16mm toytown coach painting and detailing

For painting laser-cut kits, I've enjoyed good results with the cheapo bottles of acrylic paint from The Works. At a quid a go, and with plenty of colours to choose from, they might not be "proper" modelling paint, but they do the job.

I tend to squirt paint out onto some plastic and then apply it neat with a wide brush. I do dip this in water every so often to thin the paint, but not much. It dries really fast and I like to give the surface a light sanding between each coat to flatten any wood grain that has risen.

3 coats seem to do the job, although I guess this depends on how deep a colour you require.

Before painting, I added some door hinges from scraps of wood. Afterwards, the varnished wood belt lines went on, making sure I cut a slot so it looked like the doors would open.

Talking of opening, brass handles from wire look nice - I bought some plastic mouldings but have lost the packet for the moment.

 Glazing is just plastic stuck inside the body. I could have flush-glazed but apart from taking time, I didn't feel it suited the slightly toytown style of these coaches. I've left the doors, but not the guards duckets, unglazed. This permits access to the inside if I want to add more passengers, or if one of them loses their grip on the seats.

Each roof is a bit of plastic sheet pre-bend around a fat marker pen and then fixed with epoxy glue. I didn't use superglue as the fumes can fog the glazing. I had thought I'd paint the roofs grey, but they look nice white so I'll give them a light sand with a mild abrasive to matt the finish for the moment.