Continuing work on the mail wagon. While I was painting one day, I went ahead and finished up the wheels. I painted them flat white, then gloss Cherry Red by Krylon.
I joined the front and back cabin assemblies using strip wood along the inside bottom, using spacer boards at the top to keep the front and back assemblies square as I worked.
I installed the floor and then added more support boards underneath.
You can see I added the same scored lines on the bottom to mimic individual boards.
I added strip wood along the top to finish the walls and to fill the gaps on the top and bottom of the doorway. These wagons would have had slightly curved rooftops, but I left mine flat for ease of building. I did add some shaping to the front sides.
I cut a piece of 1/16″ thick basswood the exact shape of the ceiling opening.
I cut a roof board from 1/8″ thick luan plywood (leftovers from Walnut Bay Light) and covered the edges with thin basswood. I added the 1/16″ thick basswood ceiling to the plywood which would allow the roof to sit firmly in place but remain removable. I again scored the basswood to mimic individual boards. Having a removable roof means I can always try my hand a curved roof later. I apparently didn’t take progress photos of this part, so here is the roof after painting.
From the inside, it looks solid. :]
From the outside, you can’t tell it’s not all glued together.
