Purchased and reviewed by Mark Horley

The Macaw G is a bogie bolster wagon inherited by the Great Western Railway from the Taff Vale Railway. I bought this kit from the Dragon Models stand at the Telford 2006 show, I also bought two packs of Haywood Railway 3ft 1in wagon wheels to complete the model. The kit is supplied in a plastic bag with the etches taped to stout card and the castings packed in smaller bags also attached to the cardboard. All of the castings were good quality with little moulding flash, most in white metal but the buffers are cast in brass. The instructions comprise three sheets of A4 describing the stage by stage assembly, illustrated with colour pictures to assist the text. There is a copy of the general arrangement diagram but not at 7mm scale.

Assembly starts with pressing half etched rivets on the floor and side etch. The sides are then folded up from the floor. The solebars and buffer beams are U-channels again folded up from flat etches. I found these long folds with little metal to grip awkward, to make but this is a common difficulty with kits of this length of vehicle. Solebar detail is on half etch overlays which have to be sweated into the channel.

Along the side of the solebars there are seven securing rings. These are supplied as pre-formed wire loops that fit into minute brackets that are soldered into the solebars. The instructions acknowledge this is fiddly and a nice touch is that spare brackets and rings are included to allow for losses. I was a little concerned at doing this before attaching the solebars to the floor but in the event none of the detail fell off during the main soldering. I then attached the various plates to the solebar before proceeding further.

The underframe trussing is a mix of etched and cast components. Two ‘I’ beams are soldered up and are fixed under the solebars. This supports the beautifully cast queen posts. The actual trusses are etches with little cut outs that slot between the nuts cast in the queen posts. The end of the outer truss rods have to be twisted through 90 degrees and soldered behind the solebars, while the inner pairs are bent over and soldered to the bolsters supporting the bogies. I’m slightly presumptuous in saying this as instructions talk of bending the outer truss rods but I believe twisting is actually what is meant.

I have mixed feelings about lost wax cast buffers and stocks. They look good and are sturdy but working the material is tough. Being oval buffers with rectangular shafts, cleaning out the hole through the stocks to get an easy sliding fit requires a bit of hard work using the end of a thin Swiss file. The buffers and coupling hook are sprung using a transverse piano wire. Surprisingly no links for the couplings are supplied. The other main fitting on the underframe is the brake lever and guide. I had problems with the guide as the half etched marks for bending the complex shape were not all there. Once assembled as instructed, I felt the lever was rather loose so I added a second hanger from scrap etch to support the brake shaft under the wagon.

The bogies are simple white metal assemblies soldered up around the wheel sets. Final fittings are in white metal including beautiful castings for the stanchions and brackets. These include the holes for the chains to link the two and the instructions suggest using fuse wire to model these if required. It would be nice if the stanchions were in brass to make them more durable but a decent load on the wagon will provide protection. Overall I found this a very nice kit to build. The only real difficulties are making the long folds on the body and solebars which could be a challenge for a novice. The instructions and the white metal castings are to a particularly high standard.

Susan and Julian Wynn are the new(ish) owners of Dragon Models. They have seen Mark’s review and added the following:

On reading the review, we are pleased that, overall, the building of this kit was found to be a pleasant experience.

We have considered the comments made, and in response to the issues raised in relation to the buffer housings we will ensure these are drilled before despatch. In relation to the couplings, where three link coupling hooks are provided in the kit, we will now also include coupling links again as standard. Readers may also be interested to know that, in response to other feedback, we are offering, as an optional extra, lost wax stanchions in place of the white metal ones included. These will be available to purchase as a separate upgrade.