The Slater's BR Van kit, which arrived here over a year ago has now been built.

The last plastic model I ever built was an Airfix Sunderland Flying Boat way back in 1960...

So I have had to resurrect and improve my modelling skills to tackle this job...

Here is an image of the finished van - all that is missing are the transfers which, hopefully, are on their way from Fox.

The build seems to be quite straight forward, but if one has never done anything like this before, very slow.. very,very slow.

It also is full of unexpected twists and turns and surprises.

The box the kit came in was opened over a year ago - and after inspecting the contents and instructions - buried in haste!

Along with a number of white-metal kits.

The whole project having recently awakened from dormancy, it became imperative to finish all the various model kits.

So...

(1) One night about two weeks ago I opened the box and removed all the plastic bits that were needed from the various frets.

(2) Not as easy as it appears - some are very delicate and shattered in the removal process.

These had to be put on one side for further consideration as to how they might be repaired or rebuilt.

In fact it would have been much better had Slater's made them from brass

(3) Then hid the whole lot away for further contemplation and a rainy day - which was not long in coming.

(4) On Monday its was raining so I steeled myself to begin construction. Got out an orphaned circular glass table top useful as a working surface and began the construction...

(5) Quickly found out that MEK and I have a mutual distrust of each other and went back to using aeroplane glue - sticks every time.

(6) During assembly some interesting discoveries came to light -

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(a) That the sub-frame needs some trimming in order to fit the ends square.

(b.) That there may be a predrilled hole here or there but what is supposed to fit in it might not. E.g. The 'W' irons needed to be drilled out in order to fit the wheel bearings. etc.. This is especially difficult to do if it has all been glued together. Fortunately I spotted the W iron problem before any glue was applied.

(c.) The brake shoes as supplied rub on the wheels - these needed to be made thinner. A process that needed to happen before gluing!

(d) There are brackets that hold a tube, that houses a rod that acts as a bearing for the brake levers and Morton cam arrangement. The hole in these brackets needs to be made larger - this was not discovered until after gluing. Managed to break said bracket in the re-drilling process. Fortunately Slater's provide an abundance of plastic strip of different sizes that can be used to repair things - including broken stirrups and brake lever holders etc..

(e) Completely misunderstood were the buffer assembly instructions (it must have been the antibiotics :-) - they are now no longer sprung buffers as the designers intended. It is rather complicated to explain but somehow I felt I needed to drill out the buffer holders (I wonder what their actual name is?). These are bronze castings - These holders needed cleaning out - they come partially blocked with what appears to be chalk. But not drilling out - oops!. Also unfortunately one of the castings was a little bent and does not sit flush on the model. Nothing much could be done about that...

(f) The mini blackboards on either end of the van come with four pegs - there are only two holes, diagonally set, so two pegs need to be removed. However the result does not sit square so it is best to remove three - and also check that the right ones are removed as they are handed.

(g) The gubbins that hold the brake levers if put on as shown on the assembly diagram seem to be in the wrong place for the levers, but in the right place according to photographs of actual vans - it could be the levers are too long? It is a puzzle needing to be resolved.

(h) The kit came with only one vacuum pipe - a bronze casting. A second one, you need two, was improvised from a piece of industrial strength copper wire... Only one pipe seemed odd but having no experience assumed Slater's know best. Its too late now to ask them for the missing one.

(I) The curved roof does not fit well - this is because the doors jog out and are at the same level as the walls a supplied in the kit. IMPORTANT - the modeller needs to chamfer the top of the doors so the roof can be fitted. Only a little needs to be removed - but removed it needs to be.

(j) It would have been better to have pre-painted the chassis - painting it once assembled complete with wheels is a pain. It was decided to paint it using semi-gloss black Tamiya acrylic paint. This turns out to produce a rather streaky and lumpy result due to the constriction of painting a sub-frame that is already assembled, and it was also far too shiny - After much experimentation, a coat of matt varnish was found to satisfactorily reduce the shiny-ness factor -which also accentuated the lumpiness of the applied paint. The matt varnish left the paint with a more satin like finish and a smoother looking result, which is what was being sought - Flat black on its own seems well - too flat. (probably a matter of individual preference.)

(k) For North American modellers the paint used for the body of the van was Model Master Acrylic RUST - it is an exact match with the paint colour used by Bachmann on their OO gauge BR vans - whether or not his corresponds with reality I do not know! But for me it works well.

(l) The roof was spray painted with a grey primer as the final colour before fitting...

(m) It would have been a good idea to follow Slater's advice and get a good look at a diagram 208 van before starting out on this enterprise. Not to do so is a bit like sailing across the Atlantic in hurricane season without a map.

(n) Not forgetting to clean the paint off the wheels...

(o) It might be a good idea to source some better looking 3 link couplings.

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(7) On the whole it was a very enjoyable, if not fraught at times, build. The kit cannot be assembled as supplied - it needs some fettling. A good tool kit is a must before setting out on such a venture or misery will follow. (Some (at least 6) nice square cut 2x2 finished pieces of pine/fir about 6 inches long will also prove to be an indispensable aid...)

(8.) Would I build another? Having learned the ways of this Slater Kit - I do feel ready to tackle another. The steepest part of the learning curve has been accomplished - "Better the Slater's you know than the Dundas you don't."

(9) Building ones own rolling stock is definitely very satisfying and helps one to engage at a deeper level with the modelling process.