The etch arrived this week and PPD have indeed done a fantastic job!

The etch contains the following pieces to assist with the conversion;

- Headlights (fold up to box shape)

- Large hopper windows with insert (as per tomstaf's suggestion)

- Large fixed windows

- Medium fixed windows

- Small fixed windows

- Bodysides for guard's compartment

- Inner and outer plating for corridor connector

Here are some close ups of the large hopper window, this has come out really nicely I think:

Now, the moment of truth is here.. test fitting the windows and ensuring that the slight overlap was there as planned!

One of the things that I tried as an experiment was to put a representation of the guard's compartment sides on the etch. What I am planning to do is file back the coach side as shown on the photo below, so that the etch will be more or less flush with the rest of the coach when added. Then hopefully with a little filling and sanding, the join won't be too noticeable.

Test fit shown below, note that it looks odd at the moment because the etch is flat and the coach is curved. The metal will curve to fit the coach when it's finally attached.

One issue with my etched sides is that they appear to be marginally too tall, and the windows are not quite far up enough (look to be about 1/2mm off). That's solved by fitting the sides so that the bottom is slightly above flush and the top protruding. That can be filed off in due course.

So far that's the only issue encountered though, I was really worried that the etched window frames would not turn out to be the correct size and they all seem OK.

I only ordered one sheet of the etch for the time being, but if anybody reading this wants a sheet I will be happy to share the artwork with you so you can source from your own supplier, or I can point you in the direction of the supplier that I used, as I understand that they keep the tools used to make the design on file for a length of time.

More will be posted as the conversion takes shape!