TU4 Finished

As usual it took far longer to get the TU4 model on the worktable and some work done. I last worked on the loco in August closing up the upper body and frame and getting a good fit with the lower frame part holding the bogies.

The tiny TU4-1135 is finished and photographed on a white background. 

One thing keeping me away from the task before me was probably the myriad of tiny etched metal parts to be fitted including steps, hand rails and door handles. During the Christmas holidays I bit the bullet and began drilling holes for the handrails, thinking that they were the largest parts and would provide me with some confidence if I succeedded with them. With some careful work I got the handrails removed from the etched fret and mounting them on the loco with AC glued went resonably trouble free. Footsteps under the cab doors were next and I finished off with the characteristic 'red banner' insignias on the bonnet tops. I decided to omit the door handles as they are probably a bit beyound my current abilities in H0 scale. 

The handrails were fitted in many different ways on TU4's during the years depending on model, owners' preferences and the wear and tear the locomotives were invariably victims of. Consequently there is no 'right' way of fitting e.g. the front handrails. Where I had drilled to mount the handrails I had to do some filling as my smallest drill was a bit oversize. This proces didn't work out to my full satisfaction and I'm getting a good supply of tiny drills for my next 1/87 scale project.  

Handrails are being installed - fiddly work that was seriously challenging my 1/19 scale accustomed eyes and fingers. No major disasters, but please don't look too closely on the finished model! 

K-Models has not included buffers in the kit, probably thinking that you'll fit some of your own choise. As my TU4 is going to be a static model I looked for some really good buffers of the standard Soviet type to fit. I found them in the RTM kit of the TU7. I plan to build the TU7 as an operating model and it will consequently have standard H0e couplings fitted, making its kit supplied buffers redundant. The buffers are 3D printed to a very high level of detail. Once I had removed the printing supports I was astonished to find that the chains actually worked! It's a testemony to the level that 3D printing has progressed to when you can have tiny coupling chains in 1/87 scale work directly out of the printer. The buffers were AC glued into holes drilled in the cut-outs in the loco's front.

Assembly of TU4 locos at Kambarka Engineering Works. The centre engine could be TU4-1851 judging by the chalked on number above the buffer. To the right possibly a TU5 (a slightly heavier and faster version of the TU4) during construction. Archive image.

When I had finished working on the body of the loco I added a scratch built centre mounted gearbox between the bogies. Two rectangular pieces of 2 mm thick plasticard and two circular shapes punched out of thinner plastic were glued together, sanded to shape and stuck on with AC-glue. It's nothing more than a coarse approximation built after prototype photos. I also added a few pipes for compressed air and hydraulic oil from thin wire. Not much of this will probably be viewable once the finished model is placed on an overgrown track on a future diorama.

Construction is finished and the model now awaits priming and painting.

After construction and sanding the worst glue marks, the window openings were masked and the loco primed with my usual 'Chaos Black' primer and painted green with red trim and orange handrails. I used Vallejo Air 71.134 'Imperial Japanese Army Medium Green' for the body's main green colour and 70.946 'Dark Red' for front skirts and frame trim. For the orange handrails I went with 70.910 'Orange Red' from Vallejo. From prototype images it seems that the roof is usually painted in the same colour as the body and so I left the roof in green and will rely on the weathering to make it stand out.

Halfway through air brushing the green I took this snapshot of the TU4 on my painting turntable from IKEA.

A few days later and details have been picked out in contrasting colours to convey a little of the characteristic colourfulness many TU4's locos displayed.

Before adding the kit supplied decals for TU4-1135 I gave the the decal locations a layer of gloss varnish to help the decals to lay down well on the surface. In 1/87 scale the decals are quite small and particularly the decal above the front coupling took some careful work to position more or less correctly. As usual I used Mr. Hobby decal solutions for best possible application of the small decals.

When the decals were in place I weathered the locomotive lightly. I'm building the TU4 as a non-operational loco that have been recently withdrawn from traffic. Hence no missing parts due to cannibalisation or heavy rust. I used my usual combination of oil washes, Vallejo weathering paints and dust spraying with the air brush. I restrained myself as much as possible as I figured I could easily overdo the weathering in this small scale. Once I was resonably satisfied with the weathering I added the kit glazing to the windows. As I had built a rudimentary instrument panel in the cab, the front glazing had to be slightly converted to fit. Fortunately I had done this in advance when access to the cab was easy. The side glazing had to be separated into two single pieces on both sides due to my way of fitting the cab handrails (the etchings were cut over length and protrudes into the cab), disturbing fitting of the original glazing. I glued the clear parts in place with 'Mikro Kristal Klear' that dries completly clear.  

Left side view of the TU4. Considering it has a length of roughly 9 cm I'm rather pleased with the result. This isn't exactly 1/19 large scale modelling!  

Right hand view of TU4 1135. The scratch built gearbox is just visible behind the air resevoirs.

With the TU4 finished I have reached the final milestone of an assembly process that I started in July 2024. I have been doing a lot of other modelling projects while working on the TU4. I have finished e.g. 3 skips and the Fowler loco in 1/19, completed basic landscaping on the layout as well as finishing a H0e MD54-2. Now I will turn my attention to a loco in 1/19 scale. No less daunting, but more in tune with what I usually model.

Most recently finished loco 'dumped' in the ballast with the next project on track! A rebuild of my Accucraft Baguley-Drewry is next on the list.

The 1/19 Baguley-Drewry locomotive is wider than the 1/87 TU4 is long. My eyes will be less tested on the Baguley project!