Variations On A Theme

Everyone has that one kit they love, no matter how many times they build it. For me, it'd have to be the 'Vari-kit' 009 tank engine produced by GEM. It comes in two flavours: The slightly larger A type to fit an N gauge Arnold chassis, and the B type to fit a Minitrix chassis. Outwardly though, both kits look very much the same, with only the larger rear bunker/cab sheet of the A version being the giveaway, used here in an inverted style on a smaller B type:

I am a little biased though. Back in the early days when my dad was modelling in 009 and I wasn't he had many of these tiny tank engines. It's only natural that the liking for them should pass on to me. Even with what some would probably class as a limited number of parts, the scope for variations is surprising.

Sadly (At the time of writing) the GEM kits have been unavailable for a good few years now. A quick search online gave no clue as to where the moulds have gone, or if there any plans for the kit to return. In the meantime though, the 009 Society sales stand sees them occasionally appear, so there's hope for spares or rebuild projects yet.

"Very interesting, but what's the point of all this?" I hear you ask.

Well, a few weekends back I was having a tidy up of the kit stash and stumbled upon the unbuilt pieces of a Varikit, and a well and truly knackered chassis plate for the kit, the white metal part having separated into three different pieces. Wanting a quick distraction project from both work and Corri-llyn an enjoyable afternoon was had creating a tramway style chassis plate with side skirts, using the origijnal kit pieces as a guide.

The main box construction is of 40thou plasticard, whilst the motion covers are rectangles of 20thou sheet with a strip of 20x10thou strips along the top to represent some sort of hinge detail. It just requires dumb buffers and steps to complete what the white metal offering would have looked liked. Though for even more variation I am tempted to leave them off.

Mostly though, I'm just proud I managed to remember to cut out the coupling slots BEFORE finishing assembling the kit!