Midland Railway(LMS D1658) 20 Ton Brake van kit (Woodbury Models)
Desperate to acquire some LMS brake vans, I contacted Andy Mould of Woodbury Models, who is working on a range of G3 wagon kits in laser cut timber/plywood.
As luck would have it, he was on the point of cutting the pre-production test sample of the 4-wheel 20T Midland brake van, which (being the very last Midland design of 1921) also became the first LMS brake van diagram, D1658.
Andy offered to cut a second sample on the basis that it was a pre-production example, without any written instructions, and any problems encountered would be "put right" before the kit goes into production.
This sample has plastic/brass rivet strapping,rather than the etched brass which Andy had been considering. If the plastic/rivet combination is successful in the test build, then it may be retained for the production kit, since it will reduce the final cost.
This new kit from Andy Mould is cut from high quality plywood and oozes quality, both in materials employed and the accuracy of the components.
The body consists of a large number of components, of varying thicknesses of material and looks a little daunting at first sight but (even without the benefit of any written instructions) it all quickly became clear and fell into place.
There were no issues with "fit", everything slotted together perfectly and it went together quite quickly. If it hadn't been necessary to wait for the glue to harden between stages (I used white "Gorilla" glue) , it would have been possible to assemble it in a few hours, as it was, I spread it over four evenings.
A few light wipes of filler and a little smoothing of the joints in a few places leaves a surface ready for priming.
I did add a few extra details which were not included in the kit, including the slotted guideways for the entrance safety bars, the train control letter/number rack, label holders and, internally, the vacuum brake cylinder, stove and handbrake stand.
I was very pleased to find that the window glazing has also been laser cut, since that it always a fiddly job to do with a knife.
This is a "bodyline" kit, so nothing below floor level is provided, so my next job will be to build a chassis.
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Below are a few photos I took during construction : To avoid damage during handling, I shall not be fitting the lamp irons (parts supplied with kit) until the chassis has been attached and the glazing and roof will not be fitted until the model has been painted (incidentally, the LMS painted the internal timber work of brake vans a shade of Brunswick green with a white ceiling).
