Picking up from this blog post a decade ago (recently refreshed), I have for a long time been working on a model of the VSOE circa 1998.   I have previously converted old Hornby pullmans into the 1928 built stock for Ione, Lucille and Zena, and have Minerva from Hornby's 1927 stock.  (all of which still need a fair bit of work on the chassis, along with finishing.)   I am hoping to get at least a set of 6 coaches completed this year, so time to crack on with the remaining two builds so it can all hit the paint shop in the spring.

The next two coaches are Phoenix and Cygnus, both being built (or rebuilt in Phoenix case) in the 1951 Festival of Britain style.  Although VSOE subsiquently rebuilt them to a degree to conform with the rest of their fleet.  

Ignooring the chassis, there are 3 areas of work, Door, Roof and Windows.

The door will be the hardest, and may well be ignorred.  The window should be a lot smaller than the 1927 model I am using as a basis.  I could make a new door but then would loose the lovley door handles and lining.

The roof needs the longitudinal rainstrip removing (and new strips above the doors), along with filling in the corner cut outs in the roof.  The former was an easy job with a sharpe blade

But the latter has taken more work, a section of triangular plastic strip was cut to fit into the gap, and raised detail was removed.   Before the plastic was glued into place the outer side was champhered to start off the curve on the 1951 builds the roof curve starts at the end of the flat side.)   Once dry it is then reprofiled to get a gentle curve across the whole part, after which it will be blended in with filler and a new gutter will be added from 10thou strip.

The windows have caused me more trouble, made worse by being unable to find my drawing...  I think I can now remember where it is so will look again tomororw.

The Hornby glazing was removed (breaking at least one window naturally), this wont be reused but gives spares when Minerva is stripped down to respray the cream).  The cross piece is removed, along with the lower framing to the lef and right of the frame.  On the 1951 build coaches there is a clear band of cream above and below the windows.   Comparing Phoenix and Minerva it looks like the lower band is because of a smaller brown panel (lacking hte upper pair of lines)  So this will be corrected with paint.  The top of the windows however should be level with the top of the toilet window, whereas on the 1927 the top of the window is level with the top of the beading around the toilet window.  I have added a length of 30thou Evergreen strip which reduces the height by approximatly the right amount.  New windows will be cut on the shilouette cutter (hopefully) and fitted with stickers (also with the cutter) for the vents

Now the proof of concept seems to have worked, I need to repeat the work on another 27 windows and 7 more ends.