For my birthday I received a Roxey Mouldings Cyprus Government Rly 'Famagusta' kit which is for a 2-6-2T to fit the Farish Prairie chassis. I've always liked big tank engines and this kit is the ideal starting point for a kitbash to represent some of my favourite locos from Irish 3' gauge lines.

Shutters sanded off the cab sides, and beading along tank tops removed - i'll be replacing this with plasticard strip which will go a slightly different route to that on the castings. The boiler is extended over the kit version to allow enough space for it to become a 4-6-2T, the new boiler is made from a till role 'liberated' when I used to work in a shop at uni.

Test fitting of the boiler fittings. The smokebox has been glued onto the boiler but will be laminated with plasticard to make it slightly thicker than the boiler as will be seen in the photo below.

New smokebox front plate with flared wings added, along with steps and frames around the footplate/smokebox. The roof is the one from the kit but doesn't look right so I'll be making one from plasticard. There's still a lot of cleaning up to do, but I feel it's got potential to capture the feeling of locos like the West Clare Rly 'Lahinch' and the L&LSR 4-6-2Ts which I really like.