Another good day

Main job today was to finish the wheel build and begin painting

Here are the four wheels

I gave the front wheels a coat of black direct and wished I hadn't as the paint didn't go on as I wanted it to

Therefore I gave the rear wheels a coat of primer

I am hoping this will give me a much better finish

In between wheels I fitted the drivers seat and the lamp supports

I also gave the window surrounds a coat of stain

Looks like it needs a good dusting though

Also I started on the suspension but I was horrified to find that I was missing parts

There were 3 parts in the centre of one of the rear wheels

The centre with a single part in it was there, but I must have thrown the other one without thinking

I cannot think how though as I am normally very good with parts

I have contacted OcCre for replacements

Above you see the rear suspension with the axles fitted

Wheels

I am really pleased with how today has gone

I have spent the day working on the wheels which I had made a very small start on yesterday

These are the two large rear wheels

The one on the left is complete with it's metal rim

I am so pleased with the way they went together

It took a while as you are forever waiting for glue to go off

The jig that OcCre provide and is shown in yesterdays final photo makes life so much easier

Here is the full days work

Three wheels

The two rear ones and one front, steering wheel

Just the one front to finish tomorrow then they are supposed to be painted black

I will have a think on that

More work on the carriage

Following on from yesterday there was plenty to do

I got the doors together and a coat of paint on

They just need another coat or two and the window sashes

Here is the carriage and the doors just awaiting a rub down and a final coat

I am finding the acrylic paint is drying very slowly and not laying as flat as I would like

Maybe it is time to look a bit deeper into spraying

Another little job is to make up the lanterns that go alongside the driver

These are the parts

Also the hand rails for the drivers section

The pattern is under the left hand one

Here is the drivers section again just needing a light rub and a top coat

Here is the carriage pretty much painted

Just tiny bits of touching up after the fancy stuff goes on

This is one of the fancy bits

2 x 2mm strips of Sapeli to make edges look good

Here is the carriage with the strips all done

And finally I make a start on the wheels

I will have to turn down the volume as there could be some swearing or cursing!!!

Back after a break

Nice to get a bit of a rest so now on with the work

The carriage roof was one ***** to get on

The biggest problem was the wood was bending two ways and even with the clamps it was virtually impossible to get the whole roof fixed in one, therefore I glued the back first then resoaked the wood and bent, then glued the roof 

Next I worked on the footwell for the driver

A fairly simple job with laser cut parts

|Next the actual floor had to be laid in a rounded section

This was done with 5 x 2mm strips

And I covered that with Ramin and Sapeli strips to make it look a bit more posh

At last!!!

The roof is on and looking fair if not perfect

What I did to hide where the wood did not bend well was put a piece of leatherette on the roof to smooth it out

Finally I worked on the underneath of the footwell and a few other places with the good old filler

Some would call it cheating but in some places it is vital

Another day on the seats and carriage

Another coat of burgundy finished it off nicely

I think I tend to paint coats a shade too quickly and I must learn to wait for it to totally dry

Here are the window frames

They now just need to be glazed

The brass is for the curtain rods

I have a thought that I may have curtains up at the back as well

You never know

The passengers may want a little privacy

The carriage body painted, seats fitted and windows fitted

Also the planked floor given a few coats of varnish

Next job was to fit the front of the passenger compartment

It was a pig to do as it is very slightly curved and the outer uprights that it is fixed to a very thin and fragile

The curtains were very kindly made by the wife

Finally a nice inside shot showing everything in place

I am not sure HOW you make the folds in the curtain look right in miniature

Further with the carriage space

After a good day one day two started quite well beginning the padded seats

The parts were cut from the laser sheets and then I cut and glued some foam for the padding

Next was to cut suitable pieces of the faux leather to make the covering of the seat

While all this was going on I found some time to add a nice flooring with some strips I had

I thought that would make the floor look a lot better

The seats needed a seamed look so rather that pulling line of cotton tight round the finished seat I got the wife to actually sew lines on the cover with her sewing machine

I think it looks just the thing

Here are the seats in their finished state

Even the rows of stitching line up

I then got thew other parts of the carriage together and started to paint inside

I decided to use the dark burgundy as I thought it would look classy

I am having a job getting a nice smooth finish though

We will see what it looks like after another coat tomorrow after thoroughly drying

The laser cuts to both sides are the window frames 

Finally to make life easier I did the drivers seat at the same time as the main seat

I have just foamed the parts and the wife sewn the covers

The first steps

 Starting the build

The first job was to cut the parts from the laser sheets and putting one part that needed bending in soak

Here are all the parts cut out with the door supports in place and secured by pegs

The darker part lower left is the bottom of the carriage and has a curved shape therefore is soaked

The carriage seat has been glued to one side and the bottom is held round a knife handle with rubber bands to give it it's shape

The curved bottom section has been securely glued into place

A side view of above

I found that the back of the carriage was also curved so I gave that a soak too

I glued the bottom first with CA glue to give a firm base to curve it round and secure it

That will do for today and I will give it a good sand down tomorrow to remove any glue

The OcCre Barcelona Taxi

The Barcelona Taxi by OcCre

I am building this as a choice of my wife who likes this model

Again I am building an OcCre   occre.com  kit because they have been good kits and OcCre have been very helpful

Here is the first view of the kit on box opening

Below we see what was in the plastic box, the metal and smaller parts

These OcCre boxes are so useful I pass them on to my wife for her sewing

And finally the larger parts

The laser cut sheets and the other larger parts

I will be starting the build proper tomorrow

It should not be too long a build but I want to take my time as I need to save up for my next build

That will be the OcCre Endeavour.  Captain Cooks research vessel