Sandwiched

It's been weeks since I did any work on Gwyrfai but I managed to get a couple of hours in yesterday thanks to the need to use up annual leave before the end of the year.

For such a comparatively small part of the body shell the doors on the WHR carriages take a surprisingly long time to make.

My technique with making carriages out of styrene is to build everything up in layers.

I start with the middle of the sandwich, which in the case of this carriage is a simple oblong piece with a hole where the window in the door goes.

Rather than cutting a hole I create it, adding vertical styrene strips to a square piece, measuring and cutting them to length, and then placing a another piece along the top.

The edge where it joins the carriage is extended by 1mm to give an overlap with the main body side.

Then more strips of styrene, of various lengths and thicknesses, are added in position on top to give the depth which creates the doorway.

On these WHR carriages there is also quite a thick piece glued on its side to create the distinctive inset - this is the bit where it will connect with the back of the body side.

Finally, a third layer is added on the back which creates the window droplight and also the kick plate beneath the door.

The important thing is to keep checking at all stages that they are of identical dimensions, and to ensure they are a mirror image of each other.