[MOC] Willys Jeep from Land Rover

[gyenesvi]

Hi everyone,

I have finished my Willys Jeep alternate of the Land Rover set, so I'd like to summarize the final model here. Features:

- Live axle suspension with imitated leaf springs on both axles. It uses one shock absorber per wheel, also positioned realistically. I also tried to construct the core frame as is in the real life car.

- Manual 4-speed gearbox in a classic H-shape. Additionally, there is a Hi / Lo gear switch and an RWD / 4WD switch, just like in the real car, and the positioning of those switches is as realistic as I could get with the limited space. The whole gearbox is in the middle of the chassis.

- Working inline 4-piston engine as in reality, I tried to add engine details modelled after the real engine.

- Functional steering wheel and also HOG steering in the back (which had to pass through the gearbox).

- Foldable windshield and opening hood with stander included. I managed to get the windshield folding joint similar to reality.

- The interior is clean and I tried to get the shape of the seats as close to reality as I could, although the square and flat front seats were hard to reproduce with the available parts in that color.

- Detachable roof, again, I tried to reproduce the shape of the tubing.

- Extras: Jerry-can on the back, and of course the spare wheel.

More details about the design process are given on Rebrickable.

Here's a video showcasing the functions:

And some renders and photos:

Building instructions are available on Rebrickable.

Feedback is welcome! Cheers!

 

Edited April 17, 2021 by gyenesvi

[caiman0637]

Wow, this looks excellent!

 

[Scoar Sonander]

Nice model! The only niggles nagging me are the seats, positioning of the gearbox and no mudguard on the front. Great model, though! 

[Void_S]

I was never fan of the original model (I really don't like it) but yours is just fantastic! So Willis, so military so olive-green!

The only thing that is needed here is a white star in a circle at the hood for 100500% authentic look!

Edited April 17, 2021 by Void_S

[weavil]

2 hours ago, Void_S said:

I was never fan of the original model (I really don't like it) but yours is just fantastic! So Willis, so military so olive-green!

The only thing that is needed here is a white star in a circle at the hood for 100500% authentic look!

This! Looks so good!

[iLego]

Really outstanding model !!

Looks fantastic. Good functions. Full of thoughtful details.

The three outdoor photographs are also a nice touch.

[agrof]

Excellent MOC! 

[MangaNOID]

Like 

I was a bit Weirded out by the two different wheel guards too but then I googled the real one and it’s just like it. 

Love the suspension! You went that extra bit to replicate as best as one can. Great solution without stressing or loading parts that shouldn’t be.

I will build this if I ever get time to LEGO again. Would love to put some of the old foam wheels on it though 

[2GodBDGlory]

7 hours ago, MangaNOID said:

I will build this if I ever get time to LEGO again. Would love to put some of the old foam wheels on it though 

Yeah, the Defender rims look a bit modern for such a vehicle...

Of course, you have no choice in an alternate model, and it otherwise is very appealing!

Good job!

[gyenesvi]

Thanks guys, glad you like it!

On 4/17/2021 at 11:04 PM, Scoar Sonander said:

no mudguard on the front

On 4/18/2021 at 1:20 PM, MangaNOID said:

I was a bit Weirded out by the two different wheel guards too but then I googled the real one and it’s just like it. 

Yes, it's like that in reality, so I'm more satisfied with the front one, actually it's the rear one that could be improved with a more round shape, but that's what was available in the set.

On 4/18/2021 at 1:20 PM, MangaNOID said:

Love the suspension! You went that extra bit to replicate as best as one can. Great solution without stressing or loading parts that shouldn’t be.

Thanks, the suspension was the core point when I started this, as it's so nicely visible on this car, and was a good challenge to build it.

On 4/17/2021 at 11:04 PM, Scoar Sonander said:

the seats, positioning of the gearbox

Not sure I understand, what about them? Where do you think the gearbox should be positioned?

On 4/18/2021 at 12:02 AM, Void_S said:

The only thing that is needed here is a white star in a circle at the hood for 100500% authentic look!

Someone did this with custom stickers, not exactly as you say, but I think it's not bad:

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-73674/gyenesvi/42110-c-model-willys-jeep/#photos

On 4/18/2021 at 1:20 PM, MangaNOID said:

Would love to put some of the old foam wheels on it though 

I'm curious about that too, but I don't have large ones, and no rims that could fit the 3-pin hub. So let me know if you manage to do it!

[proran]

Excellent job! As others said, the suspension and the gearbox are very clever! I would guess fitting all the controls for the gearbox into the right spot was quite a challenge.

[gyenesvi]

On 4/20/2021 at 3:08 PM, proran said:

Excellent job! As others said, the suspension and the gearbox are very clever!

Thanks, that's what I focused the most on!

On 4/20/2021 at 3:08 PM, proran said:

I would guess fitting all the controls for the gearbox into the right spot was quite a challenge.

Exactly, but I'm satisfied how symmetric it came out in the end.

[Pattspatt]

Gorgeous and functional model - very impressed by how compact the gearbox and hi-lo selector are, and the suspension is very well executed and a fun novelty. I definitely plan to give this a try. 
 

I could be wrong, but from the video it looks like the gearbox order is reversed in a similar way to the 42110 A-model - e.g. the pistons move slower in low gears rather than the other way around. When I try your build I’ll see if I can change this, and maybe swap 4th gear for R. 

Thanks for making this great model! Looking forward to trying it out. 
 

 

 

[gyenesvi]

18 hours ago, Pattspatt said:

Gorgeous and functional model - very impressed by how compact the gearbox and hi-lo selector are, and the suspension is very well executed and a fun novelty. I definitely plan to give this a try. 

Thanks a lot!

