Speedwitch Media PFE R-40-25 Part 8

 It's beginning to look a lot like reefers

 The next step was arguably the hardest bit of the whole project.
Assembling and mounting the centre sill steps.
The trick was determining where the twist in the stock had to be to get everything to line up properly.
If the location was off it would throw the entire geometry of the step out of wack.
I mocked up the sill step with some paper strips and determined that if I marked a line 6 scale inches down from the top, that was where I would hold the part with pliers either side of the line and give it a 90 degree twist. A very slight gap between the pliers was all that was needed.
From there it was a simple enough process to assemble.
The middle rung is formed into a Z shape and pinned into the main part of the step.
I found that it was best to pin the tab that folded down first.

Then fold into the trapezoidal shape and pin the tab that folds upwards

Then adjust the angles and bend the mounting legs so they are vertical

 Then they can be pinned to the centre tab.
From here on take care when handling it's very easy to knock or bend the sill steps out of shape

 With that done, the tack boards and bolster tabs are mounting and it's off to the paint booth.
A coat of Tamiya Primer was sprayed over the entire model, once that was dry Orange was applied
A mixed a close match of Daylight Orange using AK Interactive Gen 3 acrylics;
AK11077 Light Orange- 2 parts
AK11080 Deep Orange- 1 part
AK11045 Deep Yellow- 1 part

Once that was dry a bit of masking and the underframe and sill tabs were painted with Scalecoat Warm Black

Once that had time to cure, final assembly can begin
First the roof was inserted and glued , then the ends, taking care to make the seam between the end and roof is tight.
Now there are a few details left to mount, but that's for another day