After rearranging / cleaning up my breadboard, which involved moving the transistor circuit and using shorter jumpers, it failed again. I turned the BC557 around, e to c and c to e, and it worked again. Looks like the BC557 was just working and any changes meant having to change and test the circuit again.
I didn't want to deal with this anymore and so I ordered a hand full of PN200 transistors, which should come in any day now, and have the correct value resistors on hand.
Oh, I totally missed your updated post with the diodes.... Thanks for confirming RGB 6-6-6 colour code. Edited 2022-11-03 03:29 by DrifterNL