A pane of a job

As I am trying to clear a few unfinished projects from the workbench I thought I should finish this Welsh Highland coach, which I'd assembled way back in August 2019. It had actually visited the paint shop soon after, but the job of cutting and fitting the glazing looked tedious, the clear plastic was included in the kit but needed to be cut to fit the recess for each window. It was last summer before I made a start, but it was indeed tedious, progress was slow and the project stalled again until I decided it really deserved to be finished. 

Using my callipers to measure the size and to score onto the clear plastic helped but each pane had to be checked and trimmed several times before it fitted. The recesses allowed just a fraction of a millimetre around each window so poor cutting would result in gaps, or the glazing not fitting flush and flat behind the openings. Each piece was then glued around the edges with Micro Krystal Klear (though my pot is drying up which didn't help) and placed in with tweezers. There are different sizes of windows, and those at the ends have virtually no frame at all, making cutting and fitting difficult. While excess glue is clear and can be removed, the glazing seems to mark easily and unfortunately has gained many visible scuffs and scratches, but at least the job is finally done!

Underneath, the bogies didn't seem to move as freely as I'd like, the contact area being quite large and only allowing rotational movement. The solution is simply a thin strip of plastic either side of the pivot bolt, which reduces the contact area and friction, and allows the bogie to rock slightly. Setting the strip at one end of the coach lengthways and at the other across the coach allows sufficient flexibility in the bogies without allowing the coach to rock from side to side. 

The bogies are fixed to the captive bolts with a nut and washer, but the nut would soon come off with the movement of the bogies. I applied glue to the bolts before adding the nuts, I used the Micro Krystal Klear since it was on the workbench but PVA would do as well, this provides enough hold to retain the nut but it could be removed if force was applied. I also stuck pieces of roofing lead sheet between the frames to add a little weight. 

Finally the roof was fixed with the same glue, which can be prised apart if needed - such as when I get around to fit passengers! At least the glazing doesn't look too bad at normal distances. Although I'd applied subtle weathering when I painted the coach, it doesn't seem to show in these mobile phone photos, though it does look effective to the naked eye.