DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Reglued the doors to the outsides, added end rails and made roof supports in the form of two layered "beak" shapes at the height where a railroad name is usually written. Didn't want to use beams/bars at the ends to make them look more distinct from UK coaches with balconies. The end rails are shaped a bit like LEGO part #6583, the same reference I used for a 3D pen one on a shell I made for a Plarail chassis. Like the windows, they were drawn on a piece of cardboard with the insides cut out with a knife. Despite being made of one layer and attached with liquid glue, they're more durable than I expected (but still easily breakable).



Both bodies were primed bright red, followed by a thin layer of black (which looked like they were covered in soot) and then a mixture of both to get a dark red with slight tinges of the bright shade and the beige of the cardboard. In terms of brightness, it more closely resembles the engine's green while still giving the contrast I wanted.



For the clerestories, I drew the sides of the curved ends and hot glued a thick layer on top of each pair. It's my first try at replicating this style of car, so they're not quite as "organic" as I would've liked. To make the middle sections removable, two large strips on each side were taped to the bodies while gluing the clerestories to them. Each one is held with two skewers that slot into the ends, and one end has to be (gently) tipped in the opposite direction when removing/inserting the middle. Not a great design since they could eventually break off, but it was mainly done so the ceilings would have the right shape as well.



Since I tried painting the windows/vents on but didn't like the result, I didn't want the other sides to look worse and came up with a low effort solution: scanning the side of one car and cutting out the copied windows, which were then cut into strips to match the clerestories before being glued on like large decals. Apart from being fully consistent on both sides and both cars, they're also more clearly visible against the dark red bodywork. Only had to use a red marker to make the frames more pronounced.



Behind the loco. Now that I think about it, I'd better do another test run to make sure they won't tip over again with the clerestories on. I originally made them even higher and they had to be cut down, so at least I corrected them early.



Lastly, here's one of them compared to the (European) coach from the set (which came with a US style 0-6-0T). Had I known where the original loco is now, I would've liked to use them with it. Even though the plastic coach is more toylike, I'd still like to model some of my future stock after it; mainly things like DMUs, streetcars or commuter trains. Despite the engine's light feature, I don't plan to fit lights in these cars since they weren't built with such function in mind. They're a lot more consistent with each other unlike the Stroudley coaches, since they were pretty much worked on at the same time. Only the roofs are not prefect and the side steps are quite poorly done, but I'm still happy with them.