[MOC] Modular Toyota Land Cruiser 70 (Free Instructions)

[2GodBDGlory]

 

Well, it's been a while since I posted a model on here, but I haven't been idle! What I have to present today isn't my largest or most complex MOC, but it's definitely the one with the most modularity, and definitely the one with the most complex documentation, including free instructions!

So, to back up, I spent some time abroad last summer, and seeing abundant 70-series Land Cruisers over there got me excited about them all over again. I've built plenty of models of them before, but the new idea this time was to try building a modular system to allow for components to be combined to build models with any of the major front-end styles, and any of the rear bodystyles.

Combined with that was an appreciation for @rm8's legendary Toyota models, especially the modular nature of his Hilux models, inspiring me to make something at a similar scale, with similar attributes. In the end, I think my models lost some of the elegant simplicity of his, with more complex and fragile bodywork, and slightly more functionality, but I guess that's just my different building style.

So, In the end, I developed a system of components that allows for building:

-Either manual or motorized chassis

-Either 1984, 2007, or 2024 front ends

-Either Short wheelbase, Medium wheelbase 2-door, Medium wheelbase 4-door, Long wheelbase, Single Cab Truck, or Double Cab Truck bodystyles

-Either fixed or convertible roofs for the short and medium wheelbase 2-door SUVs

-Either Stock, Tray, or Flatbed beds for the pickup trucks

-Either I4, I5, I6, V6, or V8 engines for the manual chassis

-Either roof baskets or roof racks for every body style

-Either a basic or jerry-can-carrying rear door for the SUVs

 

Functionality:

I'll start by summarizing the functionality, then get on to the bodywork and modularity. Anyways, functionality wasn't too extreme, but I think it was respectable enough for the scale (at least the scale of the shortest-wheelbase SUV, where it was packed in! There's more room to spare when those same functions are transferred to the long-wheelbase trucks).

Motorized Chassis:

Suspension

There is full three-link live axle suspension, with soft shocks in the front, and hard shocks in the rear. I had two longitudinal links for each axle, and one panhard rod.

Steering

Steering was done using a PF Servo motor through a bevel gear set running a linkage for steering. Because of the gearing, it wouldn't have been possible for the steering to center properly, so instead I set the second 12T gear at a 45° angle, and then built a small assembly for the arm that moves the steering link to make up for that 45° offset. There's also drive transferred back to turn a working steering wheel through a rubber band. In the end, the steering wasn't too precise because of the gearing and linkage, but improving it would likely have required going the unrealistic route of mounting the motor directly to the axle, which would also get in the way of the drive motors.

Drive:

Drive was done using two PF L-motors placed directly next to each other and hard-coupled using 24T gears (requiring one motor's polarity to be reversed with a PF switch). This fed through the transmission to drive all four wheels. In the front I used a 28T HD differential, while in the rear I relied on a fixed 12:28 gear ratio. I could have gone with open differentials all around for better indoor performance, or locked ones all around for better off-road performance, but I thought that having a mixed setup would give a good compromise between the two.

Gearbox

I like my models to have at least slightly more complexity than drive and steering, so I worked to include a basic two-speed transmission, shifted by a PF M-motor. It runs a wave selector through a 24T clutch gear, allowing for shifting between 1:1 and 3:1 gear ratios.

Manual Chassis:

Suspension

The manual chassis had essentially the same suspension setup, though with soft shocks all around. This image here does do a good job of showing how the rear suspension links are lengthened for the longer wheelbase options, though:

Steering

Steering was also essentially the same, just without the servo motor. There was no HOG, so all steering was done through the steering wheel, which unfortunately had a rather weak 8:8 gear coupling that tends to skip, making it difficult to operate.

Drive

Drive was again 4WD, but this time from two open old-school 28T differentials. After going through a transmission, it could drive one of a large number of piston engine options. To my knowledge, over the real-world Land Cruiser's very long model run, these could be ordered with an I4, I5, I6, V6, or V8 engine, so I made an effort to recreate all of these engine options. In addition, I made (digital) variants of the I5 and I6 for both Kawasaki engine parts and traditional axles. Engines just drop into place, and a 20T single-bevel gear on the crankshaft meshes with the blue 12T spur gear visible above.

