TT100 Diesels

I really like the TT120 British outline stuff coming to market, its lovely. But as @fezza has said, it is quite small, and having seen it myself do tend to agree. Sure my TT100 stuff (3mm) requires modelling input , but at the end if the day, It has more presence or heft if you like. And when comparing the "ideal size" that sits between OO and N, TT100 wins for me for British outline. However, as @britishcolumbian says, the continental and American outline stuff is bigger in TT120 due to the bigger prototype loading gauge so in terms of presence, I think it "looks" closer to 3mm. The point made about mixing TT120 British and continental outline models is to me up to the individual. Depends what ones take is on a rule 1 sliding scale with serious authentic looking layout at one end and fun train set at the other. No right or wrong as long as one is gaining some enjoyment out of it. The interesting question for me is if I were starting out afresh. What to go for, OO, 3mm, TT120 or N ? So many pros and cons for each choice, I really don't know, but we are spoiled for choice. Cheers TT100 Diesels

You are quite correct Phil. But on my 37 they would need to be further forward to clear the bogie transom, or I could remove material from the bogie transom (there is a risk as its 3d print). The other issue for the model which I forgot to mention just up thread is that its going to need a wire loop coupler. Probably coming off the bogie transom between the ploughs and bent to suit. Being bogie mounted is better "coupling wise" than off the fixed body (buffebeam). If it were to be a TMD layout queen, with no couplers, perhaps buffer beam mounted ploughs would work. Cheers D.

Hi Phil, Better pic of your 26 than mine up thread, and great pix of 401. LL 37's just 'pop' 👍. Re mini ploughs, on 37's they are all hung off the underside of the buffer beam. Probably are on most / all other classes but can't say for certain. As for my model of 403, I mounted them onto the bogie transom as it was a very handy and easy and logical way to do it on a model. They sit in about the correct position as if hung from the buffer beam. I did it like this as the transom was thicker and projects forward more than the real locos. So two problems, if modelling them off the buffer beam, first the model transom likely to foul them om bogie rotation and the fixings would be harder to model and the whole set up more fragile. The bonus feature of bogie mounting on this particular model is that the buffer beam pipes etc can be fitted and will not be fouled by the ploughs. At least it looked that way when I did the development mock ups. Hope that still comes to pass when I get to the fitting them stage 🤔. Your 26 ploughs look more to scale thickness I must say, but my plasticard ones don't look too bad, and they will also get weathered. Plonked the body back on the chassis and took this shot. Pleases my eye anyway! Cheers D.

Waiting for the proverbial paint to dry! On with building up the livery elements so a couple of progress pix. Work bench clutter ! Its half way through building up the yellow element, using Railmatch Warning Yellow 2202 acrylic. Be honest, I don't rate it, for a start its "too orange" for my liking, but was happy to live with that, but even nicely thinned down it goes on awful, very patchy and poor flow. I had already done 3 thinned coats of white primer for a good base for it as well. Today, it was out with my trusty Humbrol RC 407 Yellow acrylic, its brilliant, flows and covers lovely even when thinned down. Trouble is, they dropped the "RC" paints range and I am eeking out my last dregs of my "precious pot"! No doubt Precision enamel yellow is ok, but I am trying to lessen my use of enamels where possible, so I might try a few different shaded of Citadel (warhammer) yellows to get a match, I am very impressed with Citadel acrylics, they cover and flow very nicely. Anyway, that's the yellow front end and cab base applied, (and the roof grey done), started on the black. Attempting to hand paint the curve above the windscreens as its well nigh impossible to create a nice smooth masking tape curve. So it will be ever decreasing rework circles till I am happy with it. The nose requires masking, but I want to wait now and let the yellow harden before messing with tape. Chassis wise, the mini ploughs are finished and started on the buffers and buffer beam. Need to limber up to do the ETH sockets and pipework, but overall this is fast progress for me. Cheers D.

Funny enough, the left hand photo is a sun set near Stromness, so quite a lot more north than Mallaig ! And talking of mini snow ploughs, I said up thread that @Phil Mason has made some previously so blazing the trail in 3mm, I found a photo of them on one of his scratch build 26's. Sorry its one of my not so good pics, but in the distance, the mini ploughs are visible on Phil's lovely 26. (An 1160hp Sulzer fest on Bluish). And a more side on shot I took of it on Dely Y Coed. But kudos to Phil for blazing the mini snow plough trail in 3mm. Cheers D.

