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Parkside Dundas kits are very good value for money, accurate and easy to build. What’s more they come complete and you don’t need to know anything else about suppliers of 0 gauge wheels or other bits and pieces.

There are some good historical notes in the instructions - the prototype was the earliest mass produced LMS goods brake van. A total of 849 were built between 1924 and 1927. They were more or less identical to the last Midland Railway design and lasted in considerable numbers into the 1960s. There were minor variations over time and these are mentioned in the instructions. With extra work you can backdate the model to one of the Midland Railway versions introduced after the First World War.

These had a different form of brake gear that didn’t have the double bracket featured in this kit. There was also a Midland fitted version which had the vacuum cylinder inside the van but different mechanism underneath and of course vacuum pipes and screw couplings.

My model represents the van in as -built condition which included a Midland train identification number rack on the side of the body.

The kit is pretty comprehensive and includes wheels, couplings and transfers. There are good photos of the prototype in An Illustrated History of LMS Wagons; Volume 2 by R.J.Essery. A comprehensive book list is in the instructions.

The in structions recommend that you fit fine detail after the basic assembly, but I find it easier to fit some detail while the parts are flat. So I fitted the end lamp irons and also the couplings and buffer housings. I didn’t fit handrails or other detail on the corner posts as they are glued together later and detail gets in the way of fitting. I also fitted the long handrails on the sides before assembling the body. As I was representing the van as it was in the 1920s, I added the former Midland Railway control number rack on each side.

Some vans still had the racks in the 1930s. They were made from 0.5mm by 1mm plastic strip cut to 14mm lengths. I spaced them at the following distances from the bottom of the van side; 17mm; 24mm and 30.5mm.

The most important parts to get neat and tidy are the outside corners which on the prototype are solid timber. I assembled sides to ends as two units making the join good and tight in each case and checked they we re square. Make sure you assemble them ‘ handed’ - in other words as opposite corners, as it is possible to get them mixed up. Let them dry for some hours and then fit the floor to one unit and do any filing and fitting on the floor to get the other unit good and tight at the corners. I left the model for an hour or two to set then slotted the inner ends with the doors, in between the sides. A smear of car body filler cured the odd hairline crack in the outside corners.

I fitted the safety bars across the end platforms at this stage but left the si de handrails and lamp irons until the chassis was assembled. The safety bar brackets are tiny mouldings and I marked their position and fitted them with great care. The bars are fine wire which I looped round a fine drill shank and then cut off before super gluing them in the brackets. For variety I did two as open, hanging downwards, and two as closed across the entrance.

The instructions recommend that you fit the axle boxes after attaching the solebars and axleguards to the body, and then force them apart later to get the axles into the bearings. I much prefer to fit the axle boxes before the solebar units are fitted to the van. To allow the axle boxes to move in the axleguards, I pushed the box onto the brass bearing with the back plate fitted into the axleguard, a small drop of super glue on the tip of the brass bearing enabled it to be secured but still left the axle box free to move up and down.

I then fitted one solebar unit to the van, ensuring it was vertical to the van floor. Then I glued in the underframe moulding. I left this to set firmly and then put the wheels into the bearings and fitted the other solebar unit with the axles in the bearings and glued it in place. Before it had properly set I checked that all the wheels sat on a sheet of glass without rocking, you can make minor adjustments if there is some rocking.

The most fiddly and complex part of the kit is the brake gear. However it is almost invisible under the vehicle and if you get it wrong few people will know. The instructions are quite clear. I used a thin broach to open out the holes in all the links so that they fitted together without breaking the fitting pins by forcing them into too smaller holes. I fitted the brake shoe units to the underframe after I had pared the backs of the shoes to ensure they were clear of the wheels.

Fitting the link and brake yoke units at each end is a very fiddly job and you need fine tweezers and some patience. I found that the brake units were easier if you glue the linking lugs after you are absolutely sure you have got everything in the right order. It is easy to get the brake yoke on the wrong side of the operating link and you have to take it apart – so check before gluing. When the whole lot is fitted you can glue and super glue everything solid!

When I had finished the brake gear I fitted the more vulnerable external details such as the remaining lamp irons, the handrails at the sides of the veranda and the side steps. These latter should be well secured and I found the brackets to be surprisingly strong. The van is now ready for painting – the instructions suggest that the roof and glazing should have been fitted much earlier, but why spray the model with the glazing in place? Similarly the roof has to be fitted after the glazing, so I painted the model with the roof and glazing missing.

I used grey Halfords car primer and matt black to get the basic colours on the model. The paints don’t seem to damage the plastic but I didn’t flood with paint just in case. I masked off the body and windows first and used the matt black on the underframe and the inside of the van. I didn’t want to see the inside so black is a good colour!! I then masked off the black parts and sprayed grey. The reason I did the black first is that it is easier to match the black with Humbrol paint than it is with the grey – so I preferred overspray on the black.

I picked out the handrails in white and then applied the transfers. The transfers are very easy to use pressfix types, I use Transfix to soak off the backing paper which softens the transfers and enables them to be pushed into the gaps between the planks. Note that the LMS letters are fairly compressed because of the control number rack. Some of these vehicles had this compressed lettering even if there was no rack. As I was going to weather the model, I painted the veranda floor black and applied my usual black and earth colour mix as dilute weathering inside the verandas while the roof was off and the glazing absent.

Then I fitted the glazing and glued a good slab of lead to the cabin floor to give the model much needed weight. Finally I drilled a few holes in the van floor to avoid the build up of potentially distorting solvent vapours in the confined space inside the cabin.

I didn’t paint the roof before fitting it because you have to fit rain strips which can warp the roof as can painting it on only one side. So I glued the roof in place very securely and taped it while the solvent hardened. The rain strips are thin plastic strip. I marked the high point on the centre of the roof with dividers and then the low points at each end. The strip was roughly pre-formed, and, working from the centre, I applied solvent carefully so that the strip formed a gentle curve to the marks at the end of the roof. This is easier than it sounds.

With the roof in place I masked off the van body and sprayed the roof a dirty grey. Weathering is subjective and I used the same matt black and earth colour mix I used on the verandas. I concentrated on the underframe and around the ends of the van. I added some orange/brown rust colour to the brakes and in odd places under the vehicle. As with all Parkside kits the model really captures the look of the prototype, and is great fun to build.