1848 Stage Coach Wood Model Kit by Latina (Side Curtains and attachments)

The side curtains attached at the top on the outside of the body so that they overlap the window frames.

I wanted a very secure mechanical fastening so I came up with a section that could be glued and nailed.

The WF example doesn't have a curtain on the door but the kit shows one, I'll decide later.

I designed the section and "unfolded" it in CAD, the tricky part is the 180 deg. bend.

There are 4 short ones and two longer ones.

After rolling, crimping and gluing the curtains in place.

I added the tie down straps.

And mounted them to the cab.
One of the primary goals for this model is longevity; so everything has mechanical fastening and glue.

BTW none of this is easy.

1848 Stage Coach Wood Model Kit by Latina (Suspension Up-rights)

So in redoing the leather suspension straps I decided that the up-rightswere rediculous.
The kit provided 0.010" sheet brass and of course I went along with it but they were always so fragile and easy to bend.

Understanding the easy advantage of 1/12 scale makes it quick to evaluate weather a part is roughly to scale or not. In this case the up-rights would be only 0.100" thick in real life and that is NOT the fact.

I picked 0.032" and that makes a closer scale part that is also a great deal more stable.

The old ones look like paper.

Ultimately a much better look and only the third rebuild for those parts too!

1848 Stage Coach Wood Model Kit by Latina (Leather Strap Suspension)

From day one I was not happy with the strap suspension suggested by the kit.
Although I made a couple of laminated wood versions as suggested they were not anything like the standard used on the original.

It is far more for aesthetic reasons than accuracy that I like the leather wrap suspension; it is a substantial visual element and adds visual weight to the final design that is completely missing without it.

So the challenge was how to make them. I used the leatherette supplied with the kit and cut 1/4" strips from it.
Taking ques from the original full scale coach I concluded that one long strip was not necessary and in fact didn't know how to assemble it with one piece anyhow.

The trick was to 1st create a fixture that matched both the carriage and the rings points on the chassis.
All 8 pieces lay into the fixture then you can start from the inner most strip and lap each successive layer on top.

As each layer is applied and glued with CA I went from one side to the other in fairly quick succession, by the time one side was holding the next side was done.

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As with many things Modeling invention takes a couple of tries.
I did not like the results with the faux leather straps.
So I went on a search for a better material and settled on leather strips.

With a little more practice I have a much better result.
(Note the laminated wood strap in the background)
The CA glue doesn't work at all in this situation so I nailed each layer to the previous and then saturated the whole thing with water base poly.

1848 Stage Coach Wood Model Kit by Latina (Roof Rail Assembly)

The roof rail and coachman's grab handles became a jewelry project.

Having all the CAD data for the roof that I milled i decided to layout the railings in CAD too.

The railing parts that came with the kit were not to my liking so I made it all from scratch.

The uprights were the bigest unknown so I tackled them 1st. I tryed a couple of different methods for making a drill fixture and settled on the steel hex section.

The goal was to drill 0.031 dia hole thru a 0.062 brass rod.

After several broken drills I did the research and determined that even 2000 rpm was substantially too low and that the drill press did not provide the level of sensitivity or feel required for using a 0.031 drill.

My high speed Dremel came closer at full speed around 25,000 rpm.

I made a bunch extra.

Next was the dilemma of holding the assembly for soldering.

With the hole pattern in CAD I made a fixture on a piece of mild steel.

First I made each side railing over long.

Then did the corners.

Next were the coachman grab handles.

Made this bending pattern.
The roof is designed to be a drop in piece so I will ahve to make small adjustments so it remains a discrete module.
 After doing the patina and finishing I tryied them out on the roof panel and, well, didn't like the posts without a base or flare at the bottom. So I decided to add them.

The 1/16th brass fits into the 1/8th tube and so I needed to cut a bunch of rings. I decided to make them a 1/16th tall.

I set up the lathe so that I could push the tube into the depth stop. and the use the cut-off.
Because the tiny rings will just fly across the room I used a small wire to collect the cut-offs.

When ever you use brass in the lathe the cut-off ends up with the burr. The best way to remove it is with the exact-o.

I have modularized the the roof, cockpit & trunk assemblies so that until the final attachment where there will be a few cross connections.