[TC20] 8446 Monster Crane

[Erik Leppen]

I immediately knew which set I wanted to use for the contest. It was on my wishlist for a few years, mostly because of the green color and cool looks.

I hope you all recognized the set:

I don't have the original wheels, so I had two options: going slightly smaller, or going slightly bigger. I went for the bigger option, because it will still not be huge, it gives some room to add functions, and I can use silver rims. I don't have many balloon tyres, so I used these. I could use double tyres maybe? That would make the model much more beefy, but the front wheels might touch when steering.

Functions from the original so far:

• Four-wheel steering with different angles. The set uses a gear ratio, I used different-length arms. I also implemented Ackermann geometry using the same trick 8479 uses.
• The turntable is rotated from knobs on the sides - although I used a worm gear the set lacked.
• The axle through the turntable is driven from knobs on the sides - I have both knobs on both sides, where the set uses single-sided knobs

 

Functions from the original that I haven't included yet:

• The crane/grabber arm is still to-do.
• I don't know how I will raise the front canopy yet. I could use the damped spring from the original, of find something more fitting modern Technic.

Functions from the original that I did differently:

• My superstructure is fixed to the turntable; it raises with the crane in the original set.

New functions:
I figured I wanted to add stuff because the model is larger and studless building allows this. Since the model looks off-road, I wanted some form of suspension. I went for "unsprung suspension" all around, so that all wheels keep touching the ground on uneven terrain. The front two axles can move with 2 degrees of freedom, keeping the model stable side-to-side. The rear axle is pendular. I'm quite proud of this solution, if I say so myself :)

Also, the original has a large open space in the chassis between the 2nd and 3rd axle. I added a cylinder engine there. It's not really a typical place but I found the large gap ugly, and modern sets often tend to have engines.

Style differences
I added dark-gray wheel arches and bumpers. The original was quite bare-bones in this aspect.
Like the original, I use some rare parts. Somehow I needed 16L axles in the chassis. Also, for the sides I used 8x3x2 Bionicle liftarms that I found a fitting modern version of the Bionicle parts from the set.

Also I don't have any large green panels, so I had to find a solution with small panels. This makes it less clean, but it will have to do. I might change the styling though, not sure yet.

I'm not sure yet about coloring for the chassis. Maybe light-gray, because I use a 5x11 frame in the middle, and because dark-gray and black are used in the bodywork. But the original uses a lot of black, so I might go for that too.

Because some things never change, I still use Brickshelf. The folder: https://brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=582841 

Love to hear what y'all think so far :)

[howitzer]

Nice progress, the suspension setup is awesome!

Why the blue seats though? The original had light gray seats so LBG would be more fitting I think.

The side panelwork is somewhat different from the original, which had mostly horizontal lines, while yours are more vertical, I wonder if something could be done about that?

[Thirdwigg]

Looks great. I love when someone uses the Visorak frame. One of my favorite parts.

I like the addition of the DBG. 

[syclone]

Fantastic base set, the design looks lovely indeed. Even though the tires aren't baloon-type, they sort of fit right being silver too. As you mentioned, the lack of green panels is dissapointing (but hey, we've got 50 shades of blue available instead ) but the solution looks good, the original wasn't exactly smooth too. As far as the additions go, the DBG mudguards look fantastic and "natural" to the model. I will have to agree with howitzer in regards to the blue seats, they look a bit off knowing the light gray originals. 

For the cockpit, the damper cylinder would certainly be better, but on the other hand it's a retired part, not sure what other's might think of it. Perhaps a use of standard springs as in the purple tracked offroader would be more "modern".

Looking forward to this one!

[1gor]

Very interesting choice; 8446 had always that WOW effect on me. Suspension and steering are well done, but perhaps it would be better to put inline 6 ngine between seats?

[Maaboo the Witch]

18 minutes ago, I_Igor said:

Very interesting choice; 8446 had always that WOW effect on me. Suspension and steering are well done, but perhaps it would be better to put inline 6 ngine between seats?

I never imagined 8446 as having a conventional engine. Maybe it'd have something more along the lines of a compact cold-fusion reactor. 

[1gor]

14 minutes ago, Maaboo35 said:

I never imagined 8446 as having a conventional engine. Maybe it'd have something more along the lines of a compact cold-fusion reactor. 

Well for unconventional vehicle perhaps unconventional powerplant is more suitable; besides that Bill Gates is throwing green industry overboard and investing in new nuclear technology so perhaps plutonium (as part of nuclear waste) will be used as fuel in new powerplants ... Like today with exaggerating about Covid-19 and neglecting that it is actually cardio vascular disease and not respiratory, perhaps occult world rulers will persue us that plutonium is actually healthy so we'll start to see plutonium based powerplants for vehicle propulsion as golden calf and start worshiping them

Edited June 13, 2021 by I_Igor

[Erik Leppen]

23 hours ago, howitzer said:

Nice progress, the suspension setup is awesome!

