Before beginning, I should introduce myself. I'm Zach from Melbourne and mainly model Victorian Railways (VR) as well as British Railways Western and Eastern Regions with some off-region visitors.

After a long time sitting on my hands, I decided to take the plunge into brass kits, encouraged by two friends of mine, one of whom needs a few kits built. The decision was cemented when I walked into work and saw a Steam Era Models (SEM) WT wagon kit, the classic entry-level kit. After a few hours with Zec (the other friend that nudged me over), the underframe was built with ease with no problems encountered. SEM, for non-Victorian modelers, is our equivilant of Parkside Dundas. They have a large range of VR 4-wheel wagons, several VR bogie wagons, including bulk grain hoppers and the W and E type passenger cars. SEM kits go together beautifully with clear instructions and diagrams to help the average modeller achieve great results and they cover most periods from 1900 until the 1980s.

The next step was to buy a Comet Models LMS Stove R to jump into British kits. The kit features wonderful etchings designed to go together with little hassle, however, by comparison to SEM, the instructions left a little to be desired by ways of instructions to easily guide new modelers. However, all questions have so far been cleared by looking at RMWeb. To date, the underframe is partially complete and is coming together slowly. I can tell that it's going to be a joy to finish the kit off and to build further Comet kits in the not too distant future (GWR Colletts anyone?)

Before I sign off, I should acknowledge Coachman, whose work has inspired me to get into brass coach building to begin with. I've always looked at his short GWR branch train (2 Colletts and a Hawksworth) with utter awe thinking 'one day I'll be that good', and hopefully I'll get there.

You can also follow my Worldpress blog (https://newportworks.wordpress.com/)which has more pictures. I'll be keeping both RMWeb and Worldpress up to date, so you won;t miss out whichever site you follow.

Zach