Another possible blockbuster YouTube video from WMD!

The WMD film crew have been at work again and this potential blockbuster, or more likely flop, visually goes through the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild. 

The end! Well for the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild project!

At last it is the end of the Lima Class 117 DMU rebuild! It has taken some time and stretched my abilities but I have learnt a lot.

The last job was to weather the roof and that was done with a few washes of my usual dilute brown paint. Just brushed on and allowed to dry as gravity and capillary action did it's job.

With that done it was time to put it back on the track and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

It may not be the greatest model in my collection but it is one that means a lot to me after the work that has gone into it.

I like it!

Now it is time to get back to building the layout for it too run on! Not sure when the end to that project will come though!

Those small details!

With the certainty that the Lima DMU is working it is time to bring this project to an end. There are still some jobs to do including some passengers and drivers at each end. I already had the passengers in stock as outlined in an earlier post so these were brought out and several seated figures chosen to spend the rest of their plastic lives riding on the railway! 

A dab of superglue on their backsides saw them secured in place.

The one thing I could not find in my pack of seated people was a pair of suitable drivers. A search through my collection of bits from years ago uncovered these two figures which are the old Airfix mouldings. Whilst not posed in a seated position I will cut their legs off so they fit into the cabs - Ouch!

Another detail that I noted on the real DMU was a metal mesh over the windows in the luggage compartment which Lima had not replicated.

I had some plastic woven mesh that would do the job so a bead of Glue and Glaze was run around the inside of the plastic window.

 Whilst from the inside, the mesh looks a bit strange.....

.....from the outside it looks good.

I also got the chrome pen out and highlighted the grab and door handles which just adds that little bit of extra detail that stands out.

 Just a few more small jobs like these to finish and then this project will be complete!

Its alive!

Just like the scene from the various Frankenstein films, Its alive! And whilst parts of the Lima Class 117 DMU may look a bit Frankensteinish at the moment it is most certainly alive! 

Coupled and connected together the two cars moved off. I had to adjust the picks ups on the trailing car as the motor car was slipping on the track but after that it ran a treat! 

Even using 128 step control on the DCC controller it moves at setting one which is something not all modern models do.

Right! I am one the road to finishing this!

To cut a long story short!

To cut a long story short was, amongst other things, a hit for that new romantics group from the 80s Sopandau Ballet and you can view the video here. However in my case, rather that ramble on about how I put all the things wrong identified in yesterdays post about the ongoing rebuild of the Lima Class 117 DMU I will cut a long story short by posting this photo which shows it all corrected and everything wired up and a new DCC chip fitted.

I can even fit the already painted interior panels.

Now all I have to do is get it on the track to test it! Hopefully that will be a short story with a happy ending!

With all that done the powered car should be an easy win to finish!

Those famous last words from yesterdays post - With all that done the powered car should be an easy win to finish!

After the satisfaction of getting much of the unpowered car together I turned my attention to the Easy Win. It took a few seconds of looking at the parts and holding them together to realise I had done everything back to front! The coupling I added is on the bogie that goes to the front of the car where no coupling should be! The motor bogie should have had a substantial amount of the old coupling left in place to attach the new one t. Instead I cut the lot off! And finally, the buffer beam detail is at the wrong end! Brilliant, Woody! The WMD swear jar is now a bit better off but my level of satisfaction is not!

I these instances it is sometimes best to walk away and cool off before trying to rectify things which is just what I have done. It can all be fixed but will take a bit of time so no easy win finish - just yet!

Putting the Lima Class 117 DMU back together which is a satisfying process!

I am at the stage of putting the Lima Class 117 DMU back together which is a satisfying process given the carnage I have inflicted on it over the past week or so! 

First off, the pickup wires from the bogies on the unpowered car were soldered onto the phosphor bronze wipers. A piece of heat shrink tube was glued to the bogie and the wires fed through it before applying heat so that the wires were held securely in place.

To avoid the visual glare of red wires being seen I painted the exposed red wire black.

With the bogies refitted to the chassis and the wires from them and the plug carrying power to the power car, the wires were secured in place with a dab of superglue and then soldered together. The exposed joints were covered with heat shrink tube to stop any short circuits. I was amazed at myself for remembering to thread the tube in place before soldering the wires together! All in all it looks a neatish job which again amazed me!

With that done I could reinstate the interior moulding which looks good now it has been painted. Most satisfying!

With all that done the powered car should be an easy win to finish!

The rabbit hole of the Lima Class 117 DMU deepens! Originally I was just going to remove the somewhat oversized and toy like couplers from each front end of the unit and keep the central couplings. However I thought that I could close the gap between the two cars by replacing the Lima couplings. I had purchased some suitable couplings at the Spalding Model Railway Show so I had what I needed.

Some hacksawing and gluing saw the old couplings removed (old one bottom left of picture) and new couplings fitted (example bottom right of picture).

I think it looks a lot better - but I would!

Made by Woody!

 Fitted to he front of the Lima DMU, the additional details look a bit strange. Xxx

However, painted black it comes together.

Well, that's the ends sorted but I also had a missing buffer. I could buy one but a couple of scraps of plastic card and rod cut to size and shaped made a good replacement.

In place

In place it looks OK.

Painted black, you cannot really tell it's made by Woody !

This project is becoming a bit like a rabbit hole!

This project is becoming a bit like a rabbit hole! I was just going to do a quickish (remember this is Woody) update on the Lima Class 117 DMU and I find myself drawn into adding more details. Still, so far the cost has been minimal so Mrs. woody cannot complain! 

The latest thing to do is to add so front end detail to the buffer beam. Having cut the couplings off the front end will look a bit bare and in real life there are some additional details that Lima did not add. These are the vacuum pipes for the braking system when these units worked in multiple setups as well as the electrical couplings. Fiddly to replicate but worth the couple of hours it took.

As always, WMD Stores had some suitable materials in stock, so a piece of square strip was a starting point into which some suitably bent brass rod was attached through some holes drilled in the strip. These represent the vacuum brake pipes. The electrical connections were represented by some 5amp fuse wire. The connectors were just slivers of plastic card and rod.

This was almost like dealing with miniature engineering!  

The lens is a bit cruel as to my workmanship but once mounted on the chassis and painted it should all look OK!

And now it gets dirty!

Having painted up those details on the chassis of the Lima Class 117 DMU, I have now dirtied them up! A bit of dirty brown paint by Ammo was airbrushed and the chassis does actually look a lot more realistic - well I think so anyway! I need to add some more detail to the front end so hopefully I will be able to post abou that tomorrow.

In the meantime I am pleased with my dirt!

Being all moulded in black plastic means that the detail just disappears.

Time to think about doing some detailing on the chassis of the Lima Class 117 DMU. I am not doing anything too fancy, just making the best of what is already there. To be fair, there is a fair amount of detail with various air tanks, lockers, pipework and so on but being all moulded in black plastic means that the detail just disappears. 

Having looked at some photos on line of the real Class 117, the paints and brsuhes came out and I got busy!

It already looks a bit more interesting and whilst the colours are all very bright, I am going to weather the whole chassis so that will all tone down. That is a job for once the paint dries though.

To couple or not to couple- that is the question!

I had intended to post about the Spalding Model Railway Show that Mrs. Woody demanded I take her to (well that is my recollection of our conversation) but it is late so something to do tomorrow. In the meantime I did have a chance to do a little more on the upgrade of the Lima Class 117  DMU.  I this case I had to decide if the DMU was to couple or not. Obviously the two coaches that make up the unit have to couple, but are the couplers at the outer ends really necessary? Well, given that it is unlikely that I will couple it up to another DMU and that the existing coupling just looks so big and ugly I decided to remove them.

A short session with a razor saw cut off the coupling which is moulded as part of the bogie. I just had to clean up the sawn edge with a file and all is well! I have to say that as there is no going back now!

Seated passengers.

Having painted the interiors of the Lima 117 DMU, it was time to add some colour to the seats. In real life the DMUs underwent several refurbishments and the seats were upholstered in blue towards the end of their use with British Rail. I went with that brush painting a suitable blue onto the seat faces.

It took a while but eventually both interior units had heir seats  painted.

I also took the opportunity to highlight the existing detail in the cab. Just painting some of the controls brought the cab to life.

Now as to the reason for spending time sanding down the end tor pin marks on the seats and it is contained in this recently procured pack.

These are not highly detailed or particularly well painted seated passengers but for the inside of the DMU they are ideal. Just to get an idea of how they would look I temporarily placed a few figures on the seats. I think that is look good!

It looks fairly drab and toy like!

 This is the interior of the Lima Class 117 DMU.

It looks fairly drab and toy like which I guess for its 1980s origin was the common approach by manufacturers who were still selling vast amounts of train sets for the younger market. Now, whilst much of the interior is unseen through the body windows, I still felt it could do with brightening up and be made to look a little more like the prototype.

First job, having taken the seating unit off the chassis was to filo down the various ejector pin marks.

Now, given that you cannot really see these through the windows of the DMU, you may wonder why I spent time on fikling these pin marks flat. Well, there is a reason for that as I will explain tomorrow! In the meantime, the seating units were sprayed up in grey primer from a rattle can.

It already looks far better then that beige colour! However there is more to come!

A bit of a service!

Whilst doing work on the pickups on the Lima Class 117 DMU I thought I might as well give the motor a bit of a service. Not that there is much to do on these old pancake motors but it was worth opening it up as I found this.

The blackish ring is dirt on the commutator which needs to be cleaned off as it is affecting contact with the brushes supplying power to the motor.

That was soon done with some fine abrasive. With the cover back on having lightly lubricated the spindle, I turned my attention  to the other side of the motor casing and the gear wheels. They needed a light greasing but also, Lima gear wheels are renowned for having these ejector pin marks on them from the manufacturing process. The edges can stand proud of the surface and cause uneeded friction with the rest of the gear train. I used a fine sanding stick to smooth them down

After reassembly I used a 9volt battery, whose terminals conviently match the two brush holder points on the motor, to test that it all still worked which amazingly for my work it did!

I just need to replace that burnt out DCC chip now.

Pick ups!

With an hour to spare I thought I would pick up on upgrading the Lima Class 117 DMU by adding an additional pickup to the rear bogie. At the moment it only collects current through one side of the bogie. Adding pick ups to the other means that it should run better!#

I have done similar on other Lima models so my first thing to do was to add a strip of styrene to the side of the bogie to mount a phosphor bronze strip to.#

Next stage was to super glue the phosphor strip to the strip once I had soldered a wire to go to the DCC chip.

Then it was a case of drilling a hole in the chassis for the wire to go through.

I am thinking of doing the same with the unpowered trailer car which would really add to the reliability of running but I will have a think about that! At the moment I am pleased with what's been done so far. 

A certain irony - making things better!

A few days ago I posted about the DCC chip that fried itself in my Lima Class 117 DMU. I have been looking at it with a view to putting a new chip in. However, with the power car dismantled it struck me that my plans from years ago to freshen it up were ripe to be carried out now!What brought this thought on was finding my chrome pen and just trying to colour in the door handles on the bodyshell so they were chrome as on the prototype. 

The interior can be painted up too from that drab brown to the blue that the seats were uphuulsteed in later on in their lives.

To make running better I will add some additional pickups on the trailing bogie as I now have that in bits!

So that is the plan - it will be ironic if I actually complete it though!