Cut & Shut Coach

Keeping with the same theme as last week, another one of the shutdown week projects from May finally crossed the finish line.

A Dundas Models Vale of Rheidol coach kit, cut n' shut from seven to five compartments. Not too much to say here as it was pretty much done by the book, though the roof was slightly altered in what is becoming my own 'house style'. Thankfully I remembered to take pictures this time during construction.

Simply a piece of 20thou plasticard, measured up against the body but given an extra 1mm overhand all around and persuaded into a slight bend. Strips of masking tape are then run widthways across the roof, and the ends tucked under. With a steady hand (And a later paint job) the joins aren't too noticeable. You can of course get larger tapes that would cover length and width in one go, I've yet to try this. The whole lot is then given a good application of solvent to help bond the tape to the roof piece and when hardened, fastened to the coach itself.

From there, strips of 10x20thou plastic strip are used to emulate rain strips. The best way I find is to start with the two end pieces and let them harden. Then measure 2mm up in the middle of the roof sides and taking a slightly overlong piece of the 10x20 fix it in place dead centre with a spot of solvent. When set the strip is just flexible enough that you can bend the ends of this long strip down towards the corners where they will (Hopefully!) be held in place by the carriage end strips. Solvent the now curved strips in place and trim off the excess. 

One of those processes that is easier in practice that how it appears written down!