At the end of the construction of the carriage in the suitcase nº 7, at the end of a year and four months, today another work of my collection finished.
It is important to divulge some of the history that is associated with this carriage of the mail,
In 1859, with the completion of the road between Lisbon and Porto, the daily careers of the malaposta between Lisbon (Carregado) and Porto about 300 km were started with 23 moulting stations, taking about 5 minutes, to exchange horses, It took approximately 34 hours between the two routes and the price in first class from Lisbon to Porto was 13 $ 50.
But with the industrial and technological development of the time the train was a serious threat to the continuation of the carriages of the mail, which came to happen on July 7, 1864, with the inauguration of the train between Lisbon and Porto, thus making the last The journey of this chariot, and therefore most likely, in commemoration of the good services rendered by this magnificent chariot, was assigned the No. 7 date of the last service rendered in the transport of mail, passengers and parcels.
I sincerely hope that you have enjoyed this compilation throughout the construction time, I also want to say that all comments, comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome as it is a way to improve and make the blog more participatory in the future.
My sincere thanks to all who accompanied this building, thank you to everyone.

Painting in tiles, immortalizing the passage of the carriage of the suitcase, where it was the moulting station of horses Nº 16 between Lisbon and Porto, this stop is today a magnificent restaurant that preserved this important memory, in the locality of Malaposta.

Painting the main cover and brake assembly and driver's seat.
As they can see the images, the carriage is very close to the end of the construction, the showcase where it will be housed is already under construction, missing the final painting, as they see already took several layers of primary, if everything goes well I hope to end the Next week everything will be finished, because the assembly of all the details like the lamps and other accessories, are very demanding and delicate work.
Some more photos of progress.

 The various stages of painting the cover, the brake line and the driver's seat.

Window base construction, where the carriage will be housed, still need to paint, the color will be black, condition with the base color of the carriage, the glass is in acrylic glass 3 mm thick, the next step will be the assembly of All accessories such as lamps etc

Construction of the railing of the roof, the structure of the railing is made of 2 mm metal and welded to tin, shims are placed along the lower railing so that the height of the rails is equal throughout the roof, Be welded washers at the base of the railing fitting with the cover, as a flap keeping it secured and welded, the same height all the way around, as you can see.

The various stages of construction of the railing.

 As you can see, shims are placed in 10 mm high wood in order to keep the same height of the railing all the way around. A corner mold is also made to weld the corners of the railing.

 The shims retain the same height (10 mm) to weld the back grid.

 Shingles in boxwood to border the entire roof.

The grid is finished, it is necessary to weld the washers in the fixing bases and to paint.

Continuing the construction of the carriage of the suitcase, today I will show the back compartment, already finished and ready to fix the main cover, as you can see this cover is glued and nailed with small nails in the corners for better alignment of the set, These steel springs, made from mattress springs, are very useful and practical for this purpose, some photos for a better understanding of this work.

View the inside of the rear compartment, testing every detail, before securing the liner and cover.

 The rear seat is articulated to allow passengers to enter and exit, in this model the seat is equally functional, as you can see.

 Everything is ready for fixing the liner and inner cover.

The liner will be secured together with the first cover, as it is very difficult to access the interior to secure the tape that borders the entire interior next to the ceiling, this tape is fixed before the liner is glued.

The lining is already fixed well as the strips that line the ceiling.

 Beginning the placement of the main carriage cover, this is a critical job, because if something goes wrong, it is no longer possible to repair such as the brake components or the lamps, for example. I use steel springs from the mattresses for this job, with very good results, as you can see

After the Covilhâ and the Lisbon International Fairs, the time has come to resume the work of finishing the carriage in the suitcase, which will take some time to complete, as this final work is of some difficulty and as such requires A greater attention because with the sealed cover there is no ipotese to correct internal errors. Everything has to be well thought out before settling definitively.
I would also like to draw your attention to a very interesting article which began to be published in France on my miniatures, an article by the most understood person in Europe on this subject. Mr. Patrick Magnaudeix, and who will do an article on each miniature, starting with Filipell's car.
However here are some photos of the work already done in the carriage today.
http://www.attelage-patrimoine.com/2017/06/coche-de-philippe-ii-original-et-maquette.html

EXHIBITION IN THE MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF COVILHÃ

This is the card of my next exhibition, in the Museum of Sacred Art in the city of Covilhã, the inauguration will be on May 17, and will be on display until July 20, all my miniatures (14) will be exposed , Including the carriage of the suitcase No. 7 still to be finished, an excellent opportunity for those who have the possibility to go there, to see live my whole collection of cars and carriages.

Construction of the carriage cover.
The plank that makes up all the main cover, is composed of wood of cone, with the width of 10 mm and 2 mm of thickness, is made a mold with the dimensions of the carriage and the boards are glued together, after drying the glue, A fine fiberglass mesh with epoxy resin is applied to give consistency and reinforcement of the entire cover, the finish of the cover is made on the site after fixing on the carriage, plus some photos of this work done today, I hope you like to see .

 The various phases of construction of the roofing plank

 Several molds are fixed on the cover to maintain the upper curvature of the plank.

 View of the interior cover, without the interior lining

The cover is ready for final tuning.