Formerly supplied by WEP Models
Now supplied by Walsall Model Industries
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Arriving at Halifax a few years ago to do some demonstrating I found I had brought all my tools but not the kit I was going to work on! (Murphy's Law strikes again - or perhaps a senior moment!.) I wandered off round the exhibition and bought yet another of Bill Parker's kits, this time the Gunpowder van. I should add here I have no interest in WEP kits other than as a very satisfied customer.

What do you get in the kit? The usual etched sheet taped to stout card, a bag of whitemetal castings, bearings, coupling links, etc. There is also the usual comprehensive set of instructions with background information, exploded diagrams and a drawing, but no wheels.

These vehicles where made of iron and therefore had rounded corners. This is well catered for by a series of etched bend lines in the integral half side and end etchings. Therefore, getting accurate and even bends is easy. There are vertical stanchions along the sides and these were fitted by gently twisting the locating tabs from behind after passing them through the relevant slots. This serves to hold them tightly with no solder to clean up afterwards. The doors have side stanchions etched in and, once folded over at 90 degrees, fit in slots and serve to hold the body together. This is the only difficult part.

I found that (as with the Beetle and others) it paid to solder some brass angle across the inside to hold it rigid before twisting the tabs on the door stanchions.

The solebars protrude past the rounded corners so some care needs to be taken and there are several hundred rivets to push up. The brake gear goes together easily using a clever method of bending the supports at right angles to the blocks. This gives a positive stop against which the remainder of the detail can be held while soldering.

As usual I used an RSU for all soldering so there was very little cleaning up to do. The awful whitemetal buffers were drilled out and turned into self contained units with steel heads by Doug Thomas again while Ian Hopkins painted it in early style to suit my 1910ish period, but they were in use into the 1950's. The photo shows the finished model off well, which is an accurate representation of the original. I would not recommend this for a beginner but someone with a little experience should have no trouble. Altogether a well designed kit at a reasonable price.

Raymond Walley
Epsom 2006