247 Developments K414 4mm/1 ft GWR AA8 Pontnewynydd Brake Van £25

This kit comes in nice plastic box with four 3D prints, white metal buffers and a couple of bits to make the brake standard. Wheels, couplings and wire are not included. The first impression of the body is one of excellence, even the lamp irons are moulded proud of the body! W irons, axleboxes and footboard are a single print and clip into the body moulding, a rather clever idea. The majority of the cabin floor is separate and is to be fixed in place once glazing has been added.

The main dimensions are pretty good as shown below.

^1. Prototype information from GWR drawing 7165W 24 Oct 90; J.H. Russell, Great Western Wagons Appendix figures 81 & 82.

The only noticeable error is the overhang of the roof.

There are, owever, some problems, some are minor details but others are visibly very significant:

• the tie rod between the W irons is omitted;
• no brake gear is included;
• the footboards seem like those on the later BR AA24 version, the AA8 had a smaller kickboard and metal upper steps originally;
• the lower footboards are significantly too low, the upper surface should be almost exactly at the axle centres;
• sandboxes and pipes are omitted;
• the headstocks are moulded behind the end plating whereas the prototype was flush, this will cause problems with mounting the buffers as their backplates are, prototypically, deeper than the headstock;
• the plate on the headstock behind the coupling hook is missing;
• the top of the floor is moulded level with the top of the solebars whereas it should be 1mm above (3ʺ planks);
• what appears to be a kickboard at the veranda entrances on the original is missing (not visible on a later photo);
• the body panels for the verandas are over thick (it would be impracticable to have scale thickness in resin) and the corner radius appears too sharp;
• the end stanchions are rather meagre at 0.7mm rather than 1.3mm deep;
• holes are included for handrail knobs, but the prototype did not have knobs;
• no provision is made for the bars across the entrances;
• at one end a full width bench is included whereas the prototype had sand boxes and a lower bench/locker between them;
• at the other end there is nothing except a hole for the brake standard that is offset to one side whereas the prototype was central and there were sandboxes;
• the bits provided for the brake standard bear little resemblance to the original;
• there are no operating levers for the dry sandboxes;
• the door is printed as planked whereas the original was plated, and there’s no catch;
• the central strip covering the join between the roof plates is missing.

The following paragraph was, unfortunately, missed off the report sent for the review in the WRRC Newsletter.

For P4 modellers there is a serious difficulty in that the use of typical etched suspension parts would result in the buffer centre line being 1mm or more too high as the bottom of the moulded floor is only 2.8mm, instead of 4mm, above the bottom of the solebars.

The story of building the kit is on a separate page.