Fancying a change, I decided to tackle this Comet kit for the Collett 70 foot corridor third. I acquired the kit as a complete set from an Rmwebber a few years ago (the same gentleman who sold me the parts for the Prairie I built earlier this year), but every time I opened the box I didn't quite feel in the mood to tackle it. The Comet kit is mostly brass, and all the coaches I've "built" in the past have been mixed media or RTR conversions using etched and white metal bits. This was going to need a bit of a step-up in my skills...

My first job was to solder up the main chassis parts. I must admit I kept struggling with the instructions, until - finally - the penny dropped as to what was to be bent in which direction, which bits were to be detached, which bits were scrap etch and so on. Once I'd got it sorted in my head, the parts fitted perfectly, the only slight problem being that my soldering iron struggled to get enough heat into these large-ish bits of brass. They're quite a bit larger than any loco frames I've ever put together. But we got there in the end, after I'd tidied up everything with files, sandpaper and a glass-fibre brush, it didn't look too bad.

The next job was to add the droplights, or whatever they are, behind the doors. I decided to solder them in from the rear for neatness and, despite some concerns about judging the alignment, most of them came out satisfactorily, and I was able to unsolder and resposition the two that were a bit "off".

Next I add to think about assembling the sides and ends together. The ends are simple enough, with a small fold-up sub-assembly for aligning them to the coach sides. The instructions kept confusing the hell out of me, though, as they mentioned using a piece of scrap brass to space the etch part by the thickness of the floor. What floor, and why, I wondered? I couldn't work out the construction logic. Luckily, though, I'd acquired a fully-built Comet coach some years ago, and by dismantling it the design became clear, and I understood what the spacer piece was supposed to do do. Comet's parts are excellent, across all their range, but - while they're far from the worst - I have sometimes found the instructions a bit cryptic.

Anyway, here's one of the end pieces, with the sub-frame soldered in place. Ugh - look at that soldering! Doesn't look half as bad in reality...

And here's another shot, showing how the sub-frame is spaced slightly proud of the level of the floor.

Finally I came to the bit I was dreading, which was to solder the sides and ends into a box. But I took it carefully, tack-soldering one end onto one side, and constantly checking for squareness, and then moving on to the other end and repeating. Then all I had to do was attach the remaining side to the soldered half, and - without too much hassle - I had the basic coach body assembled, and it's level and square.

Here it is test-mounted on the chassis:

Next I'll look at fitting the roof. Hope this of interest to some, and thanks for reading.

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