Gearbox:

The gearbox here replaced the motorized 2-speed with a manual 4-speed, with a joystick for operation. In order to get the gear selector to mesh properly when tilted, I ended up offsetting the rear mount for it downwards by half a stud, which isn't exactly legal, but works just fine in practice.

Bodies

Alright, lets talk about the different body styles. First of all, I built three different front ends for the rig, being the 1984 front end, the 2007 front end, and the 2024 front end.

This is the 1984 one. I think it looks quite nice, but it is the most fragile. (It's not as long as the others, so fitting it over the V8 engine option made it hard to reinforce properly)

This is the 2007 one. I think it looks quite a bit worse. It's hurt by the fact that I had to build it in LBG, which takes away the contrast around the grille, and made me design workarounds for the 3x7 panels in the hood that aren't available in that color. but even in proper colors I don't like it as much. I'll add a screenshot below with it in white:

This is the 2024 one. I like it quite a bit as well! It's probably the heftiest front end, with a large part count and lots of detail.

Now for the different body styles, of which there were a lot!

This is the Short Wheelbase SUV, with the convertible roof option

Here it is again, but with the roof removed and the windshield folded down. The rear glass on the doors is still there, which is awkward, but my research seems to indicate that that's how it was on the original as well.

Here's that short-wheelbase one again, but with a fixed roof

Medium wheelbase 2-door SUV, with convertible roof up

Again, but with the roof down

Medium wheelbase 2-door, with fixed roof

Here's the medium wheelbase (though actually one stud longer), 4-door SUV

Long wheelbase "Troop Carrier" SUV

Single cab truck with base "Stock" bed

Single cab truck with Tray bed

Single cab truck with Flatbed

Double cab truck with base "Stock" bed

Double cab truck with Tray bed

Double cab truck with Flatbed

 

Modularity Notes:

So, I'd like to explain the modularity a bit. Within the motorized or manual model options, you would build one standard front chassis part, one standard rear chassis part, and one standard rear axle. You'd then select a specific Frame assembly and specific rear suspension links to assemble the correct wheelbase from those parts. You would then potentially add a few parts to mount any rear seat in the right position, and an engine if it's the manual chassis. After that, the bodywork is assembled from one front end component, one main body component, doors, a windshield/windshield base, and potentially a bed or removable roof.

Now, the modularity isn't the smoothest thing to assemble and take apart. Ideally you'd want to just have to push in a bunch of pins to join all the modules, but if there was a way to make it all like that without compromising appearance, functionality, or strength, I couldn't find it. Because of that, assembly feels more permanent, and it's not expected that one would regularly be changing configurations, but it does make the goal of having a huge number of configurations achievable!

 

Final Pictures:

Thanks for reading down this far! I feel like I've used up all my picture slots above with uninspiring profile pictures to demonstrate configurations, so here's a few prettier ones to end with:

 

If you're interested in building the model, I've got free instructions available at Rebrickable. I made one default configuration with easy-to-follow consecutive instructions, and then linked to a document with complex instructions for building your own modular configurations: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-219640/2GodBDGlory/modular-toyota-land-cruiser-70/#details

If you just want to poke around the Stud.io model, which has some additional options for a few different colors, and variants without fender flares, you can find it here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/modular-lc70/stud.io-files

If you want more images, they're hosted here: https://bricksafe.com/pages/2GodBDGlory/modular-lc70/images

And if you just want a video, it's embedded right here: 

 

Thanks for reading this far! It's been quite a fun model to work on, even if the instruction-making and documentation process was long and tedious enough to make me never want to do it again! I'm really happy with the way it looks, and the mechanical side of things seems to work well, though there's not enough ground clearance to make it a really good off-roader. It seems like I may have now built my definitive version of my favorite vehicle, which feels good!

[bruh]

Wow! Crazy amount of modularity my friend. Truly remarkable. Hopefully I will buy some PF motors soon, if I do this will be one of my top choices for builds. Great job. 
 I like the 2024 front the best.

[Paul B Technic]

Great job, I see these "on the road" here all the time.

[rm8]

Great engineer work! Modularity is a

I take time to repost all your Toyotas to my russian social accounts)

[damian_kane_iv]

Nice suspension setup, looks pretty reaistic for such a small model