Model Railroading > Diamond Plate sheets in HO?

I know my eyes are not what they use to be, but my recent purchases of "HO Diamond Plate" appear to be more like parking lot speed bumps.  As a reference I have placed the ScaleTrains T-Motor floor (that is above the rear truck) onto the sheet to give an idea of diamond plate in the proper scale.
 

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Before I purchase some other candidates, I was wondering if anyone had any first-hand experience with the following as having a Diamond Plate pattern in a scale comparable with that found on the walkways of a EMD locomotive:

Archer Resin Details
AR88043 "HO Locomotive Tread Plate, GM/EMD"

Gold Metal Models
160-62 "Diamond Pattern non-skid plating" 
(I know this is N-scale, but they called the other sheets HO, so who knows?)

Or if you have another product for HO Diamond Plate that you have used, please do share.

Thank you in advance!   :-D
Dave Donaldson



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/19 21:09 by tmotor.

Here's some reviews from experience.


https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4589586

I did an extensive diamond plate comparrison on another forum recently.  

In short,  if you need aftermarket diamond plate,  get the Archer stuff.  

The Archer ones are about as close as you're going to get. And they're pretty easy to use too.

EXCELLENT!!!

fbe
Thanks for the link.  I should have known it was already covered in a previous thread.  Had a feeling I was not the first to encounter this dilemma.  Good to have a reality check.
 
sixaxlecentury
I kinda’ figured the Archer folks were trustworthy, but after 3 strikes in a row, I was getting somewhat discouraged.  I was well on my way to spending as much on bogus sheets of Diamond Plate as I did on the locomotive!  :-0
 
PHall
Appreciate the confirmation that Archer is the way to go.  I have a sheet on order.  The fact that it is a decal will allow it to be very thin, which will be critical for my application of covering the floor on the interior of the T-Motor radiator air intake area.  
 
 

My only experience with Archer rivet lines failed, they fell apart.
Has anyone tried a couple of coats of Micro Scale decal coating to reinforce them before immersing them in water?

To me Plastruct never had the quality of
Evergreen.

Uncle Joe
Seffner,Fl.

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> My only experience with Archer rivet lines failed,
> they fell apart.
> Has anyone tried a couple of coats of Micro Scale
> decal coating to reinforce them before immersing
> them in water?

Did you follow their instructions? You don't leave them in the water. You put them in the water for about 30 seconds and then place them on a paper towel.
Leaving them in the water will cause them to fall apart.    The resin rivets are just "printed" on the decal paper with no overcoating.

from fbe: https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4589586
"I also found out that resin chipped off the decals paper rather easily on the first pieces that I cut. I took the liberty of spraying on a healthy coat of Testor`s acrylic glosscoat over the entire sheet first. This definitely helped and at $17.95 for a small sheet you wouldn`t want to be screwing up too much. Also plan out the templates first to get the most out of the sheet. Here`s 9 pictures I took while I was doing this."

happy modeling, 
twl



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/12/19 12:38 by globalethanol.