The Di3.615 was built in 1958 and was the first Di3 to get the new red color scheme (in Norwegian known as Ny Design). It was involved in an accident in early 1987 and when it was repaired it lost its nose light. In stead it got the new light above the cab but initially only above cab 1. The other side (cab 2) didn't change. In 1990/1991 during the noise isolation work of cab 1 that changed.

As the late 1980's is my favorite era I was very interested in getting a model of the Di3.615 in ny design without the nose light.

As NMJ makes a model of the Di3.615 (as it would be from late 1983 until 1986), it makes sense to start with that model.

The project started with removing all the detail parts from the shell. To remove the nose light I masked the nose, to avoid scratching or damaging the rest of the nose/shell. Then I used Tamiya putty patch the nose and very fine sand paper to smooth it all.

The nose was repainted using Badger Modelflex. After some tests I found that C&NW Red (16-187) came pretty close to the original paint. After a new flat top coat with Tamiya TS-80 it is pretty much invisible. On the photo you can see a line but on the layout it is not that visible. The new top light is coming from a donor locomotive, the NMJ Di3.617 that was delivered in the wrong paint, so I could buy it at a significant discount from NMJ. This locomotive will be used for some future project.

The frame of the Di3.617 was used for this project. This allowed for easy connection of the new top light above cab 1. How ever this means that we had to make some adjustments for cab 2. The first picture shows the original led board and you can see there is no led mounted in the LED4 position. This positionis used for the traditional nose light. In comparison a different board is shown that shows a led in that position.

The second picture shows the original Di3.615 light board (right) and that has been installed to make the nose light work.

The end-result. A NSB Di3.615 in ny design, as it ran from 1987 until 1990.