After what seems like a year or two of collecting stuff and not doing stuff, I've actually got my finger out and started to turn a few of those kits into reality.

First up on the workbench is the Fruit D kit from PD Marsh. This is a whitemetal kit, and comes with no chassis or roof, though there are some under frames and a cylinder included.

It's very straightforward to put the body together using superglue. My soldering skills would probably be more like melting skills so I opted for the safest option. Only slight filing was needed to get everything true and square. The roof is 0.5mm plasticard with the curve preformed by sellotaping it to a glass jar of similar radius and pouring very hot water over. I'm not too fussed with the fact the roof isn't straight, as the intent is to create a wagon that's near the end of it's days. (At least that's my story).

The suggestion on the instructions was to use one peco 15ft chassis, cut in half and joined to the underframe which included a section of solebar to extend the peco chassis length. This seemed a bit difficult, so instead I used two peco chassis, and cut them such so that I could eliminate the use of the underframe section, cutting off the underframe detail and gluing it in position later. The outside brakes were also trimmed off.

The whitemetal cylinder was glued underneath, and I added a vacuum cylinder. I used a watch battery as it looked the same size.

Next I added some Ultima roof vents, obtained from the NGS and added a tie bar from microstrip. Footsteps were added aslo from microstrip and brass steps were glued beneath each door. I've also blanked the buffer beams off with some strip. To do is the fittings for electric lighting.

Looking at the photos, I'm thinking the plasticard footsteps are too chunky, so before painting I think I'll replace them, probably with brass if I can get some narrow enough. C&C is most welcome