Following the last delivery from the etchers, it was time to get on and do the first test builds.  First up was the dia 51 Full Brake.  This vehicle was one of the later coaches from the Highland Railway and was of similar design to the cove roof corridor coaches that have been available from Lochgorm Models for some time.  They were also amongst some of the last highland coaches to service as tool vans etc.  This is what one looked like late on in its career after its corridor connections had been removed.

As with my efforts for the scrap tank, I am seeking to try and be a bit smarter with some of the kit design to draw together ideas of assembly of my own and also those of others.  So starting with the ends, these will be made with a double skin to both provide the footsteps and, less commonly, some tabs to allow the sides to be secured to them.

I have always found that too many etched coaches have flimsey sides that become distorted as they are made (or when ham-fisted me does anyway).  Therefore,  I have designed this such that the head and base of the side have significantly sized stiffening pieces, as can be seen below.  These are designed to interlock with the tabs at the ends such that most of the locating of the parts is largely defined by the kits components.

Once the basics of the shell are together, this is what it looks like.

The roof proved to be one of the most challenging parts of the build.  I had originally designed this with an inner to form the shape of the roof and then a thinly etched outer layer to go over this to provide the rainstrips and other detail.  It proved too difficult to get the two to laminate well or even be rolled to a similar curve.

Instead, therefore, I ditched the outer layer and relied only on the inner.  This had been half etched on the underside to assist its rolling to the curved profile.  I found that it was still difficult to roll the roof due to the tightness of the curves at the extremity of the roof but by simply using bending bars it was quite easy to put the curves in with a limited amount of faceting.  Faceting is where short straight sections with bends to the next short section that gives the impression of a curve.  Once this was then filed on the outside to smooth out the facets, a smooth curve became pretty good.  Thereafter, it was necessary to form the rainstrips with wire and file them back to square sections and as you can see, the effect is pretty convincing.

The underframe and bogies are to follow, in part 2.