Recently, I made an Avalon Line Semi Open Coach. When I build kits I often assemble them, then paint them. I’d found painting the completed semi-open coach rather fiddly. So for my closed coach kit I decided to paint the parts and then assemble them. First of all I sprayed all the parts with primer.

I want to fit some 7mm Narrow Gauge Association coach door handles.

I drilled holes for the handles and test fitted them. They look good. Perhaps a little big, but I like them.

Next, I masked off the places where I would have to apply glue to assemble the kit, and I painted the interior of the coach.

Then I assembled and painted the chassis, foot wells and seats. It’s a bit rough but it will be hidden inside the coach.

I masked the interior of the coach with masking tape…

…trimmed off the excess masking tape…

…and sprayed the parts with Macragge blue from Citadel. (Sorry for the blurry photo. I got excited by the blue).

I even managed to spray part of the garage floor too. Oops. I’m glad I like that blue 🙂

To paint the solebars and head stocks I masked off the edge of the blue paint and splashed on some Humbrol dirty black.

When I stripped off all the masking tape, things were beginning to look good.

Then it was a pretty simple job to glue the sides and ends to the chassis assembly. I lightly tacked one end and side in place with very small amounts of super glue. Then I repeated the process with the other end and side. It only took a minute or so for the glue to dry and, luckily, everything was looking good. Finally, I reinforced all of the joints with some expoy glue. I find this much more durable than superglue.

There are a few jobs still to do: applying decals, adding windows, painting some passengers, weathering and varnishing. I will get round to these at some point in the future. For now, I lodged the roof in place and took a photo. Looking good!