Moving on I was putting together the Black Coach and a couple of skeleton chariots and decided to use the experience to work on the coach at the same time. All four were made and based at the same time, but the pine and shotte coach was by far the biggest so it received its paint job last.
The build - The model was a combination of metal for the most part with a resin cab (and roof), and it's length and limited connections between parts - especially the horses to the traces - provided some issues. An Eons Of Battle (youtube) tip for adding bicarb of soda to superglue to fill gaps and make it dry swiftly helped, as did some green stuff in a few critical spots. I made a base out of thick plasticard, only to discover it flexed under the weight, so I braced it with long straps of the same plasticard, hoping to disguise them with sand and flock on the base at the end. The bracing did work however.
Painting - I gave it a rattle can spray of brown before painting the base (drybrushing the base) before moving onto the tricky bit, the actual painting. I had a few rough ideas on colours, but when it came to it my inspiration fled into a dark corner and I mostly followed the box art. I find horses tricky so I focused on the Carriage itself first, driver, and its two passengers. The passengers and their baggage I painted separately before sticking in at the end.
For painting I dry brushed most of it lightly in white to make the colours stand out, then I did a fair amount of blocky base colours before following up with a wash and then a highlight/dry brush. The red on the coach was the exception, it just looked right straight away so I left it.
Final stage - the flocking and varnishing. Flocking went ok, didn't hide as much of the strengthening struts on the base as I would have liked, but I also used some flowers and overall I felt it finished nicely. I went for a spray varnish, and not having used it for best part of 2 years I overdid it on the roof and caused some damage that had to be repainted, but the massed dreaded cracking didn't occur, amd after the first paint fix it was done.
