[MOC/MOD] 42064 Ocean Explorer as a Technic Set

[Erik Leppen]

OK guys, I haven't posted here in a while, but I haven't sit still. On the contrary - after finishing my TC12 build, I went back to this, and made a lot of changes and additions. I'll show them in a bit.

 

It is around 1600 pieces though, wich PF, and a rough calculation shows that it would be about EUR 140 if this were a set. Still it's my view on how the set could (and should) have been.

 

 

OK, so, what has changed? Well, what hasn't ;)

 

First, the dark blue color. Over the last months I collected some more parts in that color via Bricklink and used as much of it as I could. My guess is that it has ate last 80 dark-blue parts (the set has 24). It would have been a much nicer parts pack; and I only used pieces that have existed, so no cheating.

 

The rear gantry has become yellow. The reason is the bridge. I have always hated the windows-by-stickers of the set, so I changed it to pieces, using the new yellow axles to good effect. Which adds yellow as a color, so to make the color return elsewhere in the set, I decided to have the rear crane yellow too. Also, as you can see, I used small LAs, which is indeed better (thanks for the suggestion!).

 

The lifeboats are now orange, without any white.

 

The long red vertical axles control the gerabox. They were intially yellow, but swicthing to a single axle made it even-length, hence red. Personally, I like how the red color of the hull returns somewhere else in the build.

Also on the roof is a yellow "rader"-like thing. What's nice is that it rotates with the front wheels. Again, a tiny extra bit of Technic-ness.

 

 

The panels originally in the rudders, are reused at the top of the bow, making that a little bit taller. I added some studded blue slopes for a better shape. What's more interesting, is that there's a little crane on the bow. I found that a nice touch. The most interesting bit though is that the crane is functional. Of course, it's not controlled remotely like in the set (there's no room) but it has three degrees of freedom (rotate, raise, winch) and the last two are controlled by a knob (rotation has no knob, just friction). This makes this little crane more functional than that in the set, because that doesn't even have a winch!

 

As a nice touch, I added two tiny dummy cranes on the sides, that aren't driven in any way but can still move.

The red beam sticking out on the side of the bow is the battery box on/off switch. (As a nice coincidence, it has the same color as the gearbox switches.)

 

You may also notice that the engine has been covered by beams. This is the fourth motorized function: these panels can move up and down to show the engine.

 

 

Here it is with the functions deployed.

 

So that's it. What I'm currently doing is digitizing this into MLCad and I'm planning on doing instructions. This will take some time though.

 

All pictures will be here (after moderation):

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=568578

 

 

[jotta93]

This is great, way better than the original set! Personally, I would remove the side cranes at the front, it looks a bit crowded in my opinion.

Other than that, it is very good, great job! 

Looking forward to a video of the functions 

[schraubedrin]

that's a really great model.
I personally find the yellow half beams for windows on the bridge a bit much, have your experimented with the number of frames in your build process?

3 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

 

Is the connection of the transverse beam of the rear crane working without bending?

 

1 hour ago, jotta93 said:

the side cranes at the front, it looks a bit crowded

I'm with jotta here. That's a lot of cranes for very little space. Maybe instead of the cranes, put something on the platform above the engine for the one crane to pick up.

[Mechbuilds]

I personally find this moc awesome but i also side with jotta. I think that it has too many cranes.. One crane on the front end is enough.. 
I know heavy equipment from my job(s) and i can say that three cranes would just be in the way of eachother. And i couldn't think of a situation where you would need three cranes. 

[WvG_853]

I really like your alternative proposal how this set could and should have been. The original set is a display model, this is a real Technic model. I like for instance your solution for the radar. Simple, but indeed another function added. I also like your solution for the windows. Much better than using stickers and the looks remind me of a Dutch trawler. Will you publish the final model on Rebrickable?

[Erik Leppen]

23 hours ago, jotta93 said:

This is great, way better than the original set! Personally, I would remove the side cranes at the front, it looks a bit crowded in my opinion.

Other than that, it is very good, great job! 

Looking forward to a video of the functions 

 

20 hours ago, schraubedrin said:

that's a really great model.
I personally find the yellow half beams for windows on the bridge a bit much, have your experimented with the number of frames in your build process?

