MOC: GMC Yukon and Pink Cadillac

[Ralph_S]

It's been a while since I last presented a new large scale car on Eurobricks, so to make up for that, here are two

The first is a completely rebuilt new version of a car I built several years ago, a GMC Yukon SUV.

I decided to build it as an unmarked police car. A closer look will reveal discrete red and blue lights and a few non-standard antennae on the roof.

For about a year I've been gathering paradisa pink parts with the intention of building a pink Cadillac -the match of colour and car IMO. Recently I finally got my hands on a substantial quantity of parts, so it was time to start putting bricks together. This is the result, a 1959 series 62 convertible.

Building it was a bit of a challenge, mainly because of the limited selection of parts I had available in pink: 1x1, 1x2,1x3 and 1x6 plates and 1x1,1x2 and 2x2 tiles. No jumper plates, slopes or headlight bricks. Despite the limitations, I'm very happy with the end result. I hope you'll agree.

Cheers,

Ralph

Edited November 1, 2009 by Ralph_S

[Milan]

Hello,

I am running out of superlatives when it comes to replying to your car models...

As always, they look magnificent! Pink Cadillac looks very pleasant for eyes, imo. If I had to chose one from these two, I will go with the Pinky!

My advice is to write more about these beauties, both car has steering, openable doors, and detailed interior, as I can see, right?

I see how much attention you pay for aesthetic side of your models, but those technical aspect are also very nice.

[Ralph_S]

Hello,

I am running out of superlatives when it comes to replying to your car models...

As always, they look magnificent! Pink Cadillac looks very pleasant for eyes, imo. If I had to chose one from these two, I will go with the Pinky!

My advice is to write more about these beauties, both car has steering, openable doors, and detailed interior, as I can see, right?

I see how much attention you pay for aesthetic side of your models, but those technical aspect are also very nice.

Thanks for your comments. I'll try to explain a bit more and add a few pictures showing a few things. Getting the look right is always the main priority, but I indeed always try to have some functionality and there's little fun in building an interior if you can't get into it somehow.

On the Cadillac the interior was obviously in full view, so I had to make it look good. Getting the boot and bonnet (trunk and hood for Americans) to open was a bit tricky because there aren't any hinges in pink (or if there are, I certainly don't have any!). Also, in spite of the width (11 studs) there was little room under the bonnet to add something that looks convincingly like an engine, although I did try.

The picture also shows how I solved the hinge problem. I used old-fashioned finger hinges, but mounted such that the bonnet and the hinges first slide forward a bit (using door rail in this case), creating a gap that allows me to open it.

On the SUV things were a bit simpler and I also had more room in the front for the engine

Its interior can be reached by opening all the doors and the boot

The front doors use plate hinges (which does mean that you force then a bit to open them) and the aft doors simply rotate around the studs they're connected with. This is all fairly simple, although it does mean that since the model doesn't get much strength from the sides, the chassis needs to be fairly sturdy. I tend to do that by adding a fair few longish plates in the lengthwise direction.

The cars don't have really working steering mechanisms, in the sense that the steering wheel isn't connected to the wheels. On this scale there's just not enough room to make that work and look good at the same time. The wheels themselves, however, are interconnected. LEGO used to make fairly compact steering mechanisms using technic elements, but the parts are getting a bit rare and they are hard to build with widths that are an odd number of studs, so instead I normally use a brick-built solution. I don't have any pictures of those on these two cars, but I do have a picture on brickshelf of an earlier version of the Yukon where you can see the mechanism from below.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Burf2000]

Very nice mate, love the classic stud models. Long live stud lego, All my tehcnic models use the classic stud beams however they dont look anyway as nice as your stuff

Love the pink to!

[simonwillems]

Lovely!

I am especially fond of your pink Cadillac and amazed that so many pieces are indeed available in pink to make it right. The opening doors and other features are a really nice touch of realism.

I struggled hard to make a cadillac 1959 myself in white and twelve-wide years ago, even though almost all Lego pieces (especially jumper bricks, couldn't have done it without them!) were available in that colour. I managed somehow, but never liked the yellowed look it had....

So making an eleven wide car with a very limited amount of pieces that looks perfect is something you can be (and I think you are) very proud of!

[Big Cam]

Brillaint.

I couldn't believe it when I saw thw hood open. You got the motor in there too!!!

Very very nice work, and out of common pieces too (not common colors). I really like the basic piece feel but complex design of them.

You are good at what you do, that's for sure!

[Ralph_S]

Very nice mate, love the classic stud models. Long live stud lego, All my tehcnic models use the classic stud beams however they dont look anyway as nice as your stuff

Love the pink to!

Thank you. I tend to use technic parts in a supporting role. They are more model team than proper technic. I do get asked quite regularly why I don't build studless, but I've always felt that it is fine for people to be able to see that something is made out of LEGO and the studs have never bothered me. It's always nice to know that there are more people who feel that way

Lovely!

I am especially fond of your pink Cadillac and amazed that so many pieces are indeed available in pink to make it right. The opening doors and other features are a really nice touch of realism.

