I advise anyone wanting to learn about painting to look at just about any modeller’s topic except mine! If I can apply a coat of paint and leave the details of the model clear to see while hiding the worst of my mistakes I will be very happy indeed.
Here are some photos for the record. The buffer heads and the oil lamp are loose for these photos.
There is going to be enough brake rigging to see to be convincing, without it being a scale model.
I am pretty sure, the long curved handrail really ought to end in a pair of flanges, one at each end. I had a few goes and decided its shape was more important than its ends, so I used two handrail knobs instead. It was then easy to slide the curved wire back and forth and adjust its curve until it looked about right.
The door handles are LMS ones from Laurie Griffin. The kit includes some really nice lost wax castings for these, but only the two for the groom’s compartment. I wanted four, to include the two on the horse upper doors, and I wanted all four to match.
This view is fairly close to the one and only photo of a prototype I have found.
The prototype has a rectangular panel on the outside of the groom’s compartment, roughly level with the seat cushion. I don’t know what this panel is for, or even whether there was one on this side. Pretty much all of the details of this vehicle appear on both sides, so I put a panel onto both sides.
The model already weighs 220 grams, about double that of my open wagons. I won’t be wanting any extra ballast.
I have promised to take it to Albury, and so I’ll defer painting until after then. Mind you, I deferred painting my
GER 10 ton van so I could show it to someone in the summer of 2023, and this is still bare brass. Maybe I should be painting both at the same time.
(edited to add extra photos)
