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19 hours ago, aeh5040 said:

We miss you Eric.  Wonderful to see that you are still in the game!

Thanks Alexander.  It has been a while for sure.

 

10 hours ago, astyanax said:

Impressive indeed! I have some experience with LDCad but I couldn't hope to be so fast. Well maybe if I could finally remember & utilize all those hotkeys... :wall:

I've never even graduated to LDCad.  I'm still using MLCad, one of the oldest tools with no relational features.  I have so much experience that I am really good at it though, so that's still my first choice.

 

10 hours ago, Sariel said:

Welcome back! We missed you!

Thanks Sariel!  Your reviews of all the new sets have kept me in the loop.  I watch all of them.

 

9 hours ago, Erik Leppen said:

I'm glad to see some activity on Technicopedia......

There's definitely something with the colors though. Most obviously, dark azure is way too bright and looks as if it's medium azure. Also, dark blue and medium blue (42066) are off. Especially the Chiron 42083 looks weird, but 42070 and 42066 also look discolored. I don't know if your rendering program allows to adjust the RGB values of colors though.

Thanks for all the ideas.  I'll certainly be doing some thinking about how to proceed, if at all.  There are ways to do things digitally, but I hesitate to write about anything I haven't built.  Seems disingenuous.  As for the colors, the POV-Ray colors I am using use the "official" LEGO RGB color values, though I can change them manually.  Some of the discrepancy just comes from the kind of lighting I am using.

 

6 hours ago, Maaboo35 said:

Hey @Blakbird, just a quick question. Does/did your 8283 have frictionless pins in the boom extension mechanism? I've looked quite closely and the rearmost pin looks grey rather than black.

No idea, I'm afraid.  I no longer have that model.

 

1 hour ago, FOFO said:

First of all, I'll do my best in english but I haven't practiced for a pretty long time... please forgive my mistakes....

Thanks for your wonderful story!  Providing people with the information to decide which models they are interested in was actually my original purpose of the site.  I'm still amazed by the number of people who have found my little project useful.

 

1 hour ago, BusterHaus said:

@Blakbird Welcome back. Any thoughts about using digital animations for sets that you don't have? You experimented with it a bit here:

The technology now exists to do that, but I don't currently have the skills with the tools to use them effectively and I'm not sure I have the time to learn.  Maybe if I wasn't buried up to my neck in another hobby already....

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10 minutes ago, Blakbird said:

 

Thanks for your wonderful story!  Providing people with the information to decide which models they are interested in was actually my original purpose of the site.  I'm still amazed by the number of people who have found my little project useful.

 

I think that probably sums up why I appreciate Technicopedia so much. I have brought many of the classic models because I saw them presented on your site. Whilst I do watch reviews, I usually skip the opinion/ratings sections because they will be the opinions of the reviewer, which don't really affect my own. My opinions come from the set itself, which you present in a complete one stop shop of information. 

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24 minutes ago, allanp said:

I think that probably sums up why I appreciate Technicopedia so much. I have brought many of the classic models because I saw them presented on your site. Whilst I do watch reviews, I usually skip the opinion/ratings sections because they will be the opinions of the reviewer, which don't really affect my own. My opinions come from the set itself, which you present in a complete one stop shop of information. 

This exactly. I've seen many kinds of reviews, but never does a reviewer prioritize all aspects of the set like I do (and how could they), so the simple yet informative descriptions of the functions in Technicopedia feel like they give me honest information about the sets so I can make my own decision on how I like them.

Something I also appreciate very much is the minimalistic style of the site: no fancy graphics or gimmicks, but just text laid in easy to read format with descriptive photos. The site loads very fast and is easy to read, something that can't be said for vast majority of modern websites.

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@Blakbird I'm so happy you're back! And I am sorry to hear you sold off all your sets and quit collecting.

I loved Technicopedia, reading about all the clever mechanisms in all the older sets! Very happy to see some of more of the content you created!

Gonna read all your new stuff now! 

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It's great to see you're still around and working on Technicopedia. As someone said earlier, it's the best museum on the internet and I've also ended up buying or building several models after first learning about them on there. There is a lot of coverage on youtube of current sets but nowhere else is the older era of Technic (before 2003 or so) explained in such detail. Modern Technic sets are generally more complex and realistic, but some of the old sets had unique mechanisms or functions that we have never seen again, and Technicopedia is the best place to learn about them. I do more space and sci-fi stuff these days (I find I can build space mocs much faster than Technic ones in whatever time I have for Lego) but like to incorporate Technic functions in them whenever I can.

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Great to see you around again Eric!  You've provided so much great info to the Technic community, and it's great to have you back again.

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Though your time on this forum barely overlapped mine, the information you left behind was immense and useful. I'm so glad you're back... guess you can't escape your destiny :devil:

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On 6/5/2020 at 9:14 PM, howitzer said:

This exactly. I've seen many kinds of reviews, but never does a reviewer prioritize all aspects of the set like I do (and how could they), so the simple yet informative descriptions of the functions in Technicopedia feel like they give me honest information about the sets so I can make my own decision on how I like them.

I would even take it a step further : the reviews not only give you all the information you need to determine whether you will like it or not, it also gives you perspective throughout the whole theme. Blakbird's reviews are great at pointing out what's special or unique in every set, at emphasizing what's great (or not so great) about it in comparison with the others. Once you know what YOU like most in Technic sets (aesthetics, functionnality, originality, versatility...), Technicopedia's the best guide for you.

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I've completed the LDraw models for the 2017 and 2018 sets, and I have a large portion of the 2019 sets done.  I don't have the time to do the 42098 car transporter though.  Any volunteers?

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If know absolutely nothing about Stud.io. If you can export an LDraw file, I can take a look and see if it will work. 

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@Blakbird i have been doing instructions and was wondering how you get the glassy floor effect on the cover page of the Akiyuki project instructions? i render mine in pov ray but im not sure how to do it

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6 hours ago, 9v system said:

@Blakbird i have been doing instructions and was wondering how you get the glassy floor effect on the cover page of the Akiyuki project instructions? i render mine in pov ray but im not sure how to do it

For POV-Ray, you need to edit the scene file and insert a planar object where the floor would be, and make a glossy material for it. Shouldn't be too hard even by hand, but I wonder if there's a POV-Ray-compatible editor with a GUI today? Once there was one named Moray but its development was discontinued years ago.

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11 hours ago, JunkstyleGio said:

@Blakbird Got it converted to LDR. Will sent the file to you..

Looks like this will work.  There are a quite a few position errors from the conversion so I wouldn't use it for close-up mechanical pictures, but it is close enough for overall renders which is all I was looking for now.  Thanks!  I've only got one file left for 2019 and I'm working on it now.

800x450.jpg

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@Blakbird I'm so happy you're back! I've been a huge fan and an avid reader of Technicopedia ever since I came out o my dark age and the detail you put into you're reviews helped me to learn the story of LEGO and to love it even more. Thank you! :cry_happy:

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Fantastic, I have spent many hours looking at the details you have provided, it’s an excellent resource 

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Hello, I hope all is good with @Blakbird, I just stumbled upon the technicopedia website and was amazed how awesome it it. Is it still in process of updating? 

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37 minutes ago, TechnoBp said:

Hello, I hope all is good with @Blakbird, I just stumbled upon the technicopedia website and was amazed how awesome it it. Is it still in process of updating? 

Hasn't been updated for several years now. A real shame, as it is single greatest source of information about Technic sets online. Apparently Blakbird has moved on to other hobbies and hasn't been active with Lego for a good while now.

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