Why the blue seats though? The original had light gray seats so LBG would be more fitting I think.

The side panelwork is somewhat different from the original, which had mostly horizontal lines, while yours are more vertical, I wonder if something could be done about that?

I figured the blue seats would be how Technic would do it nowadays. But if multiple people think it's weird, it's an easy change to make.

Yes, I wonder about the paneling too. I could use black 5x7 panels for a cleaner look, but then I'd change the color scheme.

 

18 hours ago, Thirdwigg said:

Looks great. I love when someone uses the Visorak frame. One of my favorite parts.

I like the addition of the DBG. 

One of my favorite parts as well, and I thought it was fitting here. Thanks :)

 

1 hour ago, syclone said:

Fantastic base set, the design looks lovely indeed. Even though the tires aren't baloon-type, they sort of fit right being silver too. As you mentioned, the lack of green panels is dissapointing (but hey, we've got 50 shades of blue available instead ) but the solution looks good, the original wasn't exactly smooth too. As far as the additions go, the DBG mudguards look fantastic and "natural" to the model. I will have to agree with howitzer in regards to the blue seats, they look a bit off knowing the light gray originals. 

For the cockpit, the damper cylinder would certainly be better, but on the other hand it's a retired part, not sure what other's might think of it. Perhaps a use of standard springs as in the purple tracked offroader would be more "modern".

Looking forward to this one!

I think I'll toy around with springs for the cockpit (thanks for bringing the offroader to mind), but I might also try using the original part. Or a lever mechanism, similar to the 42050 funny car (sorry, was the first example that came to mind :P )

36 minutes ago, I_Igor said:

Very interesting choice; 8446 had always that WOW effect on me. Suspension and steering are well done, but perhaps it would be better to put inline 6 ngine between seats?

Yeah, I don't like how the engine is barely visible right now. But I don't think there's room to transfer drive to the front. Also, a 6 cylinder using normal parts would be huge, and I somehow don't like the mini engines we often see nowadays :/ Edit: what maaboo35 says is true as well, lol :P

Edited June 13, 2021 by Erik Leppen

[Thirdwigg]

Keep the blue seats. It’s a great through line to the newer sets.

I’m with you on the mini engines. Keep the cylinders parts. 

[Erik Leppen]

It has been a while - sorry for the lack of updates, but I didn't have as much build time as I'd have liked this time around, but I've managed to finish it.

I added the black flex axles for the canopy and let them return in the rear section.

For the crane, I used a similar geometry as the original, but I used the extension part with gear rack to add a simple extra function. This has the added benefit that it can reach below ground level. For the grabber I used the same geometry as the original.

To raise the canopy, I decided to use a small linear actuator. Also, the headrests are now part of the canopy. As it was in the original, but the reason was that otherwise it wouldn't fit.

 

Also, I added a working steering wheel. I know the set doesn't have one, and it's not really within the contest spirit, but I thought this was a cool feature worth adding like how it makes the list of functions even longer :)

And I changed how the rear wheel arches are mounted (you can't see this change) to slightly increase the range of the rear axle's tilting.

(I also kept the colorful chassis, as you can see...)

Functions:
- four wheel steering (with Ackermann)
- full unsprung suspension
- rear axle drives a V4
- working steering wheel
- canopy raised via small LA
- grabber arm rotates via worm gear and turntable
- grabber arm is deployed via worm gear
- grabber arm is extendable
- grabber can be opened and closed and uses a spring to hold things

Personally I think this is an impressive list for a model this size, but of course, I'd like to year your take :)
I believe with these 4 pictures I can enter the contest and be happy about the model I created :)

[SaperPL]

Really cool model. I missed this somehow. I wish you could had time to rebuild the chassis to be black and dark grey like in the original one.

Are you planning to make a video showing off the functions?

Also for the Ackermann geometry - I don't get how this construction is supposed to have that - it may be slightly uneven towards how Ackermann works, but my understanding is that the attachment points on steering should form a line with centre of the rear axle.

[howitzer]

Nice work! This is one of the stranger Technic vehicles ever released and you nailed the looks and functions pretty well. I especially like how you made the canopy of the cabin, looks much cleaner than the original which was, frankly, quite a mess. The additional features fit well into the model, as it's appears to be no larger than the original.

I don't like the tyre choice though, the original balloon tyres seemed to integrate better with the rest of the model and the truck tyres feel too ordinary for this thing...

[Maaboo the Witch]

This update rocks! Just about the only things I'd do differently would be having this part for the steering wheel and using Jeep tyres. Great job though, definitely one of my front-runners.