TT-Pete

@TT100 Diesels @bradfordbuffer Many thanks for the kinds words and encouragement 🙂 Only another 14 to go (shudder): (Although I shan't be doing any more of these for a while once the current 4 are done.) In other news, the 9F has now moved to the paintshop, Cheers, Peter.

Seeing as how this thread seems to be rapidly turning into "What's on Dave's 3mm workbench", I thought I'd better provide an update. :^) Well it has been a productive week, finishing up a few last tasks at work and more importantly, lots of modelling! The Sulzers are waiting for some custom @railtec-models transfers to arrive before varnish, glazing and weathering, so I thought I'd pick up my next moribund project, a Branchlines 9F with Tri-ang tender. This got put to one side as I didn't have a layout to test it on at the time so it didn't seem sensible spending a whole bunch of time on the body if it later turned out to not be able to go around curves or through pointwork. There was a bit of final fettling to do on the chassis and happily after testing it runs very well indeed, so now I'm just waiting for some bits to arrive from the 3mm Society shop to complete the body. Which brings me to Presflos. Tri-ang produced a nicely-moulded Presflo body but mounted it on their standard wagon chassis which always looked crap to me. When Margate ceased TT production there was a large quantity of raw Presflo bodies that had not yet been mounted on a chassis and a sizeable quantity of these passed to the 3mm Society. Something like 2 decades ago I bought about 20 of these and was planning to mount them on the whitemetal chassis that was also available from the Society, but I found this an absolute pig to build and most of them ran like 3-legged dogs, lurching and wobbling all over the shop. I ended up with 4 that run ok-ish, but the rest got binned. So I was particularly excited when the Andrew Thomas chassis was announced a few years back and I pre-ordered a whole stack of them - - only to get a sinking sensation when they arrived and I looked at what you actually get. OMG that's a lot of little fiddly bits! And the instruction booklet that comes with it consists of 10 pages of instructions. Yes, TEN! I felt so overwhelmed that they all went into the box with the bodies and stayed there. But ok (deep breath) let's try this, we have nothing to fear but fear itself (and burning our fingers on hot soldering irons). So usually I build wagons in sets of 4, first one to make mistakes and figure out how stuff goes together, two and three to get into a rythmn and then four to make even more mistakes as I now think I know what I'm doing and get complacent. Plus if a particular task is particularly difficult, onerous or unpleasant I can persuade myself to just get on with it as it's *only* for four. The first job being a case in point; the "ribs" on the Tri-ang body do not extend all the way to the roofline like they do on the prototype. Why? No idea, but as the roof is a separate moulding, maybe they "forgot"? Anyway, extending them is a horrid job, cutting teensy little bits of plastikard strip and placing them with tweezers. They stick to everything they shouldn't, they ping out of the tweezers never to be seen again, fall off or fall over before the glue has set etc etc. Honestly? I wouldn't have bothered as I knew all this from the last time that I did it, but even if no-one else notices, I know they are incorrect and it would bug me. So 28 per wagon, 112 in total = several happy evenings of frustrated swearing. And the chassis? Well, actually these have gone far better than expected. Rather than being overwhelming, the instructions are actually bloody good. I've done kits in the past that had fatuous instructions like "now assemble in the usual fashion" (which presumes that you know what the "usual fashion" actually is) but these are 10 pages long because they are so detailed and the only thing that has had me puzzling so far was "Push out the rivets in each of the solebars" Eh, wot? With a bit of thought and experimentation it turns out that if you hold a pin in a vice and press down on the indentations etched into the reverse it gives the impression of a rivet head standing proud on the other side. Ohhhhh. Well well. You learn something new every day. :^) Thus far I have got to the bottom of page 3 of the instruction booklet and there's a lot of talk of "linkages" and "mechanisms" ahead - don't know how far my patience will stretch with all that malarkey so some corners may well end up being cut. At least I won't be having to solder the individual access ladder rungs (which would drive me crazy) as I already have 3mm scale signal ladder to hand and will use that instead. And in the meantime a package has just arrived from the 3mm Society shop, so it's back to the 9F... Cheers, Peter

Agree 100%, I have seen super glue/whitemetal come adrift many a time, Araldite much better but you have to hold it still for at least 10-15 minutes for it to set sufficiently to "grip" properly.

Indeed, no issue here, carry on, more! :^)

Good, my "stalled projects" are both numerous and varied... :^) Thanks, yes, 3D printing is very much Next Gen, I am watching your 08 with interest (if not a little envy) as my two 08s are very much both Old Skool, one being an old Tri-ang body on a Worsley chassis, the other a Worsley body and chassis; Handpainted wasp stripes? Never again! (Lovely paintjob on the 24 BTW.) Yes, this has also occured to me, plus I still have the sand boxes and cab steps to fit, I dunno, I'll see how it looks when it's all assembled. Cheers, Peter.

