steamers with puffing smoke stacks- my BMR OcTRAINber 2021 odyssey

[zephyr1934]

Thank you F.Z.

 

The stickers have been made and I'm planning on taking the "official" photos this weekend, but there was a spot of sun shining through the clouds and I couldn't resist taking a few photos.

Not quite "two towering spruce" but it was what I had on hand,

[Hod Carrier]

Just brilliant!! Can't really say any more than that. I'm intrigued to see what techniques you've used to get Katy looking so close to the illustrations from the book.

[JWBDolphins]

That's Awesome!  

 

[Brickwolf]

Excellent caboose.

[Paperinik77pk]

Excellent work - the shot between the real plants is just...right!

Your "Katy" seems to have a spark of life, and I think it's the most difficult part of the prototype to be replicated!  

[Feuer Zug]

Katy looks great on the track or in the pseudo-spruce. The stickers are the piece de resistance.

[zephyr1934]

On 10/28/2021 at 12:43 PM, Hod Carrier said:

Just brilliant!! Can't really say any more than that. I'm intrigued to see what techniques you've used to get Katy looking so close to the illustrations from the book.

I'm tickled by how the caboose came out, but most of the credit goes to Bill Peet for creating such a complex character out of such subtle details. I feel more like an editor helping the bricks get to where they want to be. With the exaggerated features it was clear what has to be nailed, in this order: the arched roof (a lucky find), the face (stickers are key), and the steps. The fingernail groves to accentuate the paneling was a bonus. So that's really three building techniques, with two already shown earlier in this thread (the steps are macaroni tiles, 1x1 bricks with studs on two sides, and 1x1 technic brick)

 

I'll reveal the arched roof when I take the "studio" shots. Then there's one more trick this caboose knows that I haven't shown yet... ("but wait, there's more," he says)

I suppose the "lighter" trucks with the custom side frames also helped capture the look. Those are pretty simple, but I can show details if anyone is interested.

 

On 10/29/2021 at 5:47 AM, Paperinik77pk said:

Your "Katy" seems to have a spark of life, and I think it's the most difficult part of the prototype to be replicated!  

On 10/29/2021 at 10:22 AM, Feuer Zug said:

The stickers are the piece de resistance. 

There might be some truth to a photograph capturing someone's soul. I think the eyes really do it here. In this case they weren't a photo but they were a direct lift of the appearance. Again I would say Bill Peet gets the credit for the ingenuity.

 

JWBD & BW thank you kindly!

[Ropefish]

That step design is really nice, I'm going to have to yoink it for a caboose it think hah. Overall very cute build with very unique techniques going on throughout!

[zephyr1934]

On 10/30/2021 at 2:37 PM, Ropefish said:

That step design is really nice, I'm going to have to yoink it for a caboose it think hah. Overall very cute build with very unique techniques going on throughout!

That will be $0.25 every time you use it then (grin, obviously I'm joking, the best builds borrow great ideas from everywhere). Note that the tile on the stud side of the technic brick sticks a fraction of a mm past the top of the technic brick because technic holes are slightly higher than they should be if they were in system. So the connection to the next row of plates on the "top" of the technic brick is a little looser than normal but it still holds fine. Meanwhile, thanks for the kind words, I went for a whimsical topic and wound up building it with a few complex techniques.

 

The studio shots have been taken of Katy caboose and all that is left is to shoot some video.

Here we seek Katy all smiles,

 

The expression in that photo is not representative of Katy's disposition throughout most of the book. The whole story is all about her dissatisfaction of being stuck at the end of a freight train. Katy is far from happy and there is only one image of her smiling while she's on the tracks. Here's a view of the caboose from the other side showing a more typical expression from the caboose. (Katy is NOT two faced, this is the same end as seen in the previous shot, just rotated 60°)

 

Here's Katy's moment of on-rail happiness in the book

Which is immediately followed by her returned fear of mountain grades. This fear is soon proven justified as a rusty old coupling bolt fails and Katy breaks free of the train.

 

Finally, here's a shot showing the paneling on her sides. When highlighting the stacked plates like this the fingernail groves disappear into the other seams, but they stand out when the other seams disappear (as seen in previous posts)

 

 

[XG BC]

you really managed to make her "alive"! awesome!

Edited October 31, 2021 by XG BC

[Hod Carrier]

Top marks to that man!! You've done Mr Peet proud. It's whimsical entry for sure, but it's still a fabulous build. 

[Feuer Zug]

Superb. I like how you've shown the pages with your MOC in a similar pose. The detail work is top notch and it's a cute creation. Best of luck in the contest.

[zephyr1934]

Thank you all again for your support.

Katy is complete and almost all of my photos are done. This post is my reveal of secrets left untold and will probably be my last post before submitting.

I've partially disassembled Katy's roof to show you how it all goes together (she doesn't look happy about the procedure). I used 1x3 curved slopes as the underframe for the tiled roof. The outer-most tile is held on by a hinge brick. The base of the brick is 1/2 plate above the bottom of the curved slopes. These hinges are held in place from the cupola with 2x2x2/3 plates with two studs on one side and have a 1x4x1 panel underneath to partially fill the gap below. I found it best to put the outer-most tile on first because it needs to be 0.5-1.0 mm off of flush with the hinge brick, so holding the tile flat against the pair of curved slopes while putting it on the hinge brick. The next three tiles are held in place by gravity and perhaps a little friction. There are two 1 wide gaps between the curved slopes, I alternate using one or the other for the guideway, the tiles are shown upside down in the same order left-to-right as they would be when on the roof. For the first such tile I used a 1x1 bracket to avoid conflicts with the wall below, then I used a pair of 1x1 plates on the other two tiles, in both cases with a very small twist to increase the friction on the bounding slopes. As a result, the inner two tiles have proven surprisingly robust to rough handling.

