Dundas Models 009 Festiniog brake van

Having re-read and checked all the work I'd done on the next book last year I'm climbing back into a routine of getting the next bit done. First up are a couple of brake vans. The first is a straight kit build of the 1908 FR vans from Dundas Models. There's quite a bit of flash on the parts, more than you usually get from this maker. Maybe the moulds are getting past their life - I still regard this as a new kit, but it probably came out in the early 1990s. Parts cleaned, it falls together very well. As usual I'm building it in reverse of the instruction sheet and making a couple of changes, i.e. I started by getting the chassis done and running before I worked on the body. As it's obviously very light, a triangular slice of lead sheet was laid in a puddle of UHU to drop the gravity centre.

The original vans were all off the rails by the 1960s, but a replica of No1 is currently running as No7. See here