Stage fright

Step 2. This step was also not required 

Step 3. First step that I had to do to start construction and was easily accomplished 

Step 4. Joining the two sides with the internal bottom. To achieve this result is a lot more difficult than what is shown 

 

 

Supporting the broken side 

More support because of the break 

 

To be able to maintain a constant width of 104mm I have had to glue cross bracing in because the wood wanted to stay straight 

Step 8. Adding the Walnut veneer to the long panel 

Step 8. Started 

 

 

Step 9. Removing the excess from the long panel 

Step 10. Adding the Walnut veneer to the Coach sides 

Step 10. Still in progress 

Step 10. Complete 

Step 11. Removing the excess Walnut veneer 

Step 11. Started 

 

Step 11. Completed 

Step 12. Construction of the false bottom 

Soaking plywood in preparation for bending in step 12 

Step 12. Has proven to be extremely difficult with the plywood resisting being bent even after soaking. It took days of clamping and still broke the bond of the wood glue so I had to use Superglue then reinfoce with Araldite. The cross bracing was to prevent the unwanted bending between the supports where the plywood was supposed to be bent over 

Just when I thought step 12 was finished I noticed that the surface to be glued to the bottom of the Coach body was flat when it needed to have the same curve of the body. I used a piece of glasspaper on the bottom of the body and sanded the side of the false bottom until it better resembled the picture in the instructions 

Step 13. Adding the Walnut veneer to the false bottom 

Step 13. Started, thankfully the part is veneered with Walnut because it will hide the fact that a lot of the top layer and in some places the middle and bottom layers of the plywood had to be sanded away to try and get the part in the shape required 

Step 14. Adding a Walnut frame around the false bottom 

Step 13. Completed and step 14 started 

Step 14. Completed. The instructions don't really provide much information as to how things should be done.
After looking at the pictures on the kit box I deduced that the shorter pieces of Walnut should be bent to follow the bend of the Coach body. This was extremely difficult. The Walnut doesn't want to bend at all. Using clamps and boiling water I was able to get a slight bend. With much trepidation I clamped and glued and after some time I released the clamps and the glue held, thankfully 

Step 15. Dressing apertures 

Using cut down ice cream sticks as clamps 

Step 16. Adding the Ramin trim 

Step 16. Proved to be very difficult. The Ramin strip had to be curved in two directions. Which created a complex clamping situation that took a few days of pondering to sort out 

Step 17. More Ramin trim 

Made a mistake with the positioning of the two strips either side of the centre one and had to remove them and cut a new pair then put them in the correct positions. For some reason I looked at the picture in the instructions and then glued all pieces with equal spacing. Once the glue was dry and I was looking at the next step I noticed my mistake 

Step 18. I forgot to take a picture of the build at this stage 

Step 19. Once again I forgot to take a picture of the build at this stage 

Step 20. Forgot to take a picture of the build at this stage too 

Step 21. 

 

I added a piece over the hole at the front of the piece constructed in step 20 because I didn't like the way it looked 

Step 22. Many Ramin trim pieces to add 

This is a massive step. The provided schematic is incorrect in that the curved Ramin pieces are shown as being 1mm thick when the strips provided are 2mm. So I had to guess exactly where they were meant to be positioned 

Also in the parts list pieces 29 and 30 are listed as pre fabricated but in my kit weren't. I first cut out the two pieces I would require in step 23 for the doors. Then I used the leftover frame of the die cut plywood as a template to produce parts 29 and 30. The instructions didn't show the application of the 1mm square Walnut pieces on part 30 but the schematic does and so does the pictures of the finished model on the box, so I added them 

Step 23. Construction of the doors. I forgot to take a picture at this stage 

Step 24. Forgot to take a picture of this step too 

Step 25. Is dressing the apertures in the doors and adding the hinges. Much work is required with the application of the hinges. The nails for the top hinge need to be shortened but I shortened all so they wouldn't cause any issues with the bottom hinge. Due to the nail holes being opposite each other I also bent the hinges slightly and filed the heads of the nails flat to prevent them from allowing the door to operate fully 

 

As per the instructions I glued the door handles on at this point but I think it would be better to drill the holes and glue the handle on after the doors are attached to the Coach body 

Step 26. Sees the doors added to the Coach body 

Once again the nails had to be shortened.
This time it was due to the guide holes needing to be drilled at an angle due to the small door aperture. I also filed the heads flat and one side of the nail head off because of the bend applied to the hinges 

 

Step 26. Completed 

Step 27. Covering the seats. The material provided wasn't big enough to do the job as in the instructions, so I had to do some dodgy stuff 

Due to the fabric not being big enough I had to be very frugal with the seat backs 

At least this side looks okay 

Before I attempted to cover the seats I first cut out the luggage cover and four window blinds. The driver's seat and then I had what was left for the interior seats. The seat bottoms had to be covered with the scraps and thus both have two pieces of fabric. 

