The locomotive project (part 1)

Well, if I'm really serious about this scratchbuilding in 1:1,000 scale malarkey I'd better nail my colours to the mast and come up with a project.

To be honest it wasn't all that difficult.

Here it is, the SD70MAC.

The one thing that drew me to this class of loco is the shape. It's nothing but squares. Square engine compartment hood, Square cab, pretty squareish nose. For a first time project in a ridiculously small scale it couldn't get much simpler.

At 74' long the SD70MAC scales out to 22.5mm long in 1:1,000 scale which is a bit shorter than the 25mm of the body of the Nano train chassis. (The chassis also extends to 29mm long over the necessary buffers.)

BUT (and here's the joy of striking out on your own in a new direction with new materials at your disposal.)

If I was to model the loco at 1:900 scale it then works out to be 25mm long! That is such an incredible co-incidence I don't think it should be passed over lightly.

1:900 scale would make things a tiny bit bigger, perhaps easier to work with. It would also be half the size of T scale, to give people a frame of reference.
But then I'd loose the 1:1,000 novelty.

Whatever I do its still going to be blooming small.

Perhaps I'll test my skills out in both sizes.

Now to work out how to actually make the thing.