Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 5 (Fishing Tales)

18 tables, 18 table lamps and 54 chairs. That's what needed to be formed, assembled and painted to populate the restaurant coach. Whilst tables and chairs were in the 'Comet Models' kit, the lamps were not. The only examples I found from the trade were not representative so, I had to find some way of making them from scratch, especially the lamp shade. 

After much head scratching I stumbled upon a box of fishing line lead weights amongst my stock of modelling oddments. These are a few millimetres diameter with a slit into which the fishing line is placed. The lead is then pinched to hold fast to the line. The unkind close up photo. is of a table and lamp that is only about 15mm tall overall. You can see the lamp stand is brass wire. The lead weight (painted white) is attached as described above with a drop of superglue to stop it slipping off. The good thing about this approach is the lead can be pressed into various lamp shade shapes by pinching with a pair of pliers.

Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 6 

Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 1

Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 3 (Read the Instructions!)

I broke one of my golden rules - read all the instructions before proceeding. Having assembled all the parts I turned to the guidance notes on livery paint details and read that the grab handles are fitted after painting! Completely logical with hindsight as they are naturally coloured brass. I'll need to either scratch off the paint or overpaint with a brass colour. In preparation for painting, flux, finger prints and filings were removed with 'cif' kitchen cleaner applied with a tooth brush. The instructions said 'and then wash in a weak vinegar solution', which of course I did not read until too late.

Bodywork, roof and underframe were sprayed with grey car primer and then the underframe sprayed black. Bogies, end panels and roof were painted by hand. Which leaves the sides. It is recommended to spray but past experience on other kits resulted in more of a hammer finish than smooth grain so, I'm favouring hand painting. I have no idea the best way to achieve this so I practiced on the roof. The enamel paint was slightly diluted with white spirit, the brush fully loaded and paint applied in the same direction across the length of the roof. This left a reasonable smooth finish but with some streaking. With the paint just touch dry the paint was burnished with a dry finger and cotton cloth. This blended the streaks into the paint leaving a consistent and pleasing finish.

Before painting the sides I have decided to assemble the interior so that handling during this stage can proceed without potential damage to the sides top coat paint. The photo shows the body sides in grey primer.

Bullied restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 4

Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 1

Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 1 (Here we go!)

This is the Comet Models kit I'm assembling. It is an expensive but well designed and engineered kit. Assembly is not for the feint hearted. You need excellent eyesight (or in my case a magnifying glass) and manual dexterity in addition to appropriate tools. 

For the period modeller it is imperative that photographs and articles are available to check against. In particular, I found the very detailed scale drawings of the prototype in MRC Nov 1980 very helpful to correct at least one inaccuracy in the manufacturers instructions, i.e. battery box position. Or, did MRC get it wrong? 

None of the prototypes survived into preservation so there is not one to see in reality. The supplied instructions are quite good except the solebar assembly drawing is confusing causing me to fit them the wrong way around! Fortunately it is a soldered section so just sweating the joints enabled disassembly without damage. With the solebars fitted correctly the bogies then interfered with them, which was easily remedied by standing them off with extra small plates soldered to the chassis where they pivot. 

It is a heavy beast, being all metal construction, as heavy as a locomotive. It would be lighter for the pulling locomotive if the whitemetal components were manufactured as plastic mouldings. The roof, body, chassis and bogies will be disassembled for painting individually. But first, I'll build the kitchen/buffet coach for this two coach set used on the 'Atlantic Coast Express'. Oh, by the way, about 3 days solid work to get this far in the assembly.

Bulleid Restaurant/Buffet Build - Part 2