Coach bodies

As I said before, a coach body is little more than a box so once the detailing of the sides had been completed, putting the bodies together didn't take long.

The underframe is a nickel silver rectangle with sides that fold down. These are covered with solebar etches. The the four parts of the body are tacked together. These are placed over the underframe, resting on top of the soldebars. I taked these in place and then fiddled about a bit with the square to make sure everything was happy. A few tweaks later and it was time for final fitting.

With this mass of metal, plenty of heat is called for. A few more bits of solder were blobbed in place and plenty of PowerFlow flux wiped around. Then I fired up the gas torch. This might seem like overkill but here it's very helpful - the heat goes in so fast it stays localised so the half etched sides don't buckle. In fact you can direct the flame accurately enough to blow solder around joints in the same way children years ago used to poke mercury in science lessons, although with possibly fewer ill effects.