Almost Finished 4 Wheeled Coach

During July I have made steady progress on the small 4 wheeled coach. There is still no information as to where Nystrup Gravel bought the coach, but it must have happened sometime before 1938 when the company director Holm mentioned the coach in a post card.

Last time I wrote about progress on the coach I had just been able to test fit ends and sides. After adding the final inner layer to the sides, trapping the eight large window panes, sides and ends were ready to be glued around the floor. First though, the floor of the coach was mistreated with coarse sandpaper, files and a knife to produce a floor well worn by workers' boots and clogs. I sprayed the floor with primer, gave it several layers of diluted oil paint and some coloured chalk powders.

Both end pieces finished and ready to be joined with the sides.

Floor painted, weathered and test fitted with seats.

Lined up on a flat table I could then begin assembly of the coach body, carefully keeping the sides straight and the floor flat. Once everything was at right angles, I clamped the body and weighted it down with a length of 1:1 scale rail while the glue dried. The last parts to be glued on the coach body were four corner boards that were sanded quarter round and smooth to make a nice transition from sides to ends and make the body appear as an integrated whole.

Finally the coach body is glued and ready for the next stages in construction.

The working sliding doors gives the coach an extra dimension I'm looking forward to exploiting when photographing the finished model. The corners are still to be fitted in this image.

The two seat segments were assembled as per instructions. Once dry I sanded the upper surfaces of the seat assemblies and applied three coats of gloss varnish. The seats were then glued to the floor inside the coach. Before I added the roof supports, I considered if I should add some items left by the workers, but decided that they probably wouldn't leave stuff in the wagon.

As I was about to glue the body to the frames it occured to me that the frames were devoid of any detailing. The body is narrow and doesn't block the view to the frames so I decided to add a little detail to the frames. From 1 mm copper wire I made springs and fitted them above the axle boxes, and a number of steel brackets from plastic card and profiles. Hexagonal plastic rod in several dimensions was cut in appropriate slices and fitted as bolts. In total I fitted 56 small parts to the frames' sides making them look a bit more busy than before.

Test fitting body on the frames. Here I realised that the frame were missing details that would be too obvious not to represent. Fortunately I was able to do something about it.

The frames with added plastic details. I have made no attempt to represent prototype Corris coach detail, but to follow reasonable technical practice. My coach is after all just a freelance coach in service with an imaginary Danish gravel company.  

I'm now ready to fit the roof and balcony ends. With regards to buffers and couplings I'm currently trying to find items that are reminiscent of tramway couplings. That may draw out the process of finishing the coach a bit. I have other projects in the pipeline, so there is no chance I'm going to sit idle at the modelling table. In addition, my vacation is also drawing to a close, which means I will again be working full time with interesting railway projects in 1:1 scale.