As things are slowing down in the lead-in to Xmas I thought I'd use the time over the next couple of weeks to delve into my embarassingly large "stalled projects" box and have a go at actually finishing something for a change. :^) Apologies that this will drag the thread even further into banger blue diesel territory, but I'm going to start with a pair of Sulzers, the resin 24 has appeared here before, but I also have an etched brass 25 in suspended animation: Both of them sit on the excellent Piko "Taurus" chassis that happily doesn't require much surgery to fit under the bodies and whitemetal sideframes can be easily stuck on to the nylon bogie retainer cradles with Araldite. I've tried a different approach for the couplings this time, again using Araldite to stick Bachmann OO couplings to a plasticard fillet stuck to the leading edge of the retainer cradle. It all seems to work ok, I've done a good few test laps, but it remains to be seen how long they last in regular traffic... Paintshop next stop.

"Trigger warnings" on the box perhaps? (And I always liked only fools and horses.)

When I enquired they basically said "anything can be done in 120, just ask...". The Piko Br118 co-co chassis might well be capable of being adapted to fit. https://www.piko-shop.de/en/artikel/tt-br-118-diesel-dr-iv-6-axle-16971.html

Unfortunately no more - I just had a very frustrating experience trying to order spare parts direct from Piko, at the point I wanted to pay there was no "UK" option in the address field. So I emailed them (in German) from a ".co.uk" email address, it bounced. I tried again, it bounced again. So I used an alternate email with a ".com" which went through and got a 1 line response; "we don't ship to the uk." So I reply asking if it's ok to ship to my German family using a PayPal payment. Reply - it's ok to ship to a German address, but they won't accept a PayPal payment from an account with an English address. They obviously do not want custom from the UK. Now I'm going to have a chat with my cousin if he can order for me and then post to me when the bits arrive. I am soo glad that we took back control...

Or "Cooking fat!" 😁

There, fixed it for you. :^) Just to re-iterate everything @TT100 Diesels has said, get on the e-group and ask, I can guarantee that from 10 modellers you will get at least 13 opinions. AFAIK the Geoff Helliwell 8'6" and 10'6" wheelbase power bogie kits can be built to 14.2, so no excuses. :^) Just a reminder that the Society Shop (members only) is here: https://sites.google.com/site/3mmpublic/products/catalogue And that 3SMR also do a variety of bits: https://www.3smr.co.uk/ (The handbuilt 14.2 pointwork is apparently rather good: https://www.3smr.co.uk/track14mm.html) Good luck and have fun! (And please post here to let us know how you get on). Peter.

Hi Tim, I think it will fit in here just fine. :^) Looking forward to seeing it develop. Peter.

I love those snow ploughs, how did you make them?

"Rebuilding of the Railways" - pffft, yeah, right. Which PR twonk/politician came up with that one?

The last 07 according to Geoff, master salesman that he is... ;^) not that I needed any persuading, I've had a soft spot of 07's since seeing one at the Eastleigh 100 open day back in 2009 Ah, you may have to wait a bit as it joins the bottom of a very, very long list of "to do" projects, retirement/part-time is a handful of years away, so I'm stockpiling now in anticipation. (well, I say that but I've actually been stockpiling since the age of about 30!) Not bad thanks, apart from the 07 also got some power bogie kits for a Smetham resin Hymek and my scratchbuilt class 15 (the Mike Chinery power bogies I used are duff), a part-built etched brass coach (nicely done but no bogies), a dozen empty Tri-ang loco boxes for putting stuff in, various scratchbuilt LED yard and platform lights going cheap as a job lot (require repairs), a couple of Tri-ang wagons with metal wheelsets and nicely weathered (which is rare as people tend to daub them) and some card LNWR coach sides - so the usual eclectic mix! The one thing I didn't find that I really wanted were some cast resin concrete type platform edging and ramps: 3SMR used to sell them but the guy who used to make them has gone out of business, so no more. I only need 4 sections and 1 ramp to finish my station platforms, has anyone got any suggestions for either casting more or perhaps 3D printing them? Cheers, Peter.

I was at the "Pentonville" meet yesterday (I still refer to it as that even though it has to be at least 20 years since it was last held at the Prison Officer's club) where I bought what can only be described as a "I didn't know I wanted one until I saw it" :^) It just goes to show how far things have come, I still remember collecting my pre-ordered 03 kit from Bruce Smetham at a Pentonville meet many years ago (it is still unfinished and unlikely to ever be), "Nearly RTR" eh? But thinking of Bruce and looking around at the assembled members I couldn't help but think of all those I used to meet at Pentonville and who are now sadly missing, does anyone else remember the time that John Fisher and a gaggle of fellow greybeards all toddled off for liquid refreshments at lunchtime and ended up in the company of painted ladies of negotiable affection in a den of iniquity across the road? (Good old Kings X, you don't get that in West Byfleet).

Are you thinking of Heybridge?

Continued... Structures Oh, and "mainstream" TT still not niche enough for you? How about trying Broad Gauge: Or Narrow Gauge?

Thank you for your kind comments. 🙂 And I'm glad that by chance you happened to mention that, @TT100 Diesels as I just so happen to have a few pics left over from publicity officer days, this little lot are winners and highly-commendeds from the Society AGM competitions in 2003 and 2005, unforunately I've lost the notes of what was what and made by who, but there's some right varied stuff in here, see what you think, the output of "proper" modellers... 😁 Locos: "Modern" image: Rolling Stock: To be continued...

