Following on from the last entry, I assembled the pre-painted sides and found after some minor tweaking found that they sat nicely on the Mainly Trains chassis. I don't want to attach the body to the chassis permanently at this stage, so for now I just used the plastic floor from the Ratio kit to provide some means of centering the body without it being fixed in place, with the floor being cut and glued to the etched underframe so that the body drops neatly into position.

The coach is posed next to the Mallard clerestory I acquired last year, with the idea being to achieve a level of finish in the Ratio vehicle that won't disgrace the clerestory - at least from what I'd call a normal viewing distance. Painting this coach has been a good exercise as some may remember that I have an unbuilt kit for a Mallard brake clerestory, which I also hope to finish to a comparable standard. First I have to build it, though! I wouldn't necessarily envisage running these coaches in the same train, but for now they do look quite attractive next to each other. Somewhere I've also got a Slaters clerestory, bought before such things became rarer than hen's teeth. What a shame the clerestory and toplight kits have become so difficult to obtain now.

There are still few details that need tweaking here, such as the sides of the guard's lookout, but overall I'm reasonably pleased with the way this one has turned out and look forward to cracking on with the others, at my usual unhurried pace.