An apology (or 2)... Firstly - sorry its been a while - what with Xmas and some personal modelling (if you're interested visit the 'micro-mouse section' at http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/113568-the-odiham-branch-a-new-project-in-2mmfs/)...Secondly - whilst I started work on this section of the commission before Xmas I've mislaid the images - so bear with me, your coming in with the work 30% done!

This part revolves round the construction of two very early (1845) coaches commissioned by the LBSC. As can be seen

their lineage can be directly traced back to the stagecoach!

They are the product of '5 & 9 Models' ( www.5and9models.co.uk) - who created the cattle wagons seen earlier. Its fair to say that, whilst the castings are extremely fine, the instructions are about as basic as the original coaches! There's not much argument about the 'box construction' of the coach body, but items like 'locate the solebars' take no account of the fact that the only guide to their location is a faint line on the outside of the solebar indicating the level at which they should sit inside the body. I think... As can be seen, the solebars appear to fit in this assumption, as the plasticard floors - fitted inside and on top of the solebars appear to give the correct ride height for the w-iron units.

Ahh - the w-iron units... The instructions cheerfully say 'remove the outer parts of the frame to make a 'V-Iron'. I'm still puzzling over that one - and there is little in the way of prototype info to solve it!

Having cut the floors I then moved on to the interiors.

One interior has been completed - the other shows the relevant 'bits'. It looks basic - because they were basic! No padded seats - that would be asking for trouble as these coaches had no glazing (by the way, these are 'First Class' coaches - you can tell - they've got roofs... - todays 'Southern' passengers would REALLY have something to moan about!).

Both interiors complete. Note that one of the end compartments only has seats on the end bulkhead. This is the compartment directly below the guards seat (yes, he's on the roof, along with the baggage, which is why there are no luggage racks in the compartments).

The instructions do advice 'painting the floors before fitting as it will be impossible afterward'. Agreed. In fact, best to paint the whole thing! Even in the latest HMRS guide (Pt 2 of 'Southern Style') information is on the near side of 'non-existent' for internal paintwork - so I went for mahogany seats (which I'm guessing were slatted) and a 'flat brown' for the bulkheads which were likely to be affected by smoke & the weather. If anyone has further information - it'll be about a week or so before the roofs go on! Until then -

they are starting to look the part!

Next installment will probably be the running-gear if I can resolve the issue of the 'V' or 'W' irons!

TTFN

Ian