Back in the summer I spent a bit of time reworking the lining on the Hornby corridor clerestories:

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/257/entry-18224-tweaking-the-Hornby-clerestories/

I wasn't done with them, though, and over the last couple of evenings I thought I'd revisit the project and take things
on a step further.

As a recap, the idea wasn't to end up with museum quality coaches - you wouldn't start from here, even if I had the skills - but
to see if it was possible to bring the Hornby models up to a level where they'd sit comfortably next to a nicely built and painted
brass model. The main work I did in the summer was to add additional black lining around all panels, and to paint in the droplights.
I also repainted the roof an overall grey.

Coming back to the coaches, I'd always meant to carve off the horrible, Godzilla-scale tension locks and their associated mountings.
So, out with the cutting tool, and short work was made of the couplings.

Next to the Mallard coach, the Hornby bogies look a bit too heavy, even though they're dimensionally not too bad. I found that a quick
and simple solution was to drill out some voids in the bogie frames, just above the stepboards. I used a mini-drill, chain-drilling the holes
to form the necessary voids, then cleaning up with files.

I then dismantled the coaches, removed the ends (a simple sliding fit) and cut away the corridor connections with a circular saw, followed by cleaning up until I had a flat mounting surface. I then made up a pair of MJT GWR bellows connections and glued them in place.

The coaches were re-assembled, and some additional detailing added to the ends in the form of brass wire for the handrails or tank filler pipes, whatever those curvy things are.

Fixing the bogies and corridor connections made a big difference, but I was niggled by the fact that the Mallard coach has the raised window surroundings picked out in the same colour as the droplights. The problem is that the Hornby moulding doesn't include these raised surrounds (bolections, I think) so there's a lot more "brown" than there should be. To get around this, I decided to have a go at lining in fake surrounds using GWR indian red in a bow-pen, which turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. I simply used a ruler to do all the horizontal lines first, then the vertical ones, and touched in the corners where necessary. To my eye this added the necessary element of busy-ness to the sides which was earlier lacking.

Here's a shot of two Hornby models either side of the Mallard coach. At least from normal viewing distance, they sit together quite well, I reckon. It's only when you get up close and notice that the Mallard coach has much shallower sides (and hence flusher glazing) that the differences begin to jar.

As I think I mentioned last time, the shades of chocolate and cream are a little different, but again it's not too apparent in a layout context. Hornby's chocolate is a bit drab, a trend apparent across their GWR range. But there would have been prototypical variations in richness as well so I don't lose too much sleep over that.

Finally, a side-on view of the Hornby brake, hopefully showing something of the opened-up bogie frames, with a bit of daylight visible above the step-boards. I'd still like to touch in some cream to the narrow vertical panels. These coaches will probably run in a fixed rake with simple hook-style couplings fashioned by brass or piano rod.

I don't see too many of these coaches running on layouts, so I guess they're either out of period for the majority, or dismissed because they look a bit basic out of the box. But hopefully these tweaks go some way to making a reasonable model out of these inexpensive and widely available products.

cheers!