Coupling height is always a problem.
I find different makers height varies up or down.
What i might do is glue a piece of thin plastic under the socket then glue
the coupling to that.I do this with other wagons i build and i can keep
the coupling from sticking out to much past the buffers.
Nice work so far. Sometimes it's just as quick to make all the body from plasticard than trying to
chop up a good wagon that is only half right to start with.
Top class model, well done. There is nothing worse that the last stage of varnishing going wrong, but sometimes it can
help with weathering even though it was not planned.