Amongst the many other things that I alude to on my workbench in previous entries there have been a selection of horse boxes growing in number for some time. I am currently (still) working on a pair of GCR and an M&GN item from David Eveleigh along with a pair of Lima GWR items, that are the subject of this entry. I know they are branded LMS but from what I can gather from published books and photographs they are meant to be a GWR vehicle to diagram N16 and the LMS didn't have a vehicle anything like this.

Lima horseboxes are not so easy to find for sensible money nowadays and I apologise to anyone who thinks such items should be treated as sacred. I was fortunate to collect one for £6 by blind luck and the other for a swap of a Chivers LNER horsebox kit that I never intended to build. As it turns out I could have quite probably scratch built the vehicles with a similar amount of effort because I only re-used the sides. Everything else went in the scrap box on the floor. At least I didn't canibalise models with in correct GWR livery! However, had I have tried, the initial outlay would have been significantly more.

The Lima model is actually pretty good dimensionally. Roughly to 2mm scale in height and width, but closer to 1:148 for length. I'd always overlooked the model because I figured that it was probably Limas all too common blend of a minimum of two different incorrect scales in different directions; I realised I was wrong after reading some discussions on internet forums and listening to Jerry Clifford.

Diagram N16 was introduced too late for my modelling period, but there are some not too significant differences between this diagram and some earlier ones. To go back to diagram N12 (which is as far as you would go with this body because the earlier diagrams were quite different), to suit my modelling period, would only require the addition of bolections around the fixed windows and some new ends with a turn-under in addition to the details that need changing to make a better model, for example the quantity of roof furniture provided by Lima is excessive. With a couple of tweaks, and a new chassis, this body could be a really nice model, but here's how I went about making something a little different.

First I removed the ends completely and cut back the sides so I could get to almost scale length for 2mm when the new ones were added from styrene sheet. The floor is cut back to allow a second thickness of sheet to be added inside the end at the bottom where the outer end piece will be filed to whisker thin in the next stage to form the turn-under.

New ends were cut from styrene sheet and the curve of the roof profile filed out. The blue colour is where a permanent marker has been used to allow clear marking with a scriber to show the extent of the turn-under. The body nearest the camera already has this feature complete whilst the one behind still needs filing to shape. There are also

The next stage was to add the bolections around the fixed windows. The photograph shows them in the process of being added. I worked carefully around a former made from steel adding 0.010" MicroRod with enough solvent to make it pliable but not enough to make it deform, stretch or break. Careful persuasion with a blunt cocktail stick to prod it around into shape, combined with a lot of patience, has given a result that I think will be acceptable from normal viewing distances once painted. I made the former from steel because I have some available. I did try a wooden effort first off but it failed miserably: the solvent managed to attach the MicroRod to the wood sufficiently well that the bolection was dragged into the window aperture and destroyed when I removed the former.

a completed bolection on the other side

the bolection in very cruel close up.

Much easier after doing five of those was adding the interior. A few pieces of styrene sheet and a length of coach seating strip suitably modified for the groom. The seats were in two sections, so I made a cut and file job in the centre to represent this. You will also notice that I cut the partitions to the wrong width and then rather than cut them to the right width slipped a small piece of styrene in to make things good. It don't think this bodge will be very noticeable once the roof is in place.

The floor was cut out to allow the windows to be added from underneath after the exterior paint is completed. After a question on Yahoo! groups I was pointed to a reference for the interior colour, which is similar if not the same as, light stone. A support structure was built up along the tops of the sides and along the centre of the vehicle for the roof with assorted styrene sheet. The roofs themselves were cut from 0.005" styrene sheet and whilst still flat locations marked and drilled for the roof vents and lamp tops.

Further details have also been added: The gaps between the sheeting on the ends have been produced with a skrawker (a piece of hacksaw blade ground to have just one tooth), I thickened up the protrusions at the tops of the doors with styrene strip and I also used styrene strip to alter the rather odd rounded shape of the drop lights to something that looks more like it should.

To be continued...