I'm not afraid to put the time in and roll my own... I quite like tinkering
Me too, but be warned: It will take you a lot of time and effort to get anywhere near the functionality of a ClassicWB install. ClassicWB may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it is much easier and much lesss work to customize/minimize a ClassicWB install than starting from scratch. If your primary goal is to get a working system to start coding, I'd definitely go for ClassicWB.
IMHO ClassicWB contains too much bloat and isn't really "designed" for a classic Miggy, anyway, but for an emulated environment.
I disagree. ClassicWB comes in a couple of different flavours suitable for different hardware configurations, from low end to emulation. For the OP's configuration, the 68k, Lite, Full, or ADV versions seem suitable:
http://classicwb.abime.net/classicweb/requirements.htm