Meanwhile, here's a quick video of Katy trying to be, "a happy caboose at the end of a train."

 

[davidzq]

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

 

 

0/10. Source material clearly shows orange, yellow, red, orange freight cars, not this ridiculous yellow, orange, brown, brown. Completely wrong!

😛

 

Well done! The details are beautifully captured.

The roof technique is simple and effective. I likely would have done something very similar (and just as fragile!).

[zephyr1934]

14 minutes ago, davidzq said:

0/10. Source material clearly shows orange, yellow, red, orange freight cars, not this ridiculous yellow, orange, brown, brown. Completely wrong!

If it wasn't for you meddling kids I would have gotten away with it too! After putting everything away I looked at the video and realized I got the orange and yellow boxcars reversed (!@#$%). It is actually yellow, orange, dark red, dark green in the video. But I did my best Ed Wood impersonation and figured no one would notice (grin)

 

Meanwhile, your assessment is much appreciated.

[ivanlan9]

That's a very clever way to do the roof.  Seriously cool.

You probably know this but might have forgotten:  "copula" is a linguistic term for a word that connects.  As in, "That caboose is the cutest thing ever."  In that sentence, "is" is a copula.

The term you want for the part of the roof that acts like the pilot house for a paddlewheel steamer is called a "cupola."  The conductor sits on a platform inside the caboose so that his head sticks up above the train, allowing him to see what's going on.

I certainly can't criticize that sweet caboose!

[zephyr1934]

3 hours ago, ivanlan9 said:

That's a very clever way to do the roof.  Seriously cool.

You probably know this but might have forgotten:  "copula" is a linguistic term for a word that connects.  As in, "That caboose is the cutest thing ever."  In that sentence, "is" is a copula.

Excellent to hear! And stupid autocorrect, I'm telling you English is like a second language to me.

[XG BC]

1 hour ago, zephyr1934 said:

Excellent to hear! And stupid autocorrect, I'm telling you English is like a second language to me.

and that kids is why you always turn off autocorrect. jokes aside though if i wouldnt turn off autocorrect i probably wouldnt be able to type in english at all because english really is a second language to me. autocorrect is even more fun in german with our long words that are combined from different words. dont ask me how often autocorrect has messed up my german words. it is horrible!

[Ts__]

15 hours ago, zephyr1934 said:

The next three tiles are held in place by gravity and perhaps a little friction.

Studs are completely overrated ;-)

Katy looks really cute, really well taken

Thomas

 

 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Hey this masterpiece was off my radar...
This little gem is as complex as it is small!
Beautiful construction techniques for both the access stairs and the roof!
I like the bogies so close together!

Top notch work Benn!

[Hod Carrier]

That's a very clever technique to get a perfectly curved roof with overhang. So simple and yet effective.

I think sometimes we fixate so much on getting studs to line up and making a secure physical connection between all parts of a build that we can be blind to these elegant solutions. Kudos to you, sir (cash value $0.00001). Your example has set us free. 

[Asper]

Katy is wonderful!

[zephyr1934]

On 11/3/2021 at 5:15 PM, XG BC said:

autocorrect is even more fun in german with our long words that are combined from different words. dont ask me how often autocorrect has messed up my german words. it is horrible!

Isn't German just a modern coding language where spaces mean nothing? (grin) I sometimes play a board game called Codenames with my German speaking friends and the restriction of giving a one word clue (in English) drives them nuts.

 

On 11/4/2021 at 2:31 AM, Ts__ said:

Studs are completely overrated ;-)

Katy looks really cute, really well taken

Studs are hard to beat for rivets, bolts and door knobs! Before the introduction of all of these half plate brackets and bricks with studs on the side in the past decade, blocking parts in like this was a key technique for snot building. Thanks for the kind words too, even with my best tricks Katy is pretty simplistic compared to your builds.

 

17 hours ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

This little gem is as complex as it is small!
Beautiful construction techniques for both the access stairs and the roof!
I like the bogies so close together! 

12 hours ago, Hod Carrier said:

That's a very clever technique to get a perfectly curved roof with overhang. So simple and yet effective.

That means a lot after seeing some of the wizardry that you both pull off in your builds.

 

12 hours ago, Hod Carrier said:

I think sometimes we fixate so much on getting studs to line up and making a secure physical connection between all parts of a build that we can be blind to these elegant solutions. Kudos to you, sir (cash value $0.00001). Your example has set us free. 

With the little twist in the pair of 1x1 plates below, the 1x6 tiles are surprisingly secure.

 

1 hour ago, Asper said:

Katy is wonderful!

You are very kind. It does help to start with great source material, and in that sense I can echo your praise as I direct it at Mr. Peet

[XG BC]

38 minutes ago, zephyr1934 said:

Isn't German just a modern coding language where spaces mean nothing? (grin) I sometimes play a board game called Codenames with my German speaking friends and the restriction of giving a one word clue (in English) drives them nuts.

yea true kinda though i surprisingly even as a german dont like these types of lanuages for coding (i hate python for that very reason no semicolons just drives me nuts) the game you suggested sounds interesting i may try it out in the future

[zephyr1934]

My odyssey is done and my work submitted. Until now, however, I have not mentioned the one thing that ultimately made me choose Katy, it was a clarification in the rules, "we can’t wait to see how you try to motorize a bobber caboose." With Katy's freedom on that mountain grade came the opportunity to include a motor.

My MOC is actually a system with two options: eyes to look left or right, and powered or unpowered wheels,

 

Here's Katy as a true bobber on her 9v motor

While the video in my previous post was a campy recreation of the pivotal moment in the book when she breaks free of the train, I've now added another short video of her zipping down the tracks.

 

The full album is here.