DB Cargo MVA bogie aggregate box wagon 910164 at Hoo Junction in the consist of 6Z96 Cliffe to Newhaven aggregate, 11th May 2018.  Image courtesy of Dan Adkins.

Out of the Box

​Out of the box you get a five-piece resin box body, a resin chassis & etched hand brake wheels. You will need couplings of choice, GJH024 Buffers from GJH Plant, 3’1” Disc Brake wheels & FBT6 Bogies from either Buzz models or PRMRP. 

Body prep.
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The five-piece body is made up of a fairly clean set of casting which need little tidying up before fixing together. Take one bodyside and the body floor fix together with Cyano, followed by the opposite side enduring they are square, put this to one side before adding the ends once set firmly. If there is a little gap in the corners when the body has set then use some filler and file back when dry until you are happy. As with a number of other kits I intend painting the body and chassis separately before finally fixing them together. 

Chassis

​The one-piece resin chassis if a fairly simple affair, the open nature of the donor wagons is replicated here but I found needed quite a bit of cleaning up, most of the ‘hole’s needed drilling out and the flash cleaning up. Not a difficult task but time consuming (and messy if you’re like me!). Drill out for your chosen buffers, brakes Pipes, coupling hook. 

Bogies

I used FBT6 bogies from PRMRP fitted with 3’1” Disc Wagon Wheels from Peartree. Peartree’s wheels come with an etched brake pad which sits inside the wheel pan on both sides of the wheel, I eased one wheel off each axle to give me access to the insides. Etched inserts were fitted with a touch of Cyano, left to dry and re-fitted. The white metal bogie frames were cleaned up and axles boxes drilled out to accept the top hat bearings, tacked in place again with Cyano. In an attempt to get the bogies square I built them up on a short length of track, sitting both frames on the axle ends of the wheels, soldering the bolster in place before turning the bogie over and securing it again from the rear. Lastly the end beams were soldered in place.

Paul provides a set of etched hand brake wheels which I drilled a 2mm hole out of the middle and fitted to the end of a length or 2mm plastic strip. These were then glued to the outside ends of the bogies, they should really slot through some of the detail on the ends of the bogies but I decided you wouldn’t notice if they weren’t.

Paint, Transfers & Final Finishing

The chassis had two good coats of Halfords primer followed by two coats of a basic gloss black. For things like this I tend to use a cheap (Pound shop) gloss auto paint. It’s always handy to have a couple of cans of black gloss in stock for jobs like this.
 
The body was painted separate from the chassis again starting with a couple of coats of primer followed by painting the inside of the box with any brown colour I had to had hand. This was then masked off and DB red sprayed on (I cheated and used a Plastikote red which looked to be about right as I have no plans for a fleet of DB vehicles). Finished with Railtec Transfers and a couple of coats of satin Varnish seal them in.

Finally the body was glued onto the chassis, buffers re-fitted, GJH Plant Rubber Brake Pipes and Dapol screw type couplings added. 

 

DB Cargo MVA bogie box wagon 910164 at Hoo Junction, in the consist of 6M95 Cliffe to Neasden , 17th February 2017. Image courtesy of Dan Adkins.

In Conclusion

​Another great kit from Paul, not much underframe detail but an impressive looking wagon all the same. One for the ‘ultra-modern modeller’ but unfortunately DB only made one of these wagons, the MXA being the wagon which went into production in favour of the MVA!