STEP BY STEP

MAKE A CAMPING COACH

1

The first job is to select the best vehicle for your chosen conversion. Inspired by the photograph of a six-wheel camping coach at Combpyne, I chose this Hornby five-compartment six-wheeler.

2

Dismantling is easy. Insert a flat blade between the body and chassis near to one end. Lever gently upwards and the body will unclip and lift away.

3

The coach dismantles into three pieces. The body and chassis will be needed but the interior can be consigned to the scrapbox. You never know when you might need some spare seats.

4

Removal of the glazing is the next step, shown on a different model, but they are all assembled the same way. A knife blade was used to break the small amount of glue and the glazing strip can then be pressed out.

5

Several of the doors had been plated over with steel sheet. I filed off the raised waist panel detail and cut pieces of paper to represent the steel sheets. These were glued in place with Velo-set.

6

Using a sharp knife blade I cut off the door and grab handles from doors that had clearly been sealed up and I took two lamp tops off the roof. The locations of these were cleaned up with a file.

7

A new interior was needed so I used the original as a pattern to cut out a piece of 40thou styrene sheet. It is important to get the cutouts in the right places so that the body will clip back in place.

8

I used items from Preiser 10632 and Noch 14832 in a variety of test arrangements, eventually combining some items from each to create the interior.

9

It soon became apparent that the double bed was too wide to use as supplied. It must be a king size or over-scale in ‘HO’. I cut it in half with a razor saw and used both parts.

10

With this quality of furnishing in place my camping coach is somewhat more plush than the real thing, but I did not want to make my own furniture and this is, after all, a generic model.

11

Included with both the four and six-wheel coaches are the long running boards, which are supplied as a customer-fit detail. They benefit from painting first, using Omen Miniatures wooden grime acrylic paint.

12

The coach body was sprayed with primer and painted with Omen green acrylic which, to my eyes, is a good match for SR coach green. After trying old decals which did not look right, I opted to make my own.

13

As I hadn’t decided on a location for the camp coach, I mounted it on 5mm foamboard, starting by applying some Woodland Scenics fine grey ballast and Peco bullhead track, all fixed with PVA glue.

14

I made the steps using Plastruct stairs (90662) which come in either white or dark grey. The handrail was added from some plastic rod (Evergreen 211 would be ideal), painted in Omen wooden grime.

15

Camping coaches were really all about the setting, so I wanted my model to be in as rural and picturesque a setting as possible. I used Polyfilla mixed with Woodland Scenics C1229 Earth undercoat.

16

Next, I installed fences, using Ratio GWR ‘spear’ iron railings behind the coach and Ratio 424 Lineside Fencing for the adjacent field. The foamboard base makes installing these easy.

17

The track on which the camping coach stands is sure to be rusty, so I made a mix of Humbrol weathering powder and rust wash with which to paint the rails and chairs.

18

I applied static grass and painted all the fences before fixing the camping coach in place. Usually a camping coach would be on a siding to enable its removal at the end of the season, but on my layout that is not possible.

19

The detailing includes a wooden five-bar gate from Ancorton’s laser-cut range, a dog from Noch pack 15717 and an authentic GWR Private Road sign produced by a friend some 50 years ago. The poppies don’t really work.

20

I bought these Sandy grass tufts by Peco for use on my Canadian layout, but after trying one or two on this model I thought they looked so good that I went overboard! They are fixed with spots of PVA glue.