37403 progress....... Got the mini ploughs epoxied on to the bogie transoms, bogies and underframe had matt black then weathered black base coats applied. Started to build up colour on the ploughs, need these fully painted before messing with the buffer beam detailing pipes and jumpers etc as they will be in front of the ploughs and would make access more difficult. Also painted the roof, ended up as a home brew mix of white and Citadel "Admisinstratium grey". This was because the railmatch acrylic rail grey 2206 isn't - its more beige, so had an abortive time applying it and hoping it dried right, err it did not. So I had to sort out a roof that was essentially intercity swallow livery coach beige! So need to let it all harden, there is a lot of masking bled under and masking edge ridge to rework with fine finishing grit paper. Starting to look a lot more "Ingey three". I think the mini ploughs make it "pop". Funny that they look a lot more yellow than actually are, they still need a few more thin coats yet. With the primer on, round the windscreens, they are looking a lot better after two rounds of very careful fettling, than the as supplied print bodyshell, I am very pleased how they turned out. Ok, not Accurascale, but my eye is pleased, so that's all that matters. Cheers D.

Hi, Wish I found this thread before. Bought some Railmatch 2206 Rail Grey at at the Macclesfield show. Perfect for LL 37 roof. Looks about right through the transparent pot, but the actual paint is more very light brown than grey, started painting and built up a few thinned coats by brush (my usual way), and hmmm, not quite right looking colour shade. Back to trawling photos of blue grey ic coaches and LL roofs, all much "whiter" to the eye. So that is a long winded way of agreeing with above posts. Just been on the railmatch web site, 2206 is listed for blue grey stock, LL loco roof etc. But it is not actually, as above posts its looking like the intercity beige livery element. Anyway, sorted it, mixed some white and Citadel "Administartum grey", two thinned coats over the existing 2206 has done the trick, to my eyes anyway. I was going to do this anyway before I saw the 2206 on sale, still had to in the end! But as a bonus, I think the iteration of 2206 I have would make a great colour for the translucent grp panels on loco roof, like on the class 25, 26 etc. I have a 26 and a 27 to build so it will come in handy for them. As usual with modelling, every day is a schoolday. Note - Some of the posts above are quite old and quote slightly different numbers, but the overall issue would appear to be the same. Note 2 - Just emailed Howes Models who market Railmatch paint to point out the discrepancy. If I get a response, I will post an update. I am not bothered about the couple of quid for the pot, its more about helping solve the discrepancy. Cheers, TT100 Diesels

I absolutely love this. It is spot on. Totally agree.

Well that is it now, 37403 decals and name plates ordered off railtec. So the die is cast do to speak. Been further fine tuning the cab windscreens following further photo analysis. Included a very subtle curve on the top of the centre screen and making the same screen corners a tighter radius. Ok it not Accurascale but it does look a lot more 37 than the raw print as supplied. Working off a pic of "Mary". Think that the 3d print bonnet curve and thus windscreen angle is slightly shallow compared with the real loco, but I am not gonna try to change that on the model. Note, my photo. These are dead useful for hand fettling windscreen corner radii (and loads of other jobs as well). Also been fettling the scratch built mini ploughs set with filler along the joints. They are currently tacked on to the front bogie transoms with a bit of poly cement. I intend to lock them on by carefully adding a bit of epoxy adhesive behind them. Well see how that goes..... And in a change of scene, just to show my finished Peak, 45127 entering Delyn Y Coed at last weekends Macclesfield MRX. Could not post it till after the show had finished on Sunday due to special show copyright conditions. Thanks to Jim Barry and Dave Wheelton for permission to photo it and give it a run on their superb layout. Cheers Dave

Hi Steve, That's a fascinating insight into the reborn real life 37403, thanks for sharing. I'll be ordering up the 3mm scale decals pack and Isle of Mull plates off your web site in the near future. Good to see your interested in our 3mm scale work bench goings on. Cheers D.

That might be the standing instruction, but I have loads of pics of 3 piece ploughs fitted to ScR locos in summer ! 😁. Thanks though BB, but I suppose 3mm is an easy scale to do unique items, especially in the blue diesel era, there can't be many more than 10 to 15 of us doing the era "seriously". Although Phil M has done mini ploughs out of thin tin plate or similar, he truly blazes the trail. I mean, on display yesterday at Macc show, he had scratch build 81 x 2 and 86, immense.... And we have all seen the roster on Bluish. There is a scratch build HS4000 Kestrel scratch build in the stock box as well. But back to 37403, LL with mini ploughs fitted, to me, the pinnacle of liveries and 'look'. Sure, paint jobs are subject to personal opinions, but given the popularity of LL 37's in other scales, I think (well hope) my effort will 'pop' when its finished. Cheers D.