A Lurker unlurks Coming back to the subject of 3mm for a moment if I may, and my abject apologies for dragging the thread even further off back into 3mm diesels long grass, I agree and empathise with everything @TT100 Diesels has said upthread. Like him I am not a purist and am quite happy with things that more or less “look right” (even if others might recoil aghast in horror). If you can get over, deal with, turn a blind eye to, learn to live with and even embrace (if you’re a bit cussed, tend to support underdogs and uniqueness appeals to you), the initial gauge/scale issue with 12mm track (let’s not mention 14.2 or 13.5), then it’s not a problem and 3mm has a lot going for it. But it is a Marmite scale; people tend to love it, or loathe it. I can’t call anything of what I do “finescale”, I don’t aspire to it. Ok, sure, so it’s nice to have good-looking models, but for me the challenge is of just getting there and, as a bonus, having something that actually works reliably. Also, given that if you wanted to finescale in 3mm then you’d almost by definition also be having to make your own handbuilt track and turnouts to finescale spec. No thank you, life’s too short. So that neatly removes that expectation from me anyway. Being thereby relegated to the ranks of “lesser” modeller (yaaa, boo) :^) I’m just looking to see what I can achieve in my splodgy and bodgy way, learning new techniques and trying out a few things along the way. I’m reasonably happy with the level I’ve reached, but it’s always nice to stand back from a finished model and think “well, that came out better than expected.” A ratio of about 1 of those for every 10 of those when you stand back and think “Aww, boll*x.” is nice. But as I am effectively only competing against myself, there is only one step on the rostrum anyway. :^) Tell me to shut up if I go on a bit… Like many I started off by chopping up old Tri-ang A1As, in the early 2000’s these were about £20-30 from the 3mm Society shop with a seemingly limitless supply, so this this was also a good source of donor power bogies. Some people really go to town on these (conversions to 14.2 gauge anyone?) but my adaptations have been limited to fitting dual power bogies (the original locos are a bit anaemic) and a few different liveries (and yes I know the roof isn’t clipped on snugly at the cab end, it’s been bugging me for ages). Resin body kits such as the old L&J models or Bruce Smetham bodies were a nice introduction to chassis construction, it’s easy with diesels, there’s a large gaping body to hide all the gubbins. A majorly chopped-about East-German BTTB electric loco Bo-Bo chassis underpins both of these. But by far and away the most common reason I hear for people not wanting to get involved in the scale is that of soldering. Again, it’s easier for a “Modern Image” modeller as things tend to be flatter with only things like roof curves and tumblehomes to worry about. I was not helped by starting off etched brass kits with atrocious soldering skills, but had only a handful of unspeakable disasters (a decidedly shonky class 25 was instantly returned to its flat-pack state when I dropped a pack of plaster ceiling coving on it. It was the kindest thing to do.) things have gradually moved forwards. I find that paintwork and varnish hide a multitude of sins. The Worsley Works “North British Warship” kit has been my most challenging build to date and so she spent a considerable amount of time on the slipway prior to launching; As you don’t get any castings, drawings or instructions on how to put it together I spent quite a bit of time just puzzling over the bits before daring to even touch a soldering iron. Referring to photos of the actual loco meant a fair bit of hacking around as I thought it looked wrong as built, or did Allen know something when doing the artwork that I don’t? I used a pair of Bullant Co-Co power bogies for power and fitted scratchbuilt bogie sideframes made using springs, axlebox etc… details cut from scrap BTTB 1:120 bogies. She’s by far the most powerful loco in my stud with excellent stead-footed running and steady low-speed crawl, but Bullants were very expensive even back then, do they still make them? And I noted in a post previously up the thread the view expressed that TT 1:120 is unlikely to be a modeller’s scale as with 3mm. But I dunno, I’ve had a first stab at a Lincoln Locos 1:120 build, transfers very kindly rescaled by @cctransuk and shown with a Hornby 1:120 brakevan. Now, I also quite fancy the idea of a 1:120 LMS 10000, or possibly a Deltic and I also harbour the suspicion that a BTTB Br56 2-8-0 chassis might be made to squeeze under the 8F boiler and footplate. Hmmm… But I’m not giving up on 3mm either and am trying to construct a layout where both will be able to run without clouting structures and not looking too out of place. We’ll see. There’s also been some 3mm scratchbuilding going on, but maybe that’s for another time? Cheers, Peter.

We are dogsitting daughter's German Shorthaired Pointer for a couple of weeks. This has caused much alarums, excursions and consternations in the household, Myla still fluffs and hisses at poor Milo (who only, and rather enthusiastically, just wants to be friends) but the lighting of the log burner last night established a truce with Phoebe: Although it will be noted that Phoebe has nonchalantly, and deliberately, placed herself blocking the path to Milo's adored quacky toy and Milo knows full well who has the upper paw in this relationship...

Hmm. I put so much on the Hornby pre-order that I was afraid it would bankrupt me if it all turned up at once, doesn't look like I need to worry about that then. Hope it doesn't lose momentum.