What did you do to your trains today?

The scratch built Henrietta body I mentioned has now been painted, and these are the photos of the (partial) progress on it.



I just happened to have a box that had enough used long matches in the right condition. The matchsticks were glued on top of each other and onto pieces of paper, inspired by a method I learnt from various DIY videos with wooden pieces. The open windows were made by cutting twelve small pieces for each side and spacing them (more or less) according to the TOMY shell. I initially wanted to copy the sides with cardboard, but that proved even more difficult and not really as durable. The matchsticks helped give the "plank" texture of the real one, so that was another advantage. Compared to the "effortless" version, the balconies didn't really turn out equal in size. At this point, I forgot the middle bars and chose to leave out the "hoops". While the shell does come off easily, it manages to stay on well and doesn't need a screw post like the original has.



Unlike Henry (who used spray paint for the green parts and priming), she was fully hand painted and not primed except for the roof. I repainted it to better match Toby's colour instead of leaving it white (something I didn't do back then). The ventilators were made from the same type of skewer used for the end posts. I know they're the wrong size and shape and should be a lot smaller, but that's the result I got. I may or may not replace the whole roof anyway so it would be rounder and more precise. And here's how she looks with Toby:



Needless to say, I'm glad I made this and helped prevent a needless permanent mod I would regret for years (cutting away the ends of the TOMY shell). In my collection thread, I did state I wanted to build one for that exact reason. Looking forward to any further improvements.