Armed with more reference material than I ever dreamed possible, time to take a look at the battlefield and make plans.
Here’s a closeup of the Sparmac underframe. You can see it is intended the builder fits full length footboard along the solebars. I don’t intend doing that. I will need to plug the holes and decide whether to make new brackets after the ones in the wrong places have been removed.
The previous owner had actually made the vac pipes that run along the corridor side of the chassis. It is supposed to sit aligned with the top of the bottom edge - yes, that does make sense. I must refer to more photos, because it must sit proud of the bottom edge to let the footboard fit. I rather think a container-load of split pins might be in order!
I've been so fixated on the bogies I have never really done the guided tour of the actual coaches in this game. Here are the truss-rod underframes of the D.113 full brake (front) and D.114 brake third. I’m going to get confused by naming conventions. Having become used to the shorthand codes used by BR, the full LNER format is awkward to use. I hope, therefore, you don’t mind if I use the BR conventions in future, so the brake third becomes a BTK, rather than Four-compartment Vestibule Brake Third!
The kits were designed to accept Kadee couplers without modification. This is the BTK. Both passenger vehicles are already equipped, while the full brake will get Kadee one end and the dropped cosmetic coupler at the other so it can be coupled to a loco. Lost wax brass clipped buffers are provided. I’m not sure they have the collars, so that might need looking into.
This is the full brake showing how the slot of the Kadee box is moulded into the frame. A cursory glance at these models would have you think they were ex-JLTRT. The design, materials and fixings are very similar, but I don’t believe they are related in any way - save one perhaps giving inspiration to the other. The Sparmac kits date from the early 1990s.
A wider view of the BTK and full brake. It looks like the FB is longer, but that’s an accident of setting up and photography!
The kits came with nice long and thin strips of copper clad with which to form the step boards. As I have to make up numerous short boards, I plundered my Bits Box to see whether I had anything suitable. A selection of JLTRT etched boards may well be very handy.
Thanks to Mike's generosity I have been giving much thought to underframe and headstock detailing. To be honest, not a lot is required on the underframes, though both passenger vehicles need the brake rigging to be completed. While it would be nice to fit the steam heat pipe run and drain valve, it wouldn’t be visible behind the battery boxes. Some wiring around the dynamos might be worth adding. The headstocks need the various brackets for pipe and emergency coupling stowage. One end of the BG will get the full Monty, while the rest will get cosmetic work and some representation of the connected pipework between vehicles. After putting together the Slater's Pullman gangways for those Maunsells, I have been quite impressed with them. I need to check they will actually fit the Gresleys - why wouldn’t they? - and get some ordered up. I do have the original floppy rubber mouldings, but they’re not exactly nice, and definitely need a rigid plate to hold them to shape.
So, although the basic construction is done, I still have my work cut out on these. I need to stop faffing about and get on with it!