Ok gang, back down to earth again, it was a fun day at Macc railex but the work bench beckons...... Was going to keep this one under wraps but since it was brought up at macc, I am figuring that it may as well feature here as another build. Came away from last weekend's EMAG Bingham meet up with this beastie from Lenny. Ready to roll 37/4. Pop the body off and the motorised chassis is revealed. Power wise, its an A1A - A1A, the centre wheelsets are flangeless dummies, same principle as seen on the Peak. Engine room windows were blanked off, so a bit of chain drilling then needle file work. With ref to the other pix above, the windscreen surrounds were heavily printed, I prefer to remove them, which I did, a lot of care and attention for that job. Looking at photos, I also needed to just open out the top of the inner corners of the windscreens to follow the roof profile curve. Also, adding filler to allow a less tight corner on the bottom outer corners of the windscreens. In all, it helps improve the overall look. The headcode box corners were radiused a bit more as well. Plasticard and micro rod used to knock up the nose end MU ops recept and ETH recept. Decided on doing 37403 "Isle of Mull", which was an ex WR loco pre HGR into a /4. So in addition to the normal lamp irons at tail light level, had the funny WR "sticky outey" ones to the sides of the headcode box. And, well, one can't have a 37/4 without miniature snow ploughs can one ? So, a bit of trial and error with the plasticard. Scaled off photos, and knocked up the side ploughs, temporary fixed with poly cement (not a strong bond onto 3d print so easy to remove again) to estimate it looking ok and judge how big to make the centre plough. In this pic, the centre plough was version 2, a bit bigger and spot on to my eye. So it was simply a case of replicating another set for the other end. I have kept the dimensions for making more for my yet to be done 26 & 27. Running trials on the layout to test "proof of concept". Note the version 1 smaller centre plough which got the boot. Need to work out how to do the rest of the buffer beam detailing around the ploughs, but super pleased anyway with the way the ploughs have turned out. And this is what I am aiming for, large logo blue, 37403 "lsle of Mull", I just think LL was made for 37's, however, mine will be mid 80's incarnation, so no nose number or orange OLE warning line, and era specific OLE flashes. Railtec do Eastfield LL 37 specify your number transfer set, and 3d waterslide standard BR type nameplates specify your name, so its all achievable. So, that's it, on with the next one, funny its last one in but jumped the works que ! Cheers D.

Went today, a great show with a huge variety of layout types across the scales and gauges, very enjoyable. For me, it was great to catch another 3mm scale layout double header in the north in quick succession (Belper and York were the other shows). And quite a few three millers about to catch up and chat with as well. Final bonus was an half hour operating session on Mike Corp's sublime 3mm 14.2 finescale layout, Heybridge Wharf. The show appeared to be 'healthily busy' today, so hope its the same tomorrow for the traders, club and layouts. Cheers TT100 Diesels

Went to the show today, very good, generally high quality across the scales spectrum, so well worth a visit, if anone can make the sunday. Was great to have a half hour or so 'shift' operating Heybridge Wharf, as well as being sublime, it has a lot of play value, so makes for interesting operating, thanks to Mike Corp for trusting me with the reins! Lots of three millers around to chat to, and good to meet 03060 of this parish in person for the first time. And my Peak was allowed an out and back driver training light engine run on Delyn y Coed, but just the one due to the bridge weight restriction meaning the Peak RA was too high (so they said....... 🤔). Also, a superb collection of diesel and electric locos on display at D y C, and the lovely diesel hydraulics running on the layout. Cheers D.

Hi 3mm workbench type peeps! Its a bit late in the day for this, but just to slide off topic if I may, tomorrow Sat 21 and also Sun 22 April, its the Macclesfield club railex. Mentioning it as there is a double header 3mm exhibition layouts attending. Dave Wheelton & Jim Barry present Delyn - y - Coed, a 12mm gauge layout, while Mike Corp will have his sublime 14.2mm gauge, Heybridge Wharf. There is a certain symmetry to this as Mike actually built Delyn and ran it for a while called The Harp Tree. D-y-C is a more or less Welsh translation from what I understand. I am going tomorrow (sat). May see some of you there? Cheers D.