The other week I saw a brass etched kit of the 12T BR Plywood van by "M & M Models" for sale on a certain selling web site, so feeling like a challenge I purchased one. It arrived on the date that I expected to get to me.
The kit comes in a very nice A4 Plastic case to protect all the etches and white metal components. The instruction sheets are for guidance only, and there is a sheet that has a full list of the building batches and running numbers.
The photo illustrations are of a poor quality and dark to make any sense of, as it is one of those kits where you can build up not in the correct order.
Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the unstarted kit.

The construction of the van was a joy to put together as the fold lines are nice and crisp so it was a joy to fold up squarely. On the van ends there are a line of half etched rivets that require lightly need punching through, and the vents need to folded up and soldered in place carefully as there no marks to place them, so careful measurements are required to locate the centreline of the body.

Once I got the van to that stage i had a look at the white metal casting for the ribbed ends of these vans as there are slots which locate the castings, I have done a trial fit with one set of castings and I am not happy with the results as the castings are very much over sale.

So over the past week I have been thinking of how to replace those white metal castings and I have an idea on how to go about it. But I need to get the bits that are required to do it tomorrow.

The next thing I shall be looking at is the roof as it is a flat sheet of brass that is the correct size for the wagon. Rolling brass roofs is not my favourite task in brass construction as it could be rolled out of true.

The "w" irons are of white metal construction and are crisply moulded, but if someone could steer me in the direction of any brass etched version it would be greatly appreciated.

The things that I have purchased to replace the white Metal components from Slater's are buffers vac pipes and couplings.

More to follow in due time but please bear with me I have job centre course to do over the next few weeks.