For the more recent ‘China made’ Hornby Maunsell, Gresley and Stanier coaches, and, this is NOT for the ‘amateur’ modeller attempting their first coach......

With the coach positioned upside down, locate the four plastic locating tabs which are positioned one in each corner. There are also two concealed tabs located one each side in the middle of the coach length.

Once the first corner tab has been released, care being taken to avoid any damage to the adjacent step iron and footboard, gently ease the body a small distance away from the floor. Then take a small thin piece of plastic and insert it in the small gap created. Carefully ease this plastic strip towards the middle of the coach, so as to release the concealed tab. Now continue to the other end of the same side of the coach and release the other corner tab.

Repeat this procedure for the other side of the coach.

Once all of the six tabs have been released, the floor will come away from the body, and the interior moulding will drop out of the body shell.

The seating is already painted, so the interior is ready to populate. Even though there are several manufacturers producing good figurines, I tend to use the unpainted ‘Preiser’ range of seated passengers (that will have been previously painted by myself), as that is the cheapest option plus I can decide on the appropriate colours to suit the appropriate period of travel.

Depending on what figures I have available, I tend to do a ‘dry run’ in finding suitable positions for them, so as to create a reasonable realistic scene. Then I use a small amount of ‘Super Glue Gel’ to adhere them in their places. As these coaches were used on main line and excursion routes, I try to achieve a ‘balance’ between not enough and too many passengers, so that the finished coach looks about right....! That’s also the reason why each one of these that I work on is unique...!

Once the coach has had its passengers added, and the glue has set, reassembly is a case of reversing the earlier procedure for dismantling it. Ensure that the tabs are firmly pushed home, and it helps if the corner tabs are gently eased back into place, rather than ‘snapping’ them back so as to avoid any damage.