see the improvement from the picture. The roof is now representative of the prototype shown below it in the magazine than the original model shown above. In fact it is even better than my Bachmann MK1s which have a lighter grey though not as light as the YMRV* model.
The final enhancement was to paint the door handles a brassy colour. I don't intend to do any other painting.
Next job is to apply coach numbers, which I can tell you demanded quite a bit of research to identify likely numbers seen on maroon coaches on southern region, south western division in the early 60s.
*Your Model Railway Village partwork.
.The roof was first primed with car primer and then sprayed with Humbrol enamel paint. A final over spray of artists fixer was applied. This protects and gives a lovely satin finish. The ends were hand painted black to give a thinner appearance to the thick moulding. I decided not to over paint the roof pipework as prototype pictures show them to be the same colour as the roof, which must be due to the grime built up over time.
Reassembly of the coach was difficult as the chassis kept bowing. I could only correct this by leaving out the metal weight. I am hopeful this will be acceptable as the coach seems heavy enough without it and free running might also be improved as there was a bit of drag compared to other brands.
You can see the improvement from the picture. The roof is now representative of the prototype shown below it in the magazine than the original model shown above. In fact it is even better than my Bachmann MK1s which have a lighter grey though not as light as the YMRV* model.
The final enhancement was to paint the door handles a brassy colour. I don't intend to do any other painting.
Next job is to apply coach numbers, which I can tell you demanded quite a bit of research to identify likely numbers seen on maroon coaches on southern region, south western division in the early 60s.
*Your Model Railway Village partwork.
To Part 2.
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