With the body pretty much finished, I was left with a choice between adding the bodyside fittings or building the roof.

Given I was working outside, the roof seemed the safer option! As mentioned in part 5, I purchased a new roof back at Wells to replace the original which was rather bowed. As I am building a coach at the end of its days the clerestory windows were blacked out (im not sure if that was because they were painted over or the glass was replaced with wood...)

Either way I solved it by adding a strip of evergreen plastic along the inside length of the clerestory sides. This was fractionally wider than the glazing channel, requiring a sliver cutting off the plastic strip.

With this dry (and much more rigid) the clerestory sides and ends were glued to the base of the roof (leaving it on the spur to help keep things square). The sides were new (purchased at the same time as the new roof), but the ends were reclaimed from the original build.) Finally the roof top was fitted with the vents (again reclaimed from the original) before being glued into place, along with a little squadron white filler to tidy up the end joints.

Moving swiftly on, it was primed before receiving a coat of Halfords Volvo Dark Grey. 28 degree heat is perfect spraying weather, with the paint drying almost as soon as it hit the model!

It is now drying, before I mask off the clerestory sides to be sprayed brown on Sunday / Monday. Out of interest I would be interested to confirm the colour of the clerestory ends. I am assuming they would be black (as per the coach ends) but would like to double check.

Given it was touch dry so quickly, I couldnt resist getting the roof on the body for another photo. I will definitely be trying to get the black bits painted on Sunday to finish it off.