Brian the Snail - Gowrie was a lot of fun to make, and runs on a very nice Minitrix chassis (you can see it in action on my "Moel Eilio" thread in the personal layouts forum), it's quite a straightforward kit to build but needs a bit of work to get balanced (additional weight at the front, and losing weight at the back - the roof is plasticard and I removed part of the cab floor beneath the bunker). You don't "need" additional bits (other than some lead to fill the boiler barrel/smokebox), but the kit is fairly basic and does benefit from some detailing, and after studying pictures of the original engine I added various bits of pipework, the brake cylinder, put coal in the bunker, and amended the straps on the smokebox and gave it a new dart. In the future I may go back to the model and replace the hinge on the smokebox door with a smaller one (and give it a smaller dart too!!), add on the sand boxes, and properly line out the loco.
businessman - Parkside Dundas do both Southwold engines, and a Farish chassis for one of 'em!!
http://www.scalefour.org/parkside/ng2.htm With regards to your query about installing rods, I assume you mean the motion? Well most of the whitemetal kits will use the chassis with the motion as it is - which isn't complicated to install at all
, though a lot of kits will require you to mutilate the chassis slightly in order for the body to fit - which requires a certain amount of bravery to start with - but once you realise that it'll still run afterwards you get quite blase about it. The brass/nickel kits are a bit more daunting as you build the chassis entirely yourself... and I haven't worked up the courage to start any of mine yet!!!
My advice for building any OO-9 loco kit is to take your time, be patient, make sure all the parts fit properly before fixing them, solder it (soldering is actually a lot more forgiving than I imagined), and use a good set of needle files and a try square.
