Purchased and reviewed by James Aitken

• Severn Models, PO Box 785, Broseley, TF7 9FT, UK
• Web: severnmodels.com
• Price £9.50 + £2.95 shipping per order

Casually looking at the kits available in the Severn Models display case and wondering how I could fit their lovely greenhouse onto my layout, I realised that the carpentry bench and tools might be an excellent addition to my engine shed, which has big enough windows to be able to see inside. OK, I know it’s not quite right, as it really should be a metal working bench, but at least there would be some tools inside. So I bought a kit at Telford this year.

The kit consists of a single small etch with a bench, toolbox with separate trays, a tool tray and a variety of carpentry tools, including a plane and a mallet which you have to assemble, as well as three saws, screwdrivers, chisels, squares and pliers. It is cleanly etched and tabbed with half etched tabs to ease cutting out, which I did using Tamiya side cutters. All parts require minor filing just to remove the remains of the tabs, and folding. I used a “Hold and Fold” tool to fold the parts where required. All folds were easily done as they are properly half etched and require little force. The bench legs are tricky as they are only about 2mm square, so it is not possible to do all four folds using the tool. The last fold can be finished off by carefully squeezing the legs using a pair of flat pliers. The fit of parts is excellent. No trimming was needed on any part.

The instructions suggest gluing as the best way of assembling the parts, but I’m used to soldering kits so that is what I did, using 145deg solder. The assembly came together quickly – I had all the bits made in two hours. You need to make the bench upside down, and getting the legs square on the bench top was hard. In the end I found that sticking a cocktail stick into the free end of the leg helped it stay put in the right place while I soldered the other end of the leg in position.

As with any brass kit, clean the parts using bar-tender’s friend or similar, allow to dry, prime with etch primer which I apply using an old airbrush (don’t use your best one as the paint etches the inside of it), and then paint with final colours to suit. I sprayed with etch primer first, and then hand painted with Tamiya acrylics. All in all an excellent, well thought out and simple model which is a bit of fun to make. A bit bonkers too – the plane is tiny, 10mm long but is made of four separate parts, body, handle, blade and blade support which will challenge most of us!

Photograph by the author