I struggled hard to make a cadillac 1959 myself in white and twelve-wide years ago, even though almost all Lego pieces (especially jumper bricks, couldn't have done it without them!) were available in that colour. I managed somehow, but never liked the yellowed look it had....

So making an eleven wide car with a very limited amount of pieces that looks perfect is something you can be (and I think you are) very proud of!

I know the contents of your brickshelf folders reasonably well (the Thunderbird is probably my favourite among your models), but I'd forgotten about the Cadillac. I love the horns on the hood.

Working with the somewhat limited range of parts did make things a bit more difficult in some respects. I could really have done with jumper plates. I like how you used them to round off the tops of the doors and the fenders.

Brillaint.

I couldn't believe it when I saw thw hood open. You got the motor in there too!!!

Very very nice work, and out of common pieces too (not common colors). I really like the basic piece feel but complex design of them.

You are good at what you do, that's for sure!

Thank you. Much appreciated. As I mentioned to Simon Willems in another thread a while back, the LEGOland cars in the 'Ultimate LEGO book' where a major influence on my own cars, as they were for his. The LEGOland model makers tend to go for fairly basic elements but use them to their maximum effect. I have been building car models for a long time and when I was a child, I also used to play with them quite a lot and I always used to add working features. That I still add things like opening doors nowadays is probably a consequence of that.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Thee Pirate]

On the pink Caddy, I have one word.

Speechless.

Okay, now for a little explaining on that. An old Cadillac is the only car I could ever drive if it's painted pink, and the '59? That's an iconic automobile if there ever was one. It the pinnacle of the winged era.

I remember around 6 years ago at the Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino, CA, an unrestored, and pretty rusty black '59 Series 62 convertible sold for $25K.

I've always wanted one since I was a little kid, but with prices like that, I'll probably have to settle for a 52-56 Series 62 Coupe.

[Ralph_S]

On the pink Caddy, I have one word.

Speechless.

Okay, now for a little explaining on that. An old Cadillac is the only car I could ever drive if it's painted pink, and the '59? That's an iconic automobile if there ever was one. It the pinnacle of the winged era.

I remember around 6 years ago at the Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino, CA, an unrestored, and pretty rusty black '59 Series 62 convertible sold for $25K.

I've always wanted one since I was a little kid, but with prices like that, I'll probably have to settle for a 52-56 Series 62 Coupe.

I'm with you. When I first got my hands on some pink about a year ago, I immediately knew that I wanted to build a Cadillac out of it, even though I was sure it would take me ages to get enough parts to be able to do it. It seems like the colour for the car and the car for the colour. I'm glad you like it.

Cheers,

Ralph

[Cadillac fan]

I am looking for a blueprint or a set of an old Cadillac Escalada (around 1974). Does anyone have a tip for me?

[Blakbird]

I am looking for a blueprint or a set of an old Cadillac Escalada (around 1974). Does anyone have a tip for me?

If you mean Escalade, that vehicle did not exist until 1999. Are you thinking of the Eldorado?

[Smrgol]

They are really nice, they are both really well made, the Cadillac couldnt have been easy with the limited range of pink parts out there.

[dhc6twinotter]

Love that pink caddy! Nice work.

There was a pink '61 for sale around here a couple months ago. It was in fairly good shape, and the asking price was pretty low. I was tempted to buy it, but I don't have a garage to work on vehicles.

Anyways, really nice job on these!

[Paul Boratko]

Now those are AWESOME! Very creative uses of some of those Parts! I love the Pink Caddy!

[dr_spock]

Lovely work on the pink Caddy.

[Ralph_S]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I built and posted it more than two years ago, but it's good to see that it is still popular

It would have been possible to build a more accurate representation of the shape of the car, of course, but when I was gathering the pink, the only car I that I could think of building with it was the '59 Cadillac. The Cadillac has travelled the world in the two years since I built it. I had already moved from the UK to the Netherlands when I built it, but took the car to the UK for a show. I left it with a friend of mine, who has since taken it to shows in Portugal and Dubai, among others. When I last talked to him, he told me that it didn't survive the trip to Dubai. Next time I'm in the UK (in February) I expect to be handed a bag full of bits...

Cheers,

Ralph

[bb15080]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I built and posted it more than two years ago, but it's good to see that it is still popular

It would have been possible to build a more accurate representation of the shape of the car, of course, but when I was gathering the pink, the only car I that I could think of building with it was the '59 Cadillac. The Cadillac has travelled the world in the two years since I built it. I had already moved from the UK to the Netherlands when I built it, but took the car to the UK for a show. I left it with a friend of mine, who has since taken it to shows in Portugal and Dubai, among others. When I last talked to him, he told me that it didn't survive the trip to Dubai. Next time I'm in the UK (in February) I expect to be handed a bag full of bits...

Cheers,

Ralph

to bad but it wil give you something to do

I must say that I like all your work

[Ralph_S]

to bad but it wil give you something to do

I must say that I like all your work

Thank you.

I'm not likely to run out of things to do any time soon -I've got loads of plans and plenty of unused parts- but I will probably put it back together. It hasn't been reduced to individual components, so it ought to be fairly straightforward, certainly with the pictures.

Cheers,

Ralph