Building an Avalon Line Enclosed Coach Kit - 2

I've made a few changes to the build of my Avalon like kit, some forced by necessity (having castings only) and some by my choice to use MicroTrains bogies rather than the kit originals.

I created a roof using my usual method involving 20 thou styrene (in this case recycled supermarket ice cream carton lid) an empty cola can, pyrex jug and boiling water.  In simple terms the styrene is cut to the approx shape of the roof, taped to the can using scotch tape and placed in the pyrex jug.  Boiling water is poured into and around the can and as if by magic the styrene takes the shape of the can.  That is the simple version, this roof actually uses two visible sections and six hidden strengthening parts, plus strip and sheet styrence for strength!

Underside of the roof - triple layered styrene to try and avoid warping.

Roof in situ, the join in the upper surface is covered with a 10 thou strip.

As the image above shows, under the solebars I have added the strengthening framework, however I have added this to the chasis frame rather than directly to the body.  In order to do this I have added styrene fillets at each end to support the framework.

The chassis frame with added chassis framework.

Styrene fillets add strength to the joins between underframe and side frames.

The picture above also shows how I have mounted a MicroTrains coupler mount to the chassis.  This involved filling the cast hole and re-drilling 0.5mm closer to the end, then opening this out to 3mm to take the mounting supplied with the MicroTrains bogies.

The bogies themselves are a hybrid between MicroTrains and Avalon components.  The Avalon sideframes are cut from the bogies and thinned down - for this (and most other sanding in the project), I used a pound shop emery board.  The MicroTrains bogie has had all side detail cut and sanded off, and the parts joined using Araldite.

Modified MicroTrains bogies with Avalon side frames.

With the bogies completed this coach must be ready to join the queue outside the paint shop....