Miindblow

The Cardboard Coach in Three Acts.


by Colin Binnie


Overture


The method of coach building I am about to describe owes little to my efforts but has been about for at least sixty years.  The ideas are not new, the materials are old fashioned but the results are curiously satisfying.

The level of skill required is not high though a degree of patience is required.  The materials arecheap and generally available. In fact an ideal beginners project.  With this in mind I propose to be even more pedantic than usual.  If  the more experienced modeller finds this tedious I can but reply that he should not be reading this but should have written it instead!

A coach is essentially an elegant wheeled box for carrying people, if it is not very elegant and made of metal it iscalled a car. All the best coaches were more or less elaborately panelled with a projecting beading covering the joints. It is this panelling/ beading that provides the major challenge to the modeller.

A reasonable facsimile of a panelled coach can be made by laminating the sides from layers of card and treating the card with a hardening agent. That is all there is to it, but a few notes might helpAct 1


Scene 1 Materials and tools


Card

Not surprisingly, the major material of the cardboard coach.
The best quality card is undoubtedly Bristol board, available at the art shop at horrendous expense.  But I am at heart a tight fisted skinflint so I like to use the ordinary manila folders beloved of office staff everywhere, I have also had success with the hard dark green cardfrom which some filing cabinet pockets are made. Donald Boreham, may his shade rest in peace, swore by the card covers of the Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates which were the stock in trade of a Registrar.  His coaches were made on his office desk in the breaks between marrying Elizabeth Taylor.

Hardening agent

Here I stick my neck out when I declare there is nothing so good, so perfectfor our purpose as shellac.  I do not mean those miserable bottles of shellac varnish nor bottles of french polish, button polish or knotting, with their added waxes and plasticiser but good old fashioned flake shellac.  It is getting rare but I can still buy it at my local hardware shop at around 5GBP for a lifetime’s supply.  It is prepared by dissolving in methylated spirit in a small coffee orsimilar jar and it is worth making it in three consistencies.  Gooey, creamy like paint and runny like milk. I have used Ronseal and other proprietary wood hardeners and also well thinned cellulose and coffin varnish, but I shall use shellac in future.
To achieve that deep down protection and hardening the hardener must penetrate deeply.  The surface hardens off and the deep down solvent slowly,oh so slowly, rises to the surface.  If it is a solvent which can attack the subsequent paint job it may damage it months later.  I have a Festiniog curly roof bogie van, fully lined and lettered which is developing a cracked surface that would do justice to an old master. I have used Ronseal and coffin varnish for general outdoor use with success but I am not prepared to risk a complex paint jobagain when I have shellac and know it works. Sure sign that I'm old.  No spirit of adventure.

Glues.

Ordinary white PVA. For some jobs it may be diluted slightly with water. Epoxy  i.e. Araldite, both rapid and the slow drying variety.

Wood

Any of the finer grained hardwoods will do.  Obeche, ramin, lime, mahogany and holly all work well.  I only use balsa for two jobs i.e. Internalpanelling and roof support.

Tools

A couple of scalpels and spare blades. I like to use the short straight scalpel for general work and the curved blade to cut into a corner.

A fine whetstone for keeping the blade sharp.  I have a couple of those Rolls Razor sets picked up for coppers at the car boot sale. They contain a very fine whetstone and a leather strop built into the lids. We are...