Thank you Kevin and rockpaperscissor! That's a great compliment, sir and I do hope you have gained more interest in trains - they're worth it
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Indeed, the moment of truth has arrived. The skins need to be glued onto the sleeper body. I have been pondering for quite some time how to get this done in the least riskiest way, as the surfaces to be glued are large and it all has to be done spot on. No margin for errors!
From trial fits I learned that the roof formers likely need to be trimmed (sandpapered) in order to get a good overlap of the windows, which is the determining factor. But would it be best to glue the skins one by one or join them together first and then place them in one go?
Eventually I decided to combine the skins first,. the joining strip is just made from thin paper (80 grams). Then I used coarse sandpaper to trim the roof formers until the fit seemed ok.
I started gluing the side with the 13 windows but kept the roof fully free to allow further sanding the roof formers. After drying, I rounded the skin carefully around the formers and noticed that they needed a bit more trimming for the window openings to match correctly.
Then I reinforced the roof by gluing pieces of 200 grams paper in between the formers. Before letting the glue dry, I applied strips of glue in between the reinforcement patches and rolled the sleeper body around like a sushi roll to get an even attachment of the skin to the roof formers.
Put it then back on its side again to check the window openings. Then, time to take a rest and let the glue dry for a few hours. Books come in very handy as "presse papiers" to keep things in place properly. Please use acetate glue (I am a fan of UHU) for such large areas!
Finally, the other side (10 windows) was glued. This side holds the corridor along the bedrooms and it proved to be difficult to glue skin and interior as the interior wall bulged somewhat inwards. Luckily I had not put placed the end plates yet, and the open end allowed me to slide in a long ruler to press the inside side wall firmly against the skin. I hope you understand what I mean to say.
Hope you don't mind all these construction details but this is by far the most critical part of the build as it will make or break the model.
After overnight drying and hardening of the glue the result is a sturdy sleeper coach and I must say, the additional paper patches I used at the walls and roof to reinforce the body has paid off.
As you can tell from my hand on the second last picture, the model is of respectable size!
That's it for now, next are the end plates and bottom details. The end of the built slowly comes in sight
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Erik