I've taken a brake from the tram loco, pending the arrival of the solder, paints etc., so I've built the freelance mineral wagon and guard's van kits form Parkside Dundas.

The mineral wagon went together fine, I'm still getting used to how small these things are.

I decided to modify the guard's van to turn it into something more brake van like. I took inspiration from an L & B van that has a similar arrangement of central window on one end and duckets (I thinks that is the right term).

The duckets are meant to be of welded construction (no rivets, or planks ) with a separate roof, I saw similar ones in a photo of a Talyllin vehicle. They are a bit asymmetrical but they look alright to me. I still haven't glued the body of the van to the floor because I want to apply glazing to the windows after I have painted it.

The wheelsets in both kits had a back to back measurement that was about 0.5mm too narrow, so that the ran fine on plain track work, but had trouble with check rails, so I carefully widened them put by hand, and they seem to run fine now.

Both vehicles are also very light, and I'm a bit concerned about this. I think I will add a bit of weight under the floor of the mineral wagon, I think I've got some suitable sheet metal somewhere. I'll also glue some metal scraps to the floor of the van. I need to do some research to see how much weight to apply, I don't want to overdo it.