Following on from the entry about modelling and 3D printing some springs and axleboxes for a Stanier brake van, here's the end result, a scruffy, well travelled unfitted van. It'll look just right waiting engine and brake in the colliery sidings.

The brake van was built from a Pocket Money Kits brass etch (PMK 00/31) that I acquired a long time ago. There are RTR Stanier vans available now, but I enjoy building things more than buying them. The springs and axleboxes are a distinctive feature on these vans and I think the Modelu printed springs and axleboxes really look the part.

The etched kit is quite old school in its design but goes together well enough. The castings for springs, axleboxes and buffers are serviceable but lacking detail. There are some compromises like the verandah corner posts that should be solid timber but end up as angle section on the etch, but not very noticeable. There's no provision built in for compensation or suspension, so you'll have to work that out for yourself. But you get a flat floor to work from, and I used some MJT compensating W irons that fortunately came out at exactly the right height. The buffers are from then Lanarkshire Model Supplies range - Wagon Buffer B013, 1'6" - 1'8 1/2", 13" head - and these really are excellent white metal castings. The handrails are a fiddle. The holes etched in the body for the handrails are oversize for scale diameter wire (0.3 mm), and it really is very difficult neatly soldering thin wire into oversized holes. Also some of the holes shouldn't be holes where the handrails are fitted to the prototype with small brackets. I filled the holes and made some tiny brass brackets.

I'm not entirely sure which diagram of van this kit is supposed to represent. It's either D1919 or D2036. The difference is in the duckets, D2036 being a little wider. The model measures up over the buckets as closer to D2036, but the duckets look more like D1919 in proportion. I decided it was a D2036 and chose a number accordingly. You'd not have known if I hadn't told you!

Overall, I quite like the result. If I can find another of these kits I'd like to build on with the external diagonal strapping that some of them acquired in later years. After all, I have plenty of springs and axleboxes now.