• Connoisseur Models
• 1 Newton Cottages, Weobly, Herefordshire, HR4 8QX
• Tel: 01544 318263
• Web: jimmcgeown.com
• Price: £58, excludes wheels

This kit is from the range of kits produced by Jim McGeown. As single bolsters often ran in pairs, the pack is supplied as two wagon kits flat packed, containing brass etches with two bags of whitemetal castings. The quality of the etches and castings is excellent. A few spare castings are included, notably spare buffer bodies and W irons.

Comprehensive and easily followed instructions are supplied, with advice on etched kit building in general, which is very helpful for first time etched kit builders.

David Larkin’s books BR Standard Freight Wagons and Pre Nationalisation Wagons on British Railways both contain pictures of this type of wagon, which was built by the LNER and BR. Wheels are not supplied, 3 hole or 8 spoke wheels are suitable for these wagons. I used Haywood 3 hole wheels for both wagons.

I used my resistance soldering unit for some of the construction, which although not essential, certainly makes life a lot easier. Using a set of bending bars, the main floor/sides folded up without any problems, the final bends being completed by holding a block of wood on the floor of the wagon to allow the ends to be folded up, as the bending bars will not fit at this stage.

After folding the floor/sides/ends, the chassis components are fitted to the underside of the floor. Firstly the buffer beams are fitted, and care has to be taken to get these flush with the ends as there is no location on the etch. This proved fairly simple, by holding against a block of wood when soldering. The solebars then fit between them. An etched line indicates where the inner side of the solebars should be aligned. I fitted the solebars tight to this line, not realising that the holes in the bufferbeam have to be enlarged considerably to accept the buffers. I was consequently unable to enlarge the holes sufficiently for the buffers to fit in them as supplied, so would ecommend checking the fit of the buffers before soldering on the solebars. The buffer bodies needed drilling through 2.1mm, which was accomplished by mounting the spigots in my lathe and drilling through 2mm. Then, using a 2mm nut and screw as a mandrel, I re -mounted them in the lathe and turned the spigots down to fit the holes in the buffer beams. I finished by using a broach to open out the holes for the buffer bodies, not having a 2.1mm drill to hand, and soldered them to the headstocks.

After drilling the cast whitemetal W iron/axlebox castings to accept the wheel bearings, with the wheels fitted, they can be handled as an assembly and will sit between the solebars, allowing the brake gear to be aligned and soldered up. The brake gear is fairly simple on these wagons, being on one side only, and is made up from three etches laminated together. I offset the push rods as per the prototype before fitting them to the floor. I deviated from the instructions by not actually fitting the W iron/axleboxes and wheels until after the wagons were painted, as once these are fitted it is not possible to remove the wheels, This saves the chore of either having to mask off the wheels or having to clean paint from them and enables the back of the W irons to be painted, plus the wheel centres can be weathered before fitting.

The lever guides are bent up from etches with half etched lines where the bends are to be made. I managed to break one having bent it incorrectly (my fault!). Fortunately I had an etch of Ambis lever guides in the spare parts box, and rather than have an odd one, decided to use the Ambis ones throughout.

I also took the opportunity of providing the securing bracket at the bottom of the guide, something that is not provided for with the originals. Apparently this bracket was part of the RCH specification. The bolsters are made to swivel as per the prototype. Chain and etched hooks are provided for securing a load, or can be left on the wagon floor if running empty.

No compensation is allowed for in the kit, and although I usually try and modify kits to include this, the short wheelbase and the fact that the kits assembled squarely convinced me not to bother on this occasion. The brass links for the couplings provided with the kit were replaced with some steel links which I blackened with gun blue.

After a good clean up I masked off the inside of the solebars, and the tops of the W iron/axlebox castings where they were to be fitted to the solebars, and sprayed with Halfords etch primer, allowing 24hrs to dry. The solebars and chassis were then airbrushed with a mix of Humbrol Matt Black and Dark Earth 29. Epoxy glue was then used to attach the pre painted W irons to the solebars with the wheels trapped between. The sides and ends were brush painted with Precision BR Early Wagon Grey.

Transfers are from HMRS sheet 25. Jim explains his method of making up the lettering in the instructions using Pressfix. I decided to paint the black patches for the lettering etc. with gloss black, and use Methfix transfers, as I generally prefer them to the former. Having pushed the boat out and bought the relevant sheet I was somewhat disappointed to find that they refused to adhere to the surface of the model, despite having used this type successfully in the past. In order to get them to adhere to the surface I soaked them in the meths/water mixture for approximately two minutes on the surface of the model some 10mm away from where the transfer was to be fixed. This released the transfer from its film. A tiny amount of clear acrylic varnish was applied to the spot the transfer was required, and the transfer floated on to it and fixed in position by slight pressure with a cotton bud. I then lightly brushed over the transfer with a brush dampened with the meths mixture to remove excess fluid. I found the transfer secure in a matter of minutes and when all the numbers were complete I brushed a further coat of acrylic varnish over the transfers.

I found these kits a pleasure to build, they go together well and are an ideal introduction to etched kit building. A copy of this review was sent to Connoisseur Models.

Jim McGeown replied saying that he thought the wagon kit review was very fair and that he would thank both authors for their time and interest