After the travails of the first 70 foot coach, I was hoping for a slightly easier time of the painting - but it wasn't to be!

This was the sorry state of affairs a fortnight ago:

The model had been primed and then sprayed with GWR cream, followed by careful masking and an application of brown. All looked
good - until I started removing the masking tape. Great wodges of paint came off, right back to bare brass! After some cussing I decided
that there was nothing to be done but to resort to paint stripper and start again. Once again the roof came off - only this time at least I didn't
have to refit the roof ribs or more than one or two of the door hinges.

For the second attempt I used Railmatch etching primer, followed once again by cream and brown, and - other than a tiny tendency for a sliver
of paint to lift at one end - I didn't have the problems of the first attempt. A few areas were touched up with brush painting, and then I painted
the droplights and roof.

Everything else went to plan, using the same waterslide lining and pressfix letters as on the first coach. Glazing was next, followed by commode
handles and handrails. As with the first coach, a few details remain to be added. I still haven't done the door-opening handles or the roof/end details.
I've also still to devise a coupling solution and add MJT corridor connections, excepting for the rear of the brake where I used the white metal
casting in the Comet pack.

Over on Tony Wright's thread there's been a bit of discussion about what's meant by "layout coaches" (or layout models in general). I think these are
definitely layout coaches, in that they're built to the best of my present abilities, look fine (to me) from normal viewing distances, and haven't got too
many fiddly bits. They definitely wouldn't meet the superb standards attained by many, are inaccurate in some respects (roof profile, for instance), but
they haven't taken months and months to build and I wouldn't find the idea of building a few more too daunting, especially as I hope not to repeat
the same mistakes as I made on these! Famous last words...