Hopefully once inside the Coach body this two piece arrangement won't be very noticeable 

I veneered the underside of the seat bottoms to make them look better 

Step 28. Seat bottoms installation 

 

Step 29. Installation of the seat backs 

 

Step 30. Adding the Walnut edging 

 

Step 31. Adding the Duck-boards. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture at this stage. I put more Duck-boards on the roof panel than the instructions suggest. The instructions show them with uneven gaps. After glueing the centre Duck-board I used the edge of my Steel rule to set the gap between each board 

Step 32. Luggage rack uprights. I decided to not follow the instructions here and didn't glue the roof panel to the body at this stage to make construction of the luggage rack easier 

 

Step 33. This step is best not done as shown. I started doing it this way but because the plan isn't the correct size all my work had to be undone. The most notable inaccuracy shown in this picture is part 55 being attached to part 54 when it has to be attached to the front upright 

Step 34. Assembly of the horizontal sections of the luggage rack 

Boy am I glad to have this step finished. I broke my flat jawed pliers squashing the brass rod so I could drill holes in it. I spent about two months trying to work out how I was going to squash 2mm brass rod. It took about three weeks to accomplish this step. Unfortunately the brass does show the affects of having been bent and straightened because I attempted doing it as suggested in step 33  

Step 35 

I didn't glue the roof onto the body until I'd completed the luggage rack and don't glue both seat handrails in place at this stage or you won't be able to get the seat in place 

Step 36 

These are 2mm brass rod that I've used permanent marker to make Black because the weather here isn't suitable for painting and I wasn't confident that I could get consistent cover 

So the permanent marker wasn't up to task. Started wearing off in patches and most annoyingly onto the wood of the model. So I have had to remove it and I'll have to try painting the foot board supports 

I'm hoping this Tamiya TS-14 will do the job. I couldn't even buy it here in Ballarat. I'm able to get these rattle cans in Hamilton at Toyworld but Ballarat Toyworld don't stock them. So I purchased it from BNA Model World in Melbourne Friday and it arrived this morning on Monday. So that's pretty good 

So I painted the foot board supports with the Tamiya TS-14 and I was really happy with the result but the paint also won't stick to the Brass. Not having worked with Brass before I eventually did a Google search for advice on getting paint to stick to Brass and I'm off to the hardware store today to get some Etch Primer and just like Bullwinkle said to Rocky "watch me pull a Rabbit out of my Hat". Hopefully unlike Rocky's reply "again? But that trick never works" I'll be able to correctly quote Bullwinkle "this time for sure" 

Foot board supports are fully Etch Primed now. Could only paint half of them at a time and decided to wait 24 hours between each application due to the very low temperature here in Victoria ATM 

Finally, I think I've finished the foot board supports 

Step 37 

 

So I added a couple of Brass pieces to secure the foot board supports to the bottom of the foot board because from what the instructions show you just glue them to the bottom of the foot board which as far as I'm concerned didn't look realistic and probably wouldn't have provided a secure enough attachment 

Step 38 

I made a big mistake here. I started bending at the wrong end which consequently put one of the nail holes in the wrong position.
With it ending up right on the corner of the foot boards 

 

 

 

 

Step 39. Construction of the rear luggage tailboard 

 

Step 40. Addition of the backing cross-bars against the vertical supports and rear luggage tailboard 

 

 

It's not stated in the written instructions or very noticeable in the photo provided but the large schematic sheet shows that nails should be in the tops of the vertical supports and at the junctions of the backing cross-bars to the vertical supports. The shafts of the nails will of course once again have to be shortened to facilitate this 

Step 1. This step is obsolete for this kit because this part is one piece