No real progress on the 850 recently, but I have a few part finished (as always) projects.

First up is an Iron Mink. This is the ABS whitemetal kit. There are a few things I've changed though. I wanted to model one of the earlier built ones with grease axleboxes rather than the oil ones fitted to the kit. This presented a slight problem in that the w-irons and axleboxes were integral to each other. In the end I removed all of it and fitted Comet etched w-irons and MJT axleboxes.

Everything was then painted the proper colour; red.

As supplied the roof is plain plasticard. I'm leaning towards the MRD etched rood but I haven't completely decided yet. I need to order transfers as well, unlettered wagons are piling up...

While perusing a private owner wagon book I came across an adorable wagon belonging to the London & South Wales Coal Company. Built in 1874, it is very short with only an end door. Dumb buffers at one end and sprung buffers at the other. Definitely the sort of thing I like. Then Duncan came across a drawing of it in a second book, which pretty much sealed my fate. Although it is hard to tell from the pictures, the planking is scribed onto the sides. I need to fit all the strapping still and the w-irons need adjusting, they are sitting too high, the axleboxes won't fit.

Finally we come to some layout work. On Empire Mills (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blog/1534-the-empire-project/) we have a new loading dock:

This is a perfect place to recreate a scene that I'm fond of. China clay was shipped in wooden casks until part way through World War 1 when it switched to bags. I've come across this picture a couple of times and it needed to be modeled...

So I got some bits and decided to have a go. Everything came from Dart Castings.