Monday, May 23, 2011

3mm Scale - Class 26 Diesel

Finished 26

Since I last mentioned the Class 26 model, it's received some transfers, a coat of matt varnish and a little bit of weathering. After a Krystal-Klear glazing session, the loco is ready to appear on the layout.

In the flesh it looks pretty good to me. I've learnt a lot by building it and generally enjoyed myself. At least I can say that there won't be many others out there that are exactly the same !

Needless to say, there are things that I would do differently if there were a next time:

  • Use "Rail White" rather than normal white as it's less stark. The wash of track colour seems to have calmed it down a bit but the correct colour would have been better.
  • Try and make the bogies narrower so the brackets that should dangle from the chassis outside of them could be modelled.
  • Lower the chassis by  a millimetre or two. The "design" would require significant modification for me to do this now. The nuts are under the footplate and don't allow enough headroom to lift the bogies up. Mind you, this isn't nearly so obvious from normal viewing angles.
  • Put some handrails on ? I left them off because they are flush with the sides and without a milling machine making a neat slot for them would be nigh on impossible. Perhaps a line from the bow-pen in silver ?
For all its faults, this model locomotive has turned out OK and will hopefully become a stalwart of the Flockburgh operating fleet. And it's another box out of the pile !

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