The etched nickel silver chassis that comes with this kit is similar to the standard chassis type that is now being sold by the 2mm Scale Association for use with a variety of wagons - correct variations being available to suit each region, wagon length etc. It is great to have these accurate kits available as it avoids having to make compromises that used to be forced on me when I started in N scale with kits being stretched or shrunk to fit an incorrect Peco chassis.

On the left is the main fold up chassis frame then moving right, the fold up brake unit, the brake levers, the solebar overlays, buffer beams and lastly the axleboxes.

My preference is to do as much as possible with the etch flat so after soldering in the top hat bearings from the back, I added the two solebar overlays and then the axleboxes. I tried to keep these attached to the main etch for as long as possible since once separated they are very small and rather hard to keep hold of. The three layers were folded up and soldered together, then the edges cleaned up with a file before the whole axlebox was soldered to the front of the solebar. I held it in place with the tip of a scalpel blade and gently touched the soldering iron to the base where the axlebox met the W irons. Mostly this worked but I did dwell too long on one of them and had the three layers floating about a bit - it took me a long time to get them all lined up again.

The chassis can now be folded up and checked for squareness on a sheet of glass then the wheels popped in prior to a run up and down some test track to check for wobbles. All seemed OK so I added some solder into the fold lines to keep the sides firmly in position. The brake blocks etc are attached to a fold up etch that locates by tabs under the chassis - it lined up perfectly so could be quickly soldered into place (great etch design - I'm not sure who by though - I think Chris Higgs does a lot of the recent 2mm Scale Associations chassis etches but I'm not sure if this is one of his) .

The brake levers are a little fiddly as they have to be bent to clear the axleboxes - etched markers on the back help to get the bends in the correct places and strengthening the folds with a touch of solder prevents too much damage later on. A piece of wire through the V hangers holds one end and a square hole in the solebar is used to locate the folded up ratchet end. The doors bangers need to be bent out from the solebar so that the brake lever can fit behind them, something that is not mentioned in the kit instructions. Note to self for future kits - solder brake hanger BEHIND door bangers not on top of them!!! - I nearly wrecked one of the brake levers when correcting this mistake on the first side.

Below is the finished chassis sitting on a piece of the Associations easitrac.

The van body attaches to the chassis with quite a clever arrangement of tabs at the sides that locate into slots at the top of the solabars. You start with the tabs at about a 45 degree angle at which they just start to enter the slots then gently push down on the body so that the tabs end up horizontal and out of sight. At this stage I have not added buffers as I only have a generic type and I think the 2mm Scale Association is currently working on some new designs - I'll have to find out if any will be more appropriate for the LNWR.