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PARKSIDE DUNDAS PA30 chassis FAT19 kit


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24 minutes ago, locospotter said:

Thing about buying some to put under Hornby VEAs Railfreight wagons are they easy to put together and robust enough. 

I suspect you might find them too long for the Hornby VEA, which used, at least, to be a scale 16'6 long, against the 17'6" of the prototype. Why not try one of the VEA complete kits; they go together very nicely.

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Parkside are as close to ‘shake the box’ easy as it gets.  If you’re inexperienced with kits, take your time and read the instructions a few times before you start to make sure you are doing things in the right order.  Let the glue dry solidly before you go on to the next step, and make sure you understand what the slightly sketch-like exploded diagram is trying to tell you.  IIRC, Parky chassises come with a floor, moulded underneath to accept the sides, ends, and brake detail, so you can’t really get it wrong, but this means that any floor on the body tooling of the VEA you want to fit the chassis to needs to be cut out or the van will sit too high by the thickness of it’s floor. 
 

You will need a craft knife or small snips to remove the parts from the sprue and remove any flash, a craft file to remove the ‘pips’ left where you cut the part out of the sprue, and a pair of small long nose pliers to force fit the brass bearings into the rears of the axle boxes.  I keep a  set of soft grip tweezers on hand for very small parts, and a minidrill in case the buffer holes need easing.  It is worth fitting metal buffers.  Some of my Parkys had loose fitting wheelsets until I learned to be very certain that the solebars, which include the axle boxes, were tight up against the relief that they abut to on the underside of the wagon floor. 
 

Use a lego to make sure the chassis is built square, level, and with the bearings aligned opposite each other, and ballast on the top of the floor, and the chassis will run true and freely; this is something you have to get right first time, and essential unless the van is to be a siding lurker.  


As to robustness, plastic kits are never going to be as bombproof as RTR, but your kit will last years of reasonable use.  I find the supplied buffers to be very flimsy and replace with metal.  Couplings are your decision; some kits come with tension locks and others come with dovetail mounts for NEM box plugs.  My standard couplings are Bachmann NEM, for no other reason that I have more Baccy stock than any other make, and I use the Parkside dovetail  mounts on many vehicles as they can be trimmed or packed to get the NEM tension lock bar the correct height, which it will be on your chassis without any trimming or packing. 
 

I agree with Fat that your first kit should be a vehicle and not a chassis; it will show you the inadequacy of your Hornby VEA.  Beware, though, as it may similarly show up your other stock, especially the older stuff, and you might be starting an expensive journey!

 

 

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