Grum's Shed

allanp · April 9

Looking good Grum, definitely getting some old school model team vibes. One difference I notice though is that modern models all seem to be entirely built from subassemblies where as old school models predominantly had you add pieces directly to the model.

grum64 · April 10

Hello My Friend

You're right. There's definitely a Model Team vibe to the Landie. Sadly it doesn't feel anywhere near as sturdy. I've noticed that this is a very different construction to any of my previous Creator builds. I've commented several times that there's an abundance of plates, far more than I remember there being on the Mini, Beetle, VW Camper or the Caterham 7, most used to lock the sub-assemblies together. It doesn't seem to make for as sturdy a model.

grum64 · Tuesday at 08:32 PM

Build Day 13 & 14 / Building Time - 6hrs / Total Building Time - 41hrs

Much of my time's been taken up hunting for a replacement for Gandalf so my apologies for taking so long since my last post.

With the Landie's upper body & roof done and fitted and the tiles no longer showing VTOL like tendencies it was on with the axles which, unsurprisingly is where the majority of the Technic parts are used in the build.

Just like on the real vehicle the model has 'live axles' and I think the designer's done a great job of implementing them.

Assembling the rear axle was pretty easy but when it came to fitting it, it was anything but. Despite repeatedly trying to attach the shock to the pin I couldn't get them near enough to eachother to do so. Cue light bulb moment.

In the screenshot below you can see that if the yellow half bush is moved along the brown 4L Axle (ringed in red) the shock can be moved along also.

Thinking that this was what the designer intended (yes, I really did) and without reading the instructions any further that's just what I did and sure enough after a fashion I could fit the pin & shock together. Did the same on the other side and hey ho, axle & shocks united. Just connect the Ball Pin Links and the rear axle was done. Only it wasn't because now there were a pair of 2x1L Liftarms sitting in the way each with a Ball Pin attached which the Ball Pin Links were too short to reach. It was clear something was wrong and 15-20 minutes spent staring didn't help until that is the blindingly obvious became blindingly obvious to the twit who was obviously too blind to see it.

The axle was the wrong way around. Simple as that and like that nothing was ever going to line up or fit. I still can't believe it took me so long to realise. However, unlike my previous mistakes of which admittedly there have been many, it was simple to put right.

The trusty cake tester again proved its worth by holding in place the 3x3L Pin Connector Block & 3L Pin with Stop and later the Axle 1L with Pin 2L that the Cone attached to. Can't think how I'd have fitted them without it.

Putting the front axle together was relatively straightforward and for the most part really enjoyable to do. It's a nice design that, from memory, is more compact than other models I've built of a similar scale. I'm no expert on these things (shock, horror!) so of course I could be wrong.

Annoyingly it'd fitted the Ball Pins the wrong way around so those that should faced inwards faced out and vice versa. Happily though they weren't too much of a problem to put right and once they were the Ball Pin Links were attached and the axles were done and fitted.

The end of this build is in sight.