Progress on the Prado

I did some progress on the Toyota Prado by rm8. I did already post some pictures on Facebook showing the first representation of the rear axle made in LDD and the first gearbox version I had built with real bricks. Since I am somewhat on vacation currently, I had some time to take care of the rear axle. I wasn’t yet satisfied by the original design and even rm8 advised me to build it with the newer axle hubs. And so I did. I had already tried to use the hubs that were introduced with 42000, but this still seemed kind of flimsy and unstable, though only digital. So I decided to use the portal hubs from the 8110 – Unimog.

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What am I building?

I was a little busy yesterday and today. And will be probably tomorrow as well. I am currently building a digital model of a certain Technic car. Actually, it is not my own MOC. It is by someone else and I am dreading for a long time now to build something similar. I was hoping for a digital model or even instructions from its creator, but until today nothing has happened.

The person who originally created this model is not staff from TLG, but he achieved to be somewhat famous among the Technic fans. I think the car is pretty cool and huge and has some great functions. A real supercar. That is why it is so interesting to me. I build the digital model to find out if I can build it with my collection or if I need some substantial parts orders. As source material I have the “release” pictures of the model (which contain some pretty good and stylish photography) and some WiP pictures. The big problem is, that I need to build the chassis mainly from the WiP pics, but the finished model is a little different at a lot of areas. Also, I am doing some “color polishing” to improve some sections myself directly. So the big question remains: What am I building?

A hint: This is the rear axle.

Who can guess from who and which model this is?

Balrog class Exo Suit

On Eurobricks in the Sci-Fi forum, there is a little contest going on. The goal is to take the frame of the 21109 Exo Suit and build something new. More specific, build an Exo Suit that fits into one of the present or past themes produced by Lego. Any theme is possible.

I took the chance and made an entry for the challenge. And the obvious idea I had, was to build a *drumroll* Balrog class Exo Suit. *badumtss*

The suit is piloted by Aragorn who can now easily smash through the armies of Sauron and Saruman. It features two strong arms and legs. On the left arm, there is a ultra-strong elven shield. And it wields a flamable sword made by the best dwarfen engineers. The body armor als sports some Rohirim shielding to protect the pilot. And if that wouldn’t be enough, it has a optional jetpack that allows it to swiftly swoosh over the battlefield. Or it can simply stomp the enemies into the ground.

Please visit the entry topic to see the other very good entries as well (I think mine is the worst).

Also here is the collection of pictures I have made:

MOC – camera mount

I just got new sets. Among them the 42028 – Bulldozer. I also want to expand on my YouTube coverage. So I imagined a plan on how to do that. I don’t want to do plain video reviews right now, though they are nice. I am also lacking proper equipment to do that in a decent quality. First on the list was the problem with filming. I only have various Smartphones and a DSLR. But my DSLR is not able to record movies. Bummer. I then remembered my “old” Smartphone also having a relatively decent camera.

In addition to that, I remembered Sariel’s not so old “behind the scenes” video where he showed off his eqipment, including various brick-built mounts. So I decided to do the following:

• make a timelapse video of the build
• record that with my old smartphone
• build a mount for the smartphone

Please note: I will refer to this mostly as camera mount, because of the function it has. While in reality it is more a smartphone mount.

So I first began to think about the perspective and after that how I could mount the Smartphone. I settled for a top-down perspective. Since I thought it would be too much work to make something for a straight top-down, I also decided to make it having a slight tilt. This is what I came up with first:

As you can see, it has a 45° tilt and you can rotate the turntable to make tilted shots. This really was the initial build. I directly used the long frame, so it would stand stable and won’t tip over easily. Also my HTC One S fits perfectly in the 1-stud gap of the holder and sits tight enough. I can even squeeze in my HTC One, but that will bend the construction a little. With this I shot the first videos.

I pondered about the design a while when I was making a version in LDD. I thought it would be useful to have the mount stand vertical, so I can make normal shots with it. So I added a few more bent liftarms.

With this, I can put this whole thing in a vertical position to make straight shots. The only problem was, that it could now tip to the sides easily. So I inserted a axle in the bent part and put some bushes at the end. Now it stands strong in both positions.

For a first Smartphone mount, I am very satisfied. It wen’t through various minor changes and right now it already is quite versatile. Right now it is stable, I can use it for various perspectives and the construction is not visible when making pictures or videos. I already have some ideas for a next version. That one will probably have mechanical tilt and the mount might be adjustable to the thickness of the smartphone.

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What do you think of it? Do you like it? Comments are very welcome, either here or on the Facebook page.

