I started off my brass kit building with one of Jim McGeown's PMK kits, namely the BR standard 20T brake van. To my eyes and with a little bit of fettling it captured the look in a way that r-t-r offerings failed to do and it was disappointing when 4mm kits disappeared from the Connoisseur range.
The outcome of the exercise is seen above but I sold it on (ignore the buffers!) because I wanted some commonality amongst a fleet.
Such kits do pop up for sale occasionally (usually for a high price) but that route could not be guaranteed so I decided to contact Jim, as he himself has redone some of his 4mm loco kits, to see about the possibility of doing the same for the brake van.
Jim kindly organised the order for some and as the photo etchers have a minimum order I have a number of "kits" available for those who might wish to build one. I know Accurascale are going to be doing these but where's the fun in opening a box; Jim's kit is also a good basis to modify into a LNER diagram 61 type as these only had thin sheet steel platforms rather than the cast concrete ones.
It's a kit in the sense of it consisting of the etch, a rolled brass roof and the castings (buffers, axleguards & springs, concrete platforms, side duckets, vac pipes, stove pipe and roof ventilators). There are no instructions but the 7mm version is available online as a PDF and you would need to source to your own brass wire for the handrails.
If anyone is interested then please PM me to discuss otherwise I'm in for a long exercise in soldering!
The outcome of the exercise is seen above but I sold it on (ignore the buffers!) because I wanted some commonality amongst a fleet.
Such kits do pop up for sale occasionally (usually for a high price) but that route could not be guaranteed so I decided to contact Jim, as he himself has redone some of his 4mm loco kits, to see about the possibility of doing the same for the brake van.
Jim kindly organised the order for some and as the photo etchers have a minimum order I have a number of "kits" available for those who might wish to build one. I know Accurascale are going to be doing these but where's the fun in opening a box; Jim's kit is also a good basis to modify into a LNER diagram 61 type as these only had thin sheet steel platforms rather than the cast concrete ones.
It's a kit in the sense of it consisting of the etch, a rolled brass roof and the castings (buffers, axleguards & springs, concrete platforms, side duckets, vac pipes, stove pipe and roof ventilators). There are no instructions but the 7mm version is available online as a PDF and you would need to source to your own brass wire for the handrails.
If anyone is interested then please PM me to discuss otherwise I'm in for a long exercise in soldering!
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