I think everyone has seen and many of us have used or attempted to use a handcart, or dolly as they are called in many parts of the US. This set from Brengun includes enough parts to build 6 hand carts. The set consists of a photoetch fret of six frames, six base plates and six axles/braces and 12 resin wheels. The photoetch is nicely done and the parts are easily cut out with a set of photoetch scissors. The scissors also make cleaning up the attachment points very easy as well.

Assembly is very quick as the bending points are clearly marked on the frames and the base plates. Be careful to ensure all of your bends are 90 degrees, especially on the frames as any misalignment will show when you mount the wheels. As with other photoetch, superglue is mandatory in order to attach the various parts together. It appears that the instructions are either a scaled down version of a larger kit of the hand truck, or a change was made in production after the directions were printed, as the directions tell you to install parts #4 and 5 to the sides of the frame, but there are no parts 4 and 5 on the fret.

Once you have the frame all bent to shape the next step is to insert the axle/brace at the back of the dolly. I slid the axle through the holes in the back of the dolly and then looked how to attach the brace. The instructions are not clear where the brace attaches, but I discovered that if I had everything squared up right, the ends of the brace rested against the back of the side plates on the dolly, and a little drop of superglue ensured they stayed there.

As hand carts/dollies are used in a wide variety of professions, businesses, and even in the military, how you paint them is pretty wide open. A friend of mine and I were discussing the old Braniff International Airline colors over lunch one day, so I decided to paint my dollies different colors just to show how versatile they were, and to help me not misplace them – they are tiny! I ended up with two blue ones as my wife claimed the first blue one and I really liked the way it looked, so I did another one.

Attaching the wheels is a bit tricky as while they have nice hub detail on one side the other side is a flat face. I ended up trimming the axles back quite a bit in order to get the tires mounted reasonable close to the side plates in order to look realistic.

I really enjoyed constructing these dollies and they really look neat when completed. I can see a whole multitude of ways to use them or liveries to paint them in, so have fun!

I highly recommend this set. Thank you to Brengun for the review sample and to IPMS-USA for letting me review it.