 

More hi-res pictures are available in my Brickshelf folder once moderated.

Here you can download the .lxf for the current version of the mount.

Mini Tumbler

Over on Eurobricks, a contest was held in the Technic Subforum. The goal was to make a mini model with no more than 200 parts which could as well be released from TLC. The entries were closed yesterday, so I took a look at the available models. Some even came with instructions or a LDD file to show how it is built.

ZBLJ chose to build a Mini Tumbler and also provided a LDD file. So I chose to build my own. Unfortunately, because I still have Sheepo’s Mustang built on the shelf, some parts of my collection are currently not available in black. Instead I chose to use a very dark grey (pun intended). So I began sorting out the pieces and started directly to build it.

So after a little building, I ended up with my very own Tumbler. This model features:

• independent front suspension
• rear live axle with suspension
• HOG steering
• adjustable wings

Preparations are on

I decided, that the next thing I build, will be Sheepo’s GT500. It has had a lot of praise on Eurobricks and every other site that featured it. In the meantime, instructions are available as well and some people already have built it themselves.

There are two versions available. One remote controlled and one manual. Whilst the remote controlled version uses several motors and remotes and has a linear transmission, the manual version has a regular transmission, no motors, but features a handbrake. Also there is a substantial difference in the amount of parts. The remote version sports over 4000 (!) parts, where the manual version only needs only nearly 3600 parts.

I decided to build the manual version. Not only because of the lack of motors or because the manual edition is cheaper, but because this will be mostly a display model. If you are interested in buying the building instructions, you can find them on Sheepo’s website.

So there are several stages in the preparation process. They are mostly complete and I hope to be able to begin building next week, when my vacation starts. So here are the steps that I went through:

• Determine, which sets or MOCs I have on display currently and decide which can be disassembled
• Disassemble those chosen sets/MOCs and sort the pieces
• Get the parts list and compile a list of missing parts
• Transform the list of missing parts into a Bricklink wishlist
• Go back and forth between shops to see how missing parts can be ordered most effectily
• And of course: Order these missing parts

This is a rather crude description of the process that I have gone through. And I am not yet finished. I still need to finish all the tasks. Currently I still have the Vampire GT to disassemble and sort the parts. Missing parts are all ordered and I am waiting for the last packages to arrive.

Contrary to past orders, this time I really had to order from quite a few shops. All in all I did eleven orders on BrickLink. I am ok with that, but I would have wished to cut a little on postage cost. Also I did my first orders from outside germany, which is a rather interesting thing as I have no clue how long it will take for them to arrive. The biggest problem was, that I waited too long. When I first looked for the availability of parts, it was pretty good. Now when I ordered, several parts where rather seldom available from within Germany. Most crucial were the flex axles, because this model requires some rather rare parts. But in the end, I found all the pieces. And even if this was quite an investment, I would guess that I came out of it rather cheap.

So far, I am pretty satisfied with my progress and I can’t wait to start building. But before that, more sorting, more preparing of pieces and of course sorting out the pieces for building.

Quick Update

I’ve been a little lazy lately in regards to the blog. So here is a little update. More detailed posts coming soon.

#1 I got and built the 42009 Mobile Crane Mk2

#2 I build Crowkillers Vampire GT in black

#3 I built Nathanael Kuipers Supercar

Shame on me: No picture yet.

#4 I decided to do some kind of “interim” build…

until I have the motivation to disassemble some stuff and start to build RM8’s Toyota Prado. And since I wanted to build something cool, I decided to build and alter Nico71’s Trophy Truck with CVT. I basically tried to maintain the looks of it, but make it manual, with a 4-gear transmission, HOG and V6-fakeengine.

What coming next?

I will stay a little more busy with the Trophy Truck. I want to create a digital model with LDD as far as possible and optimize the center chassis, increase the stability and so on. Also, currently the drive-train is far from being optimal. So basically, I’ll make the digital model and make some changes and improvements there, then disassemble the current model and build it anew.

It is done!

Finally my building place is finished. Now I just need to move all my tech and Lego stuff in and I am done. I hope to get this all done this weekend. It is really huge and I already love it. And here are some pictures and stats!

My building place – a update

Before, I have already talked about the design of my new building place. In fact, the design phase lies back more than 2 months already. Also I have been working on this for quite a while with a lot of big breaks due to time restrictions, bad weather or simply not being there to do it.

As I had mentioned, the parts were already finished, so last week I began to assemble this beast. I started to make the vertical frames. These were rather easy. Since I had already prepared the holes in the beginning, I could basically lay them