SR Maunsell Open Third in BR blood & custard

[coachmann]

A Hornby R.4538 4mm scale SR Maunsell open third coach arrived today. I despaired of getting one seeing as they were selling out so fast, but fortunately I obtained this one from Modelfair. Not only a good price but I have accrued points worth .77p! 

 

First of all a short review, and in this I am talking with my carriage manufacturers hat on but with no link to Hornby. This model is up to the best standard we have come to expect in the RTR world of models and if one were to pay a professional £500.00 to build one, it would fail to match the standard of this model. Bodyside rivets to die for, fine wire end handrails, separate bodyside grab handles and and well detailed underframe. There was talk of 'detail clever' at the start of the year and I suppose this might apply to the torpedo roof vents but, in my view, there was no point in having separate mouldings when the real things fit so snugly to the roof. Personally i would have moulded on the bodyside grab handles too. This is the model as purchased in BR S.Region loco hauled stock green. (any brightness of the colour is due to deliberate over-exposure and bright sunlight)....

 

Close up of the rivet detail, separate grab handles and super-detailed 8ft bogie....

 

Neat bogie mounted stepboards and a stepboard suspended from the underframe in each corner....

 

Moulded roof detail but very well done....

 

 

 

To be continued...

Edited June 19, 2013 by coachmann

[coachmann]

To dismantle the coach, first remove the bogies by levering them off from the side-rear position with a screw driver as shown.....

 

Next, pull the middle of the bodyside away from the chassis and lever the clear glazing lugs to release the body & chassis. The lugs all broke off despite care. Here are the component parts except for the body.....

 

I was intending this to be a 'how to do it' project, but removing the glazing was found to be akin to removing Wisdom-teeth!  Keeping fingers well away from the knife blade path, I gently cut away at the glue holding the glazing strips in place but only managed to get it out in pieces. The remaining bits were carefully ground out using the tool below....

 

The coach ends have some neat writing on them, so to preserve it I masked off the ends ready for spraying the sides....

 

Sprayed in two coats of BR coach cream (I used quick drying cellulose) and set the body aside to harden....

 

To be continued...

[coachmann]

Next job is to put a black line along the waist to line up the masking tape for the carmine red (blood)....

 

The coach was masked on the outside and on the inside to protect the window apertures.....

 

Next the black roof. Should be grey with black gutter when ex works....

 

Lined out at the waist with yellow & black lines...

 

I could have put the original glazing back with some effort, but seing as the 1930 batch of open thirds had wooden window frames and were not flush-sided, I glued in my usual thick flat glazing strips....

 

The finished coach with no smoking signs in the windows at one end and door stops etc picked out in black...Photo taken as the sun went down....

[Barry O]

Nice job coach,

wish I could work as fast and as neatly

[sej]

Hi Larry, the finish on that coach is lovely! Have you resprayed any more Maunsells and what paints did you use?

 

Cheers

Simon