XP van review; the finale

When we left the review last time, I had finished with the assembly of the body and roof. Attention was then turned to the chassis. I started by drilling the axle bearings out slightly as I've discussed previously. Taking one solebar equal amounts of material were removed from each end until it fitted between the headstocks. This was then glued into position. The second solebar had the same treatment, but much more carefully. The wheels were test fitted and the ends of the solebar filed away until the solebar both fitted between the headstocks and, more importantly, the axles were parallel. When everything was satisfactory the solbar was glued into place. lastly the brake bits were attached.


At this point I noticed I had forgotten to glue the roof ventilators into place. These were carefully (as there's no spares) cut off the sprues and glued into position. I used a ruler edge to check thats the 4 ventilators on either side lined up correctly (it 'stands out like dogs balls' when things like this don't line up).
To finish the chassis was painted black and the body and roof were painted white. A bit of shading (I still have to give in a light dusting of brake dust) and there we have it.


As a personal; comment here, I'm liking the trackgang range. I've not run across any kits that are bad yet (well, I've only assembled 3 plus some underframes). Its a lot easier than scratch building everything, in fact its almost like a holiday.