A laser cut box van in OO9.

Another odd wagon.
I picked this kit up last year at Narow Gauge North, purely out of curiousity because I'd never actually seen a laser cut kit before. This is one of a small range made by CD3D, and comes as 3 laser cut sheets. The main body is card, with adhesive overlays, and the chassis cut from a .8mm thick styrene-like plastic. Wheels aren't included, and there's no clue as to size in the scant instructions, but the website does tell us that 6.2mm is the size to use.
Chassis and overlays;

And the body;

The body was simply superglued together, all parts located together with tabs and slots;

Overlays were seperated from the sheet, backing peeled off and pressed firmly in place. There are little corner braces and hinges for the sliding doors to add, the instructions gave no clue as to where they sit, so a little common sense had to be used. The roof is also self-adhesive, hence the supporting ribs. Here it is ready to join the chassis;

Again the chassis uses tabs and slots. All very easy to put together, but I have made a few changes. As designed both brakes are single ended and act on the same wheelset. I went for a more conventional approach and altered the arrangement so each brake acted on the left wheel (with the wagon viewed side-on), a simple matter of drilling a new mounting hole. Slightly more involved was making a new pair of brake levers as the rather heavy plastic levers simply didn't cut the mustard. So new levers were made from scrap etch, filed to a taper and bent to shape at the handle end, with guides also made from thin scrap etch, simply bent in half, leaving a gap for the lever, and glued into holes drilled in the floor. Easy work and much finer than the kit part. No provision is made for mounting couplings so some black plasticard was glued under the ends;

Axles just run in holes in the W irons, if I were to build another I'd probably add bearings.
Obviously only the chassis needs painting so first of all a can of black Hycote car primer was aimed at it before waving a brushload of Tamiya 'Nato Black' around. Couplings are Greenwich bodies fitted with RT Models loops, epoxied in place. Once the glue had dried I drilled a couple of .55mm holes though the coupling tails into the chassis and superglued shortened Peco track pins through the couplings into the floor for added security, probably overkill but I felt like doing it. Body and chassis are glued together with Evostink.
Here's the finished article;

I quite like the 'wood' effect card, so the body can stay untouched.
So, another wagon added to the fleet, and another one with no real purpose. As I stated above I bought it out of curiousity, and originally planned to build it as it comes with no modifications. I am pleased with the new brake lever assembly though.

I feel that this kit shows both the strengths and limitations of laser cut kits, all parts are very accurately cut and fit together perfectly, but the chassis being cut from flat sheet lacks the kind of relief that you'd find on a moulding or casting even though leaf spring detail and little rings representing bolt heads etc. are cut into the plastic. Seperate bolt/rivet detail could of course be added using, for example, Archers transfers or cubes of styrene. Using the same sheet for both the chassis floor and brake gear is always going to be a compromise, a nice thin sheet that would suit the brake lever would result in a flimsy floor. A seperate sheet would of course push the price up.
Still, its been an enjoyable build, sometimes I want something easy to put together to give myself a break from fiddly etchy stuff.

Usual disclaimers apply.

Paul.