Is the connection of the transverse beam of the rear crane working without bending?

I think the windows are an easy edit for anyone building the model to make. I found this number of windows the best, because it matches the width of the window at the sides. But yes, it's bulkier than the original, because it's brick-built. For me, realism isn't the main criterion - it suggests the correct shape well enough.

About the rear crane's horizontal beam. I haven't tested, but I wouldn't know why not. Because the 7L axle that holds the strings is exactly in line with the 3L axles on the sides that hold the 15L beam, so rotating the 15L beam around the 3L axles won't change the posiion of the strings. So the force by anything hanging from the hook should't rotate the 15L beam.

But that's the theory. In practice, I haven't tested, because I don't really care about the lifting capacity. For me, the challenge is in making all movements possible. And it will work for small, light loads, so I'm happy.

 

20 hours ago, Mechbuilds said:

I personally find this moc awesome but i also side with jotta. I think that it has too many cranes.. One crane on the front end is enough.. 
I know heavy equipment from my job(s) and i can say that three cranes would just be in the way of eachother. And i couldn't think of a situation where you would need three cranes. 

I see many people don't find the the side cranes the best idea. I know nothing about ships, I just googled some images and saw ships with cranes, so that's a mental image that stuck. I kind of thought that this "crowdedness" is part of what makes large ships have that majestic look. However this ship is maybe a smaller scale than those images I have seen, so it may not be accurate. Maybe this is because I didn't follow a single particular example model, but I just made a mental image using lots of images and went from there.

I do think I leave the side cranes where they are though. I like it (I kinda like the "messy" look) and it's an easy change to remove them when building the model. I prefer them over a "sample load" because it offers additional movement, which I still feel is the idea of Technic.

 

8 hours ago, WvG_853 said:

I really like your alternative proposal how this set could and should have been. The original set is a display model, this is a real Technic model. I like for instance your solution for the radar. Simple, but indeed another function added. I also like your solution for the windows. Much better than using stickers and the looks remind me of a Dutch trawler. Will you publish the final model on Rebrickable?

That's the plan, yes. I am working on the instructions. The digital file is going along very nicely. It looks to be about 1700 parts. Almost everything is in there, but the build order will be a challenge, because especially the internals of the gearbox, winch and steering module are pretty dense.

[BrickbyBrickTechnic]

We will be getting a video right? Because I really want to see this boat in action.

Edited October 29, 2017 by BrickbyBrickTechnic

[schraubedrin]

3 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

About the rear crane's horizontal beam

I realize now, that i formulated my question in the worst possible way 

What i was aiming at is the following:

If i try to rebuild your rear beam Construction in LDD, the green axle intersects the half-beam:

Now my question is how this behaves in reality. My guess is the 3L half-beam bending a little bit.

[Erik Leppen]

You hardly notice this in reality. There is play between the axle and the round hole of the 7L beam, and the play is divided over the two 3L axles. The axles rotate with only a little friction.

@BrickbyBrickTechnic I'm not sure about that really. I really hate doing video (I only do it if it's required for a competition). Also, my fingers are itching from wanting to disassemble it and reuse the pieces for something new (I don't know what yet). But I will consider it.

I will do instructions though, with which you can test everything yourself :)

[jotta93]

4 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

I see many people don't find the the side cranes the best idea. I know nothing about ships, I just googled some images and saw ships with cranes, so that's a mental image that stuck. I kind of thought that this "crowdedness" is part of what makes large ships have that majestic look. However this ship is maybe a smaller scale than those images I have seen, so it may not be accurate. Maybe this is because I didn't follow a single particular example model, but I just made a mental image using lots of images and went from there.

I do think I leave the side cranes where they are though. I like it (I kinda like the "messy" look) and it's an easy change to remove them when building the model. I prefer them over a "sample load" because it offers additional movement, which I still feel is the idea of Technic.

 

Please don't take my comments in the wrong way. I like this MOD/MOC very much, I was merely giving some advice. In the end this is your set and if you like it this way, you should leave it as it is, no matter what others say