Prestwin - Dear Packer No. 57
Entry posted by Andy Y
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Dear Number 57, whoever you are or more probably were, today I really appreciate what you and your colleagues did all those years ago!
I'd had a Dapol Prestwin in the to-do drawer for a year or two and decided a few weeks back to put into the works. What an utter disaster it was and virtually put me off buying any of Dapol's current production of these time-served moulds. The chassis was so distorted that at rest only two wheels would touch the rails, three if a digit was placed on a corner; I can't even remember where I'd bought it so it now lives in the parts bin for its other components.
The kit started life under Airfix around 1964 and it's a very different story with crisp detail on decent plastic (if a little brittle with age resulting in a broken brake lever at a late stage) that can still make a decent showing placed next to the current pick of the crop. Assembly is a dream with sharp alignment, positive fit and achievable in under an hour despite the 60+ parts that make this up. The only modifications to date to the kit are the addition of a couple of Cambrian brake wheels (I owe you another thank you Brian!) to the discharge pipes on the roof and the handrails above the short ladder to the platform on one side. The original transfers are somewhat yellow and curled but handily there were appropriate lettering and numbers left over on a Modelmaster 4644r sheet after the Presflo project (I really must post some snaps of the finished article).
I accept that the seams in the tanks are more prominent than you'd like to see on a wagon produced last week but in the flesh they don't look as pronounced as they do on the snaps and that some final touching up is needed before a dose of Dullcote.
Show me anything as good from 1964 that you can pick up for a fiver if you can!
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