A bit more work.

The chassis and ladle have been primered using car aerosols, red oxide over black.

I've drilled out the pulley blocks this morning with a .5mm drill. There are three of these, two for the bottom pulleys an one for the ladle side. The pulleys themselves are turned brass which I've blackened. Here's a pic of a bottom block with the pulley held in place with a drill (I'll fix the pulleys in place towards the end of the build);

The spigot on the bottom fits into a hole drilled in the floor.

The bottom block fits in place like this;

Here's the ladle side pulley block temporarily fixed in place;

The ladle next to a Bachmann 16t mineral for a size comparison;

So far I'm pleased with it. However I'm going to replace the chain that came with the kit with something finer.