With the coach mostly finished except for door handles and so on, I decided to make a start on painting it. I separated the body from the chassis and gave the former a couple of coats of primer. As is often the case with my modelling, the priming stage revealed a lot of things that weren't quite right, but which hadn't been obvious in the bare brass. The main one was that the sides weren't tucked as neatly into the roof rebate as they could have been. So, some careful work saw the sides prised away from the roof in places, the join improved, and re-glued. The primer also revealed a fea areas where the roof ribs needed a bit of attention.

I've also completed the interior detailing, discovering in the process that there didn't seem to be enough seat mouldings for all 10 compartments. Luckily I had a spare moulding, otherwise I'd have had to wait to order a replacement. I also repeatedly soldered and unsoldered the long step running the length of the solebar, until I was as happy with it as I could be. When I build the next coach, I'll definitely be taking a different approach to fitting the steps, but in this case I found it very difficult to solder it true and level along the length, consistently on both sides.

I'm still slightly undecided about the final livery, veering between 1930s GWR colours or crimson & cream, or possibly late GWR with WR numbering. If I had more discipline I'd just model one period and let that take the decision for me, but I'm too much of a gadfly for that.

I can't say enough about the quality of the kit, though, so - on a spurt of enthusiasm - I've now got three more to build: a 70 foot brake, 70 foot restaurant car, and the obligatory Ocean Mails van. Should keep me busy for a bit...

cheers!