40 YEAR OLD TEAK TRANSFORMATION: The Great British Coach Build, Raising Money for PROSTATE CANCER UK

To place a bid on this transformed hornby "Teak" head on over to https://www.instagram.com/buntersyard...

A collection of 13 old and decrepit "Classic" OO Gauge model coaches were allocated to 13 modellers to form "THE GREAT BRITISH COACH BUILD".

The brainchild of ‪@BuntersYard‬ the aim is to raise money for ‪@ProstateCancer_UK‬ by restoring, customising, weathering or even "vandalising" the model to create something special. Each coach will be auctioned off and the proceeds donated to this worthwhile cause.

Having seen the other 12 projects, the skills, imagination and dedication of each modeller is astonishing. Every project is different and the creations range from military rail guns to Jurassic Park vehicles to burnt out wrecks and even a crime scene diorama!

Please go and check them out and take part in the auction - you'll pick up something truly unique that's had many hours of skilled modelling poured into it!

You can also donate to the Just Giving Page with this link:
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraisin...

To bid on any of the coaches in this video, you will need to follow Bunters Yard and Emperors Path on Instagram. Here are their pages:
  / buntersyard  
  / emperors_path  

The Neville Grove Project:
I actually got quite lucky with my coach, as despite its 40+ years, it was in very good condition and was completely intact. It is an old Hornby Gresley Coach with teak effect from the classic "Silver Seal" brand. I believe the venerable coach is still popular and sold brand new as part of Hornby's "Railroad" range. Having seen ‪@BlufferstoBuffers‬ upgrade a very similar coach recently on Instagram, I thought I'd transform the pale wood effect into something more lifelike and realistic. This coach was going to remain a "runner" - but with a new lease of life!

Coincidentally, at the same time as embarking upon The Great British Coach Build, a customer had sent a rake of the sublime Gresley teak coaches from the current Hornby tooling. These are top of the range products and have a superb likeness to the real coaches that can still be seen running on the Severn Valley & North Yorkshire Moors Railways. However they are highly sought after models and frequently sell for over £50 each second hand!

When put side by side, the difference between the 40 year old model and the current one is very stark. My simple aim was to upgrade the coach so that it could pass muster when marshaled into a rake with the top of the range Gresley teak coaches.

The original coach had the wrong pattern bogies which also made it ride too high, so these were swapped for a spare set of Gresley bogies I had. New wheelsets were sourced and they were painted as per the real things with Humbrol "Natural Wood" to the centres and with white tyres.

To do a proper job, I fully dismantled the coach into its main parts - bodyshell (inclusive of roof), underframe, interior and glazing. This would enable use of the airbrush with minimal masking off.

The roof was masked up, and Humbrol "Maskol" was applied with a small brush to give the impression of the wood grain and break up the flat application of colour. The coach ends on the model were unprototypically black, so these were painted in the Humbrol "Natural Wood" by hand before Citadel "Seraphim Sepia" was sprayed over the whole lot with several light coats using photos of the real thing as reference as to how dark to go. The maskol was removed and Individual panels were then picked out to get tonal variation randomly across the coach. Railmatch gloss varnish was thinned down so as to go through an airbrush. This went over the whole of the bodysides in very thin coats to give a uniform, but subtle sheen, and to provide a level of protection.

Prior to re-assembly, the white plastic interior was fully painted, and passengers were fitted - you don't even get that with the expensive teaks!

The whole coach was gently weathered, concentrating on the underframe, bogies, roof and ends using varying mixed combinations of Railmatch Roof Dirt, Frame Dirt, and Sleeper Grime.

This particular model is a composite brake, so a gangway end was scratch built, painted and fitted along with a tail lamp for the finishing touch.

The top of the range coaches were also weathered in the meantime for my customer, so I took the opportunity to form a full length train. I'm pleased with the result and am satisfied that my aim has been achieved: the coach no longer jumps out as an imposter when running around the layout with its posh and pricey descendants!