The Night Riviera project required two vehicles that are not available "off the shelf", a BFO (Brake First Open) and a RFM (Restaurant/Buffet First Modular).
I went to Hurst Models and was able to obtain the RFM overlay and am currently waiting for on the BFO kit, which may have been discontinued.
BFO
The BFO is a fairly rare vehicle I believe and on my photo trips I kept missing it, which didn't make life any easier. So I turned to the wonderful site, http://rollingstock.fotopic.net/ and with Nathan's permission am able to show a couple of photos of the FGW example,
The other interesting aspect, from a modelling point of view, is the rear red lights the unit carries,
So the plan is to install 2 x red LEDs, controlled by an old 3 function decoder that will also manage the carriage lighting.
RFM
So, to make a start on this I needed a donor vehicle, in this case a Lima Mk3 Buffet that I picked up for a few quid on eBay.
It's a rather playworn example, but entirely suitable for a conversion...
First step, remove the carriage ends, simple insert a screwdriver at the bottom of each and they "pop"-off..
Leaving them looking like this...
Now the glazing. This really is the only tricky bit. Take great care here as the glazing and roof, which are one piece, are very brittle and too much bending whilst trying to remove them will result in a cracked roof, which is something to be avoided!
The technique is to insert plastic card strips along the length of the body, to disengage the flush glazing from the recesses in the body shell,
By working in behind each previously inserted piece, slide your plastic card strips along the body...
When you are all the way along, insert pieces on the other side and gently prise at one end, you should find that the roof/glazing pops out,
No simply pull out the fetching orange seats and put to one side. The black underframe is removed by unclipping from the bodyshell with a screwdriver.