18 hours ago, Pattspatt said:

I could be wrong, but from the video it looks like the gearbox order is reversed in a similar way to the 42110 A-model - e.g. the pistons move slower in low gears rather than the other way around. When I try your build I’ll see if I can change this, and maybe swap 4th gear for R. 

You are right, the gearbox order is reversed, so that when you start shifting gears, you can see the engine running faster and faster. For me this kind of makes sense in the original model as well, since it's not motorized, so what you can observe when you play with it is a reversed effect, the engine being driven by the wheels. That's why I kept this design.

In theory it could be reversed just by swapping gears in two places (one to mirror the shifting front to back, and one to mirror it left to right). However, as the build is quite tight, at one point it makes use of the fact that a small gear is placed next to a medium one with some distance between them (they are different parts of the chain of gears, not meshed) and it does not cause interference. If you swapped that small gear with the larger one that it drives, those would collide. So you'd have to redesign the whole thing to avoid that.

Thanks for that image about the original shifter, I did not have that. However, I think implementing the R as well would be problematic, as it introduces an asymmetry that would require quite a bit more extra gears and space, but curious if you can bring something out of it!

[McMarky]

Congrats! It's a really good looking model. It could be an official set.

The only one small improvement I would suggest is a change the engine firing order. No one real IC engine fire 1-2-3-4. E.g. 1-3-4-2 and it would look more realistic. But I think that not many people would notice that ;) 

[Brickend]

Really like the functionality, mechanical realism and side profile - you've done really well with the constraints of a B-model

What I have been wondering is what this would look like with a narrower track? The wide stance feels quite modern, but I appreciate that you are dealing with much wider tires than on the original Jeep.

[gyenesvi]

23 hours ago, McMarky said:

Congrats! It's a really good looking model. It could be an official set.

Thanks! Unfortunately, it’s military, so no chance we get something like this as an official one.

23 hours ago, McMarky said:

The only one small improvement I would suggest is a change the engine firing order. No one real IC engine fire 1-2-3-4. E.g. 1-3-4-2 and it would look more realistic. But I think that not many people would notice that ;) 

I did realize that the order is unrealistic, I just did not know what would be realistic, so thanks for that piece of info! It would be an easy fix though.

12 hours ago, Brickend said:

Really like the functionality, mechanical realism and side profile - you've done really well with the constraints of a B-model

Thanks for that as well!

12 hours ago, Brickend said:

What I have been wondering is what this would look like with a narrower track? The wide stance feels quite modern, but I appreciate that you are dealing with much wider tires than on the original Jeep.

After almost finishing the build, I played with the idea that it could maybe have a bit narrower track. However, in order to do that, two things would be required: to make the axles shorter, and to move the leaf springs (the A-arms) inner (otherwise it would collide with the steered wheel), but that would require a complete rethinking of the chassis otherwise the internals would not fit in using the same construction. This might be achievable, but there are some details about a shorter axle which could not be achieved easily with the available parts. So I finally did not pursue this direction further.

At the same time I tried with the virtual model to just move the wheels inwards one stud, just to see how it would look, it wasn’t bad at all :) But an advantage of these wide tires is that they still look quite okay with this wider track I think..

[Ivorrr]

On 4/23/2021 at 10:43 PM, gyenesvi said:

After almost finishing the build, I played with the idea that it could maybe have a bit narrower track. 

Any luck with narrowing the wheelbase maybe? I just built it 2 days ago and that was my first thing planned for rework.

Also, I can't seem to find narrower wheels that would fit the scale. Not sure if anyone has suggestions?

 

Btw the MOC is really cool

Edited November 30, 2021 by Ivorrr
Forgot last sentence

[Daniel-99]

52 minutes ago, Ivorrr said:

Any luck with narrowing the wheelbase maybe? I just built it 2 days ago and that was my first thing planned for rework.

Also, I can't seem to find narrower wheels that would fit the scale. Not sure if anyone has suggestions?

 

Btw the MOC is really cool

I would suggest buying RC tires that fit Lego rims:

Inner diameter: 1,55 inches, and 1,10 inches wide!

You can see how they look on my car:

 

[gyenesvi]

6 hours ago, Ivorrr said:

Any luck with narrowing the wheelbase maybe? I just built it 2 days ago and that was my first thing planned for rework.

I did think about it for a while, but could not get a solution from the Defender parts. With using other parts as well it may be possible to make it 2 studs narrower while keeping most of it, such as the middle part and the suspension link mounting points (just modifying the ends of the axle), but one difficult point I see is the 6L steering link. Unfortunately, you cannot simply replace it with a 5L, as there is no such thing. There exists something similar on Bricklink, but it's more like a regular liftarm, and the problem with it is that it's not narrow in the middle (like the 6L link), and it would collide with some parts as the steering rack moves and the wheel hub turns. It's a shame that these links don't exist in different lengths, it complicates things so much.

I guess you could try to redesign the whole axle, but you'd want to keep the suspension mounting point, otherwise the whole chassis would need to be modified.. Making it 2 stud narrower would look somewhat better with thinner tires, but the realistic look would need 4 studs narrower I guess. Even if that was possible, it would get the wheel a bit too close to the suspension link I'm afraid.

Quote

Also, I can't seem to find narrower wheels that would fit the scale. Not sure if anyone has suggestions?

I have tried a couple options, here are some renders I made. Although they look nice from the side, unfortunately, they all make the axle look even wider, as the outer edge of a thinner wheel will be roughly the same as the Defender's, and the inner edge will move further out, since the Defender's rim is deep, but the rim that you can use for these is not.

Old foam tires look really good:

Zetros tires are not too bad either (although that's not really thinner):

And finally the buggy tires, they are a bit too small I think (5mm smaller than all the others):

Quote

Btw the MOC is really cool

Thanks, glad you like it!

Edited November 30, 2